Planning For Confidence

I am the type of person who would always be thinking in a negative way, I used to worry about most things in life and was basically unhappy.

My life could not continue in this way and I needed to find a way out of this rut.

I was now at the age of twenty-one and decided that enough was enough.

I began to read books about people who were successful in life and not only found them interesting but also beneficial.

One of the books I read was about the golf player Tiger Woods.

He is a very interesting character and a very good and successful golf player.

It explained how he always wears red and black colours for his clothes, on the last day of each tournament.

Red and black are chosen for their bold colours and it represents what his attitude is going to be on this day.

He is basically saying to all of the players that he is going to just go for it, no fear, no worries; he is just going to attack.

In his opinion, if he has this attitude and plays well, he will have every chance of winning the tournament.

Now he obviously can not win every tournament, but he does seem to win his fair share.

I remember feeling very nervous about attending an interview. This was exactly the type of situation which I would worry and get stressed out about.

I would question as to why I was even attending the interview as I was bound to fail.

This is an example of my negative attitude.

From reading all of these books, I decided that worrying was certainly not going to help me and that I needed to think positive.

I decided to go and buy a new suit, I will never forget seeing myself in the mirror with this new suit on, I looked extremely smart and I felt very proud of myself.

Just wearing this new suit gave me a huge boost of confidence. I went to the interview feeling more positive than ever and pretended I was Tiger. I was just going to go for it and see what happened.

The interview went well and the answers seemed to flow as my brain was quite relaxed. I actually quite enjoyed the meeting and am happy to let you know that I was offered the position two weeks later.

When I feel down, I now go and treat myself to some new clothes. If I am going out to a social event, I wear these new clothes to give me an extra confidence boost.

I also go with the right attitude, no more worrying, no more fear, I will have fun and if I am not enjoying myself I will just come home early.

I continue to read more and more books from many different successful people.

I am always aiming to improve my life and I also want to be a success.

I now worry and stress far less than I did before and I am generally happy with my life.

I also play a lot of sport and try to play in an attacking style.

Attack is supposed to be the best form of defence, and it is also far more enjoyable to play sport in this way.

I have even become very sad as I always try to wear red and black when I am playing snooker for example.

Attending an interview

In my opinion preparation is the key to most things in life and it certainly is for people who want to gain employment.

When I was in my early twenties, I decided to leave the company where I had worked since leaving school.

I wanted to become a financial advisor and had already passed all of the relevant examinations.

Now all I needed to do; was to a find a company who was willing to take me on.

I decided to join a specialist financial services agency, to help me with my search. I went and met a man who had been assigned my case etc.

His name was Pete and he was very professional and knew his stuff.

He quickly managed to secure me an interview and asked if I would meet him so that I could have a dummy run.

He was aware that I had not attended an interview for a number of years and probably felt that I needed the practice.

To say that he was not impressed with my interview technique was an understatement and he quickly started to give me advice of where I needed to improve.

This is what he advised me to do:

1. Produce a personal profile of myself. This should include my c.v, any examination certificates, any other qualifications that I have such as first aid, information about my interests and anything else that makes me look good.

This should all be put into a quality folder and can then be presented to the people conducting the interview when they ask me to talk about myself. They will see how much effort I have put in and will hopefully be impressed.

2. Try to predict what questions will be asked and prepare good quality answers to these questions. This is something which sounds so obvious but which I had never done before.

When you have attended each interview you then try to remember all of the questions which were asked and then add them to your list.

When returning home, you then think about the best way to answer these questions in the future, if they are ever asked again.

3. Find out information about the company with whom the interview is with. You may be asked at the interview if you know anything about the company you are hoping to join.

It will sound a lot better if you can reel off a number of important facts rather than just saying something which is obvious.

To find out this type of information you can use the internet, ask friends or go to the library.

On the day of the interview it is a good idea to have a bath before you go.

A bath is a well known form of relaxation and can help to soothe and loosen up your muscles.

These tips that Pete gave me soon helped me to find work and I hope that they help you in your quest to gain future employment.

gain more confidence page 14