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By Peace Pessu Watching the funny and educative animated movie Rio, and listening to the soundtrack “Hot Wing”, all I could think about was Blue’s doubt in himself and in his ability to fly (which got him tagged an ostrich) and how that mindset changed when he faced life threatening challenges. This article is meant to help you spread your wings and soar. So, how can you change your mentality from that of a flightless ostrich to a rare and special flying macaw? Self belief is very vital to our lives. A lot of people fail to believe in themselves as a result of the deepest fear of being inadequate. We tend to ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented or fabulous when the question actually is, who are you not to be? A lot of us are afraid to think of ourselves as anything but average and quite unfortunately, fact is, most people live below their average. Believing in yourself is not a skin you grow overnight, it takes work and practice. As usual, I am on a discovery journey as you are, so I guess we could take it together. Here are a few pointers:

1098334_10151812296476788_1608456859_n — photo credit: facebook.com/RobertKiyosaki

1. Self-belief is learnable Your level of self belief isn’t set in stone; it is not unalterable. We can all be flexible and change; even fly. Remember, you were born into this world with no sense of what you could or could not do. Always be as a child who never says “I’m not the kind of person who could…” The first step is to re-examine and discard many of the limiting ideas you have about yourself. 2. Rid yourself of the negative inner voice When you start to doubt yourself, listen for a moment to that negative voice. Whose voice is that actually? One thing is sure; the self-doubting and critical voice is not originally yours. Begin to challenge it and plainly ignore it. 3. Strengthen your weaknesses When we focus on what is not right about ourselves rather than what is, we miss the opportunity for self belief. We shouldn’t assume there’s nothing to improve about ourselves. However, focusing on perceived weakness without either taking measures to improve them or giving fair focus towards our strength takes us nowhere. Take any negative belief you have about yourself and creatively flip it so it becomes a positive resource. 4. Create a powerful vision of yourself True self belief is not just trying to convince yourself to do stuff. True self belief is from developing the vision that you can do and be whatever it is you put your mind to do. This powerful visualization exercise means you can learn from yourself how to be confident, balanced and behave in ways that maximize your chances of success. Self belief doesn’t mean arrogant blindness to one’s shortcomings or imperfections; it really focuses on what you will become, giving you freedom to make mistakes and cope with setbacks by seeing them for what they are. Note that as self belief grows, people around you start to believe in you too. You can be original not a copy. As a popular brand slogan goes, “IT’S IN YOU.” Believe it, see it, and work it out.