I was in a class this morning and my instructor made the comment that “Confidence is a matter of practice.” So very true! Just like everything else, the more you try it, do it, believe it…the truer it becomes. Following up on where I left off on my last blog, I would like to report back with some positive results from Confident Lana Version 5.0’s experience with stepping out of her comfort zone and wearing a new shade of confidence over the last week.
I have been involved with Leap To Success since going through their pilot program in 2008. Since then, I have spoken to about 5,000 people, not including radio and television audiences, about what the program has meant to me and my children through sharing my own personal story of triumph over adversity. But last week, I had the unique opportunity to speak on the most intimate level I have ever spoken on. I showed up at the small dinner gathering, armed with the most confidence I was able to muster and shared my story with five complete strangers interested in learning more about what we do.
As we sat around the table, what I began to notice was that every one of these women were poised and beautiful and accomplished and well put together, and then there was me. With this observation, I began to build a wall between us, separating me from them. I heard that all too familiar voice in my head saying, “You couldn’t be any more different from these women if you tried, Lana.” I even stopped mid-sentence in the middle of my story because that tired old voice was telling me that they didn’t want to hear any more of what I had to say. Strangely enough, that tired old voice couldn’t have been any more wrong. So, as I kept speaking and the entire group began to have great conversation centered around how vital the services Leap To Success offers are to women in crisis situations like homelessness and domestic violence so that they can rebuild their confidence and begin to move forward in their lives, what began to happen inside me was that I realized that I had much, much more in common with these women than I had ever imagined. In fact, we were far more alike than we were different. I remember at one point during the evening prefacing my comment with, “I’m not a woman executive, but….” and then being kindly interrupted with, “but you could never tell you weren’t with the confidence you have.” Me? Yes, me!
So, my report back to you after a week of stepping out of my comfort zone is that I feel a thousand miles closer to the confident version of myself that I have been dreaming of for years. Only I am no longer just dreaming about her, but beginning to see her truly come to life. And I really, really like her!
If confidence is indeed a matter of practice as my instructor said this morning, what are you doing to practice being more confident or what examples can you share to help other women who are struggling to regain their confidence or perhaps find it for the first time in their lives?
