The first list included what I wanted to achieve within the next . . . → Read More: The Importance Of Setting Yourself Targets]]> About four years ago I discovered the many benefits of setting targets and goals. I thought about what I wanted to be and which course I wanted my life to take. I wrote out three different lists of my aims for the future.

The first list included what I wanted to achieve within the next twelve months. The second list contained what I wanted to achieve within five years and the third list was my lifetime goals.

One of my goals was to do with my composite front doors business. I wanted to ensure that the world would get to know about the fact that I offer affordable composite doors.

I had read that it of benefit to write any goals or targets down to ensure that one can keep focused.

Invest time and money to reach your goals

I now had a determination to succeed and was willing to work hard to achieve my goals. I was very much aware that I would have to work very hard to achieve anything in life. One of my aims was to overcome stuttering. To do this I had to learn the art of relaxation, I have always been very hard on myself and had spent most of my life worrying about things that may happen in the future. I decided to ease up on myself and to even have monthly treats to keep me and my body happy. I went to see a refloxologist and a few weeks later I went to see an aromatherapist. The stutter which had affected my life since I had been a young child was eventually eradicated but only after a lot of hard work.

Avoid negative people

There are people out there who try to bring me down. They attempt to do this by off the cuff comments they make or just by the way they seem to look down on me. They would look down their noses at me. These type of people have caused me many sleepless nights and have had a negative affect on my self-confidence.

Life is now good and my business career has now taken off and I am now working with a company who offer a cost reduction strategy which I have to say is very enjoyable.

I hope that you have found this article interesting and of benefit.

So why was I like this? Well it was mainly because, in my opinion, I had a stutter. It . . . → Read More: How To Fight Back When The Cloud Of Doom Descends On You]]> I used to be quite a fragile character, some would say that I was even scared of my own shadow. I was always paranoid that people were talking about me and laughing behind my back.

So why was I like this? Well it was mainly because, in my opinion, I had a stutter. It started when I was aged four and despite attending various forms of stop stammering therapy I was unable to find the solution which would enable me to achieve fluency.

I decided that enough was enough by my mid-twenties and decided it was time to toughen up. I could not continue to live my life as I had been, as I would probably be dead by the time I was fifty.

I then went about a self-help program to increase my overall self-confidence and self-esteem. I wanted to learn more about stress-management, dealing with depression, relaxation and about how to become successful in life.

What I found out over the next twelve to eighteen months would change my life forever.

These are the things I had to do:

The self-pity was something that had to end. Yes I am not perfect but who is.

I had to think in a more positive way. This was something I had somehow learnt to do in my business life where I work for a company that sells composite front doors but I had never managed to do it in my personal life.
 
I had to stop worrying about the future.

I needed to become a much more care-free person – I was at that stage far too concerned about what other people thought of me.

I needed to smile more.

I needed to learn to relax. Over the last few months I have been using meditation to help me with this.

I had to learn to like myself.

I needed to become stronger to fight away the negative thoughts in my head.

I realised that I needed to concentrate on the positive aspects of my life rather than wallowing in the self-pity of thinking about what I believed I did not have in life.

I started to implement the above and it helped me no end. The depression that plagued my earlier life still came back to haunt me around once a month. When it does descend, I now write two lists. What I am happy about in life and what I am sad or worrying about. I have now realised after studying the two lists that I am very much a person that over-reacts.

I am now a much more positive person and this is having a good affect on my business life where I now work for a ”cheap mobile phone calls” company and I also helping people to overcome stammering.

I wish you every success with your efforts to gain in self-confidence.