How I Am Becoming More Confident and Optimistic

For the past month I have been intentionally trying to be a more confident and optimistic person. It started with a conversation with my best friend. We were discussing some trivial topic, probably boys, and we suddenly became aware of our lack of confidence. Consequently, we discovered that our lack of confidence did not solely deal with boys, but with all areas of our lives.

Then and there, we made a pact that we would strive to lead more confident lives. We didn't want to be prideful or haughty; we wanted to believe in ourselves.

We started actively seeking confidence. We came up with individual lists of things that we thought confident people do. We began to talk about things that we were proud of, instead of voicing our complaints and worries, which is what we usually did.

As a result, our correspondence became more optimistic. That is when I realized that optimism and confidence are closely related. I began to strive to be a more optimistic person as well.

And, do you know what the crazy thing is? It's working.

I can't tell you how exactly, since this isn't a perfectly measurable goal. But, people are noticing. My mom and sister used to point out the fact that I have a pessimistic attitude towards a lot of situations. In the last week, though, I have received a different sort of feedback.

One girl told me that she needed more people like me in her life after I encouraged her and told her that she could succeed academically. A complete stranger commented on the fact that I had a positive self image after we made small talk while he was ringing me up at a register.

I'm not writing this to point out what I think is becoming a good quality of mine. I'm writing this because I want to encourage you. You might be where I was, where I still oftentimes am, a pessimist who lacks confidence. But you can begin to turn your thought life around. And, in my hopefully humble opinion, turning your thought life around helps to turn around a lot of other negative circumstances in your life as well.

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!