Our next five blogs will be about how to improve your confidence. Confident people are less likely to be attacked– again, because they look like they are more likely to fight back. So the first thing you can do to improve your confidence is really pretty easy..
Stand Up Straight
There are a lot of ways to improve confidence, and if you have something that has worked for you in the past – keep doing it. If something didn’t work for you – do something else! This is not 100 percent, but many times you can judge a person’s confidence level by their posture. Four or five years ago a dad brought in his 5th grade daughter for karate lessons. He said he wanted to improve her self confidence, and pointed out to me how she always walked with her shoulders slumped and her head down. I really enjoyed teaching her and she was a quick study, rising up thru the belt ranks fairly rapidly. But her posture didn’t really start to improve until she got into our leadership program. In our class discussions she began to participate more and more, and as she discussed taking the leadership role in a group project at school, I began to see a great improvement in her confidence — and her posture. It was an amazing transformation!
One of the simplest physical things you can do to improve your confidence is to stand up straight. I have had poor posture for a great deal of my life – probably because of my family history. But recently, I decided to begin working on my posture and even as confident as I was, I believe it has given me a bit of a boost. It just seems to be a bit of a different attitude. I cant explain it, I just feel it– and so will you! So square your shoulders and straighten your back – I’ll bet you’ll feel differently immediately.
More importantly, so will others.
Diane Reeve Kirby is an 8th degree Black Belt with over 35 years of martial arts training. She was the sole owner of a karate school in Plano for 27 years. Her current focus is building confidence and safety for women and girls. Her motto is – Find Your Fierce!