In yesterday's blog I covered the second law called Definite Chief Aim. It outlined the importance of having a specific goal and firmly a fixing to your subconscious mind by repeated affirmations. It then automatically becomes part of your life plan. It's the blueprint that has an unseen power directing your efforts toward the attainment of the object of your goals.

The Third Law of Success

Self Confidence

"Day by day in every way I am becoming more successful" -R. Tietjen.

For those of you who don't know, the picture above is that of the Saturday Night Live character named Stuart Smalley. Stuart's skits were basically him doing over the top cheesy affirmations looking into the mirror. Today's law is the genesis of the thing he was making fun of.
This is the law of Self Confidence and is hugely important to one's success. This also requires daily attention to develop a healthy and strong sense of yourself. It's important because a strong self confidence is a key factor to your success. Along the way to manifesting your definite chief aim you will naturally come upon many set backs and failures. Having a strong sense of one's self is the difference maker between quitting or achieving your goal.
Over coming our natural fears is the way to build a solid foundation for your self confidence to rest upon. Being able to look at yourself honestly will tell you which fears you need to work with first. Hill stated, "there are only 6 common fears." They are the fear of:

• Poverty
• Old age
• Criticism
• Loss of Love
• Ill Health
• Death
  Take a look at the the list and ask yourself which one stands out strongest for you. For me it was the fear of poverty. I grew up the product of a single mother raising me any my brother only. My father left us at a young age so the fear of the loss of love was just about equal to poverty. Growing up with my Mom who struggled both financially and emotionally by my father absence was rough. She was also not really equipped to raise young men and nurture them into manhood. Having a strong sense of self confidence was often shunned or suppressed. By the time I left the house I had a very low sense of self worth. It held me back in several ways. Firstly, I had found my passion for the saxophone very early in life and very quickly developed a love of jazz music. My definite chief aim become to be a professional musician and later was even awarded a full ride scholarship to a top notch school for Jazz. The only problem was that I was deathly afraid to play in front of other people, obviously this could be detrimental to being a successful performer. The second impact of my low confidence was that I would stay in relationships for too long and end up getting my heart broken. In fact, I did stay in a relationship too long and passed up on that full ride scholarship. Which meant I'd chose to attend a College closer to home. We broke up with me the first month of college at a school I didn't really want to be at. I was miserable, depressed, now having to pay for school. I did however end up transferring to the music school the next semester, but my full ride tuition was no longer available to me.
  When I came across Hill's list I knew right away which fears where holding me back and I knew the impact it had on my life. So I took the homework for this section full on. He introduced a five part formula for self confidence which we had to copy out (writing down what we want is important), sign it, and commit it to memory. It's essentially a mantra to live your life by. I did this each day for a long time while looking into the mirror. I was also able to develop a mantra for myself that was a bit shorter and one I would able to repeat easily myself. I also wrote it out on small pieces of paper and taped them all over the place to remind me to keep repeating it. It goes like this: "Each day in EVERY way I am becoming more successful." Once my mind began programming itself to this message I started seeing evidence of it every where. I learned that self confidence is no more than self programming. Today we see the echo of this idea in popular books like "The Secret". But we must remember that Self confidence is just but one of the laws of success and it is in fact a necessary component.
  I invite you to look at the 6 fears and let me know which ones effect you the most. For just one month take on the practice of this mantra and see how you start to see a difference in your everyday life. I appreciate your time reading this. My aim is to provide you with quality content. Stay tuned for the next law called "The habit of Saving".