You may still be curious as to what kind of confident person you can be at your best. This is a question that even the most experienced, capable chief executives and media personalities ask themselves regularly. Successful people stretch themselves. You have enormous potential limited only by yourself. And it’s up to you to realise it.

Very few people are wholly confident in every area of their life. Those who appear to be so are probably good at acting – with themselves as the audience.

Be your own sponsor as well as critic. You may be good at giving yourself a hard time by comparing yourself unfavourably with others: ‘I’ll never be as good as. . .’ Comparisons with others are valuable in that they can help you to excel and raise your game as a budding Tiger Woods on the golf circuit, for example. But don’t waste energy beating yourself up by not being as good as the expert who dedicates every day of their life to practice.

As you become more confident, you start paying more attention to what’s important to you in life rather than bowing to the pressures that those around you place on you.

You are important in this world and have a real contribution to make. Support, mentoring, and personal sponsorship of various types can help you to be the very best you can be. Begin by assuming you are going to be successful, and surround yourself with people who honour you and support your growth.

So who are you really? The ‘you’ that you want to become is up to you, as you will find out when you follow your own direction.

Getting your confident self fired up means adopting a new, positive mind-set, and getting rid of any doubts you have.

Start now by answering one simple question: What really matters to you in your life right now? For example, do you want a loving partner or family around you, a successful career, or perhaps your health is your top priority. You may be working towards a very specific goal such as running a marathon or getting married.

How can you fulfill all of those? By taking action of course; by making some CHANGE.

Any kind of change has its ups and downs. You can focus on the downside and say that you may be under threat from those around you who don’t want a new confident you, you may find changing scary, and you may put yourself on the line and open yourself up to criticism and sarcasm. So what? The power of change far outweighs the negatives. Just look around you and make your own judgement about who has the best life – the confident person or the shrinking violet. Confident people earn more money, have more fun, enjoy more freedom, and relish new experiences. They have a go, they discover, they have a zest for living. They love the power that comes from being confident to do the things that many of those around them shy away from.