I do okay at parallel parking — not hugely confident, and don’t always get it right first time — but okay. I wouldn’t go for a tight space in heavy traffic unless I was desperate though. So I was pretty impressed when I saw this video on YouTube. There is something I do want to know however, having got in there, how would you get out again?

This guy has some seriously impressive ability on a bicycle. Great drumming too. There are a lot of Freestyle BMX riders who would love to be able to do some of what he manages on a far more old-fashioned piece of bicycling machinery. The film is in two short parts. It was filmed in Senegal.

I love to watch people who are highly skilled at what they do. When I was browsing around on YouTube recently, as I do occasionally, I came across this video of Boyanka Angelova performing a rhythmic gymnastics exercise with a ball at the European Championships in Turin back in 2008. To say that she is highly skilled at what she does would be an understatement. I was completely entranced watching her.

Self-Confidence

This is another post from Lou Tice at the Winners Circle. In this one, Lou talks about self-confidence, why it’s important, and, best of all, gives an interesting idea about how you can build your own self-confidence.

Do you ever wish you had more self-confidence? Self-confidence is one of the most important feelings any adult or child can experience. In fact, confidence in our abilities and ourselves often account for the difference between people who succeed and those who do not. But how do you become self-confident?

Well, there are a number of things you can do to build your feelings of confidence. One of the most important, I believe, is the deliberate acquisition and strengthening of meaningful skills. Stewart Brand, founder and publisher of “The Whole Earth Catalog,” said that, “The formula for an interesting life is skills – acquire them and use them. The more skills, the more interesting you become. Skills automatically give us pride and confidence.” Skills also help us to feel competent and powerful, especially when we can use them to accomplish personally meaningful goals.

In addition to learning new skills, it is also important to leverage the ones you already have. By this I mean learning how to get more mileage out of things you already know how to do. People who are peak performers are always looking for new information in their field so they can maintain their competitive edge.

They know that no matter who you are, it is important that you never stop growing. And when you are busy learning new things and improving on what you already know, you just naturally feel more confident.

What will you do today, tomorrow and in the future to continue growing and building your self-confidence?

Lou Tice
The Pacific Institute

I’m not a very self-confident person. And even that is probably something of an understatement. But I feel there is something in this post from Lou Tice for me to pick-up and learn from. I haven’t always been this lacking in self-confidence, and when I think back to times when I had more, I realize that they are all times when I was learning something new, or building on what I already knew. And that’s something I haven’t been doing anywhere near so much recently. Perhaps it’s time to put that right, to learn something, to achieve something. Now I just need to make my mind up as to what!

This is another post from Lou Tice at the Winners Circle that has got me thinking in a good way, hopefully something I can benefit from. I find the daily emails to be a great help; if you think you might too, do please consider subscribing yourself — it doesn’t cost anything.