Day 30 Cold Shower and Blogging Challenge Completed!

Just 30 days ago, I took on the personal challenge, from ImpossibleHQ, to take a cold shower every day, and that I would blog every day. There was no way I could have known how cold those showers would be or the challenge of writing every day. Similarly, the powerful feeling I got today after accomplish a seemly impossible challenge, and the confidence that I have gained by facing my fears. I remember that first sleepless night when I was freaking out about taking my first cold shower the next morning. I was so nervous, and I had no clue about writing about myself, feelings and thoughts, with no filter. I wanted to give a real perspective on how I faced my fears without hiding my own insecurities.

Today, I have completed both my challenges, and I would like to share what I have learned over these past 30 days. Hopefully, these tips will help you if you decided to take the challenge.

• People will think you are crazy for taking cold showers. Laugh at them because you are crazy, and you like it that way!
• Cold showers feel amazing, invigorating, and you will laugh at once fearing them.
• In general, writing is much hard than a cold shower, for the cold only lasts five minutes.
• Fear is your minds way of saying “No!” Your obedience is not required as you can merely reply “Yes!” Don’t let your mind bully you.
• Don’t think, breathe in, jump in, and exhale as the cold water hits you. This will guard you from the natural shock response, and you will find that a simple breathe calms the body more than you know.
• You have to be honest with yourself, otherwise, you will never admit to having any fears.
• Find some way of motivating yourself like blogging, daily pictures, friends, family, or anything that will keep you going on the hard days.
• There will be hard days and you will want to quit. Don’t, because it’s more fun to feel like a badass later than a quitter now.
• After 30 days, you will have found the badass inside and will want to conquer all your fears. For once you realize that they are not real, an entirely new world will open up before your eyes.
• Always have a schedule for when you will write and keep to it. It will make the entire process much easier.
• If you can’t write then simply write about the thoughts about not writing. Once you have started it’s easier to keep the momentum going and eventually a good idea will come.
• Conquering the fear of public writing can be difficult so write from the heart, review it for a limited time, and post it immediately after. If you write about how you truly feel than you have nothing to fear.

I challenge you to make your life a masterpiece. I challenge you to join the ranks of those people who live what they teach, who walk their talk. ~ Tony Robbins

Day 15 Lacking Self-Confidence

Self-confidence is not something easily described or explained to someone. It would seem one either has it or does not. Still someone can be confidence in writing but not public speaking. So when I was asked by someone close to me for advice on how to be confident, I did not really know how to reply. My answer was you have to find it within yourself. But that was not good enough, the answer needed to say exactly how, and all I gave was a vague solution. It was practically something out of a fortune cookie. I got a little frustrate because how do you tell someone how to find self-confidence. Their insecurity already tells me that they don’t believe in themselves. You cannot teach someone, you can only guide them to the answer rings inside my head. I know how challenging freshman year can be, first time away from home, no friends, and a new city, so I wanted to find a better answer.

The definition is trusting in the abilities, qualities, and judgment of oneself. However, I am trying to find something concrete and that definition is pretty compact. If you take away all the filler then the real essence of the definition is trust. You have to trust yourself! This meaning that you need to trust yourself to perform reliably in different situations. But do you actually trust yourself? Realize, that you have defined, molded, and created the person you are today and no one knows you better than you do. So how much do you actually know? In order to establish some trust, you have to be confident with who you are as a person. Then by figuring that out, you discover your individuality and what makes you amazing. Self-confidence is just the bonus of knowing your strengths and weaknesses.

However, trust is often earned slowly, over time, and lost quickly.  Children make new friend on a whim, no thinking, but as they get older they lose this ability. Too many previous failures or rejections but somehow their trust and faith in themselves is lost. The trust must be rebuilt where it was lost by having the courage get past the failures and move forward. Repeated practice to bring new successful experiences! It’s similar to me practicing my oral presentations over and over so that I trust myself to perform under-pressure. I may feel horrible before I speak, sickened with nervousness, but I do it! I even find myself having fun after I start. Understand that self-confidence does not mean you become fearless, it means you have trust and faith in who you are.

Sorry, there is no simple answer, only a journey of self-discover in which you must take the first step.

The way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear and get a record of successful experiences behind you. ~ William Jennings Bryan