Confidence: How To.

Think of something you know you know how to do. Something you enjoy knowing how to do. Maybe it’s making the lightest quiche, or playing the drums, or changing a bicycle inner tube. Maybe you know that you know how to plant seeds that germinate, or fix this computer bug, or mix the perfect vermillion. Maybe it’s as simple as knowing you know how to hug a child, or tell a good joke. Find something that makes you feel competent and confident.

Experience that feeling. The surge of blood through you, a sense of guidance, purpose, direction. A sense of being the right person for the job, in the right place at the right time. A feeling of ease and tension release, of certainty and even exuberance. I know how to do this – I love doing this.

For me, about 2 years ago, I realized it was (car) camping. I know how to do that. I knew when we needed wood, when we should start the fire, how to put it out. I knew how to set up my tent, how to walk in the woods, how to avoid poison oak. I knew how to brush my teeth at the tap, and use my headlamp to find my missing sock. I knew how to have fun, how to do what needed to be done, how to help others because I knew how to do these things.

What if… we allowed for the possibility that we could have that feeling in more places in our lives. If we could recognize the mastery we have in some areas, and allow that sense of confidence and competence support our less certain attempts. Maybe, it’s just knowing that I know how to put on liquid eyeliner with deft precision. Can I allow that to fill up my tank a little? – Come to think of it, can I recognize that I know how to fill my gas tank! (If you grew up in NJ, you might not!) ;)

But the point, today, is that although there are many areas in which I am not an expert, and that will always be so, and there will always be something to learn in the places I want to become more adept… there are also a host of places that I haven’t recognized I’m doing pretty well.

I think this is what they call, “building self-esteem.” What a concept.

But, it’s true. People in general, and people like me, tend to dismiss what we think is easy for us. For me, I have tended to dismiss my writing when its complimented, since it can be so easy for me. What’s the value of something that is wickedly simple for me?

Somehow the idea that valuable things are hard things came into our zeitgeist. This is not to say that you or I needn’t work for what we want, but it’s about recognizing what we have, and sometimes what we’ve been given, that we take for granted.

I take for granted that I know how to put on crisp eyeliner. I learned it, I do it, it’s a part of me. So, I forget it’s not something everyone else knows. I take for granted that I can write this every day, for better or worse! I take for granted that I can talk to the children at work and make us both smile. – Well, that one I don’t. I don’t take the smiling for granted, just the knowing that I know how to do it.

If I were to go through a given day or week, and take note of the things that I seem to “instinctively” and “intuitively” know how to do, how many things would pile onto that list?

Sure, there are blank spots, there are gaps, there are wide berths of where I want to know and learn and be more. But they’re gaps. They’re not the whole.

If I tried to recognize that I could feel the same self-esteem while cooking eggs in the morning as I do when making a teepee out of wood in a fire-pit; if I could remember to feel adept and facile when I parallel park my car; if I could allow a sense of ease and confidence for the simple act of knowing to pause in today’s heavy sunshine,

I imagine that delightful, intrepid poise can offer a foundation for my less assured endeavors.