Penny Casselman:
Director. If you are not feeling confident in going after a goal, in trying something new, in challenging a thought that you have, today is the day that you pick up your red marker, make a declaration that confidence is something you will start investing in as you take action. Welcome to the Pivot with Passion podcast. Hi. I'm Penny Casselman. I believe everyone is deserving of a phenomenal life. Regardless of where you came from, life is what you make of it. And when you learn to pivot with passion, your world explodes with opportunities.
Penny Casselman:
Go grab your favorite beverage, and let's shake things up as we explore how to pivot with passion. Hello, and welcome back to the Pivot with Passion podcast. I'm your host, Penny Casselman, and I'm thrilled that you're here. What are we celebrating today? What amazing thing have you accomplished over the past week, director? I can tell you, I am super excited because when this episode drops, guess what? We are celebrating my birthday. Yes. Let me say that I adore my birthday, but I am thrilled to be showing up here today to celebrate. Now I have not looked at the calendar for the next coming years, but I'm not sure when the next time my actual birthday lands on a Wednesday, so absolutely big reason to celebrate. Now around this time every year, I think back to one of my most favorite birthday memories.
Penny Casselman:
It was the year that I turned five. I remember both of my parents coming in and waking me up, and their energy was electric. First of all, I had no idea what was going on. I think I knew it was my birthday that day, but having both of my parents hover over my bed saying, Penny, get up. We have somewhere to take you was slightly discombobulating. But after I got dressed, we all hopped in the car, and they whisked me off to some unknown location. But when I arrived and they opened the door for me to walk through the threshold, I was surrounded by a room full of bicycles. They were hanging from the ceiling, they were on racks on the walls, they were on the floor, and my dad knelt down and said, Penny, you can pick any bicycle that you want.
Penny Casselman:
I could not believe that I got to walk around and look at all of these amazing bicycles. It didn't take me long to settle on a pink and white Schwinn. White handlebar, pink seat, and I think I even got a basket for the front. It was awesome! When I got home, I quickly realized though, that my dad did not believe ills. And of course this being the very first bike, I was terrified. I had no idea how I was supposed to ride a bike without help, not knowing how to do any part of the mechanics of riding a bike. But my dad said, don't worry. I got you.
Penny Casselman:
And we went to down to the sidewalk in front of the house, and he held with one hand the back of the seat. And once I was balanced, he said, okay, start pedaling. Now keep in mind, my dad is behind me, and I could feel the strength of his arm keeping me upright. But at some point, I never knew when he let go. At some point, I was pedaling on my own. Don't get me wrong. I fell lots of times. Thank goodness there was green grass on either side of the sidewalk, but I kept going.
Penny Casselman:
Even though I fell, I would get up again, walk my bike back to my dad, hop on, and try again. And that is what today's episode is all about. The truth about confidence is that it rarely shows up before you take action. There is no way my five year old self could have become confident in riding a bike by looking at the bike and thinking about the bike. I had to be involved physically, emotionally, and over time and with practice, found the confidence and the balance and the mindset that I could ride that bike by myself. So if you are ready to boost your confidence, director, you are in the right place today. So let's dive in. I want to unpack this idea, because confidence isn't something you have or don't have.
Penny Casselman:
It is something that you build over time. And one of the first tool that you can employ to help you get better and boost your confidence is your body. A lot of people will say, no, no, it's your mindset, you have to have the right mindset. And while, yes, mindset plays a huge role in helping to build that confidence, How you move, how you stand, how you breathe, all of those things together send a signal to your brain, which reinforces how you view and exercise and build confidence. And let's remember that courage is not the absence of fear. It is movement through fear is courage. So many of us are waiting to feel confident. Hand raised right here.
Penny Casselman:
I have been in this position so many times that I refused to take action until I was confident that I could show up and perform the task or perform the action or the duty. But confidence isn't the requirement. Confidence is the result of doing something. Think of confidence like a snowball. You pack it with your hand. It starts small. And then as you start into action, it builds over time. And yes, in those first few instances, it is difficult to get momentum.
Penny Casselman:
It might be challenging to keep the snowball rolling. And what does that look like when we talk about confidence? It could be you speaking up in a meeting, speaking up to a friend, speaking to a stranger. It could be hitting send on that email. All of those actions, you have to have a level of confidence in order to get them to move forward. So each small action that you take adds to your momentum, and it keeps growing. Just like me on that bicycle, my confidence grew the more times I tried, and the more times I fell gave me feedback to realize what adjustments that I needed to make to become more confident in moving forward. And before long, I felt completely at ease on a bicycle. It felt natural.
Penny Casselman:
In fact, there came a point in time where I could not mimic what I looked like when I started learning to ride a bike. I don't think I could today pretend like I was someone learning to ride a bike because I'm so confident in my ability, but it had to start somewhere. I had to push myself at some point to build the confidence. And that is my wish for you, director. If you are not feeling confident in going after a goal, in trying something new, in challenging a thought that you have, today is the day that you pick up your red marker, make a declaration that confidence is something you will start investing in as you take action. It's time for a clarity cocktail. Today's clarity cocktail comes from Dale Carnegie, and he writes, inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage.
Penny Casselman:
I have to say, this quote packs a punch on our topic for today, because so often we get stuck out of fear, and the longer we sit in that fearful state, the louder that fear gets. The longer we postpone taking action, the more pushback we get from fear. I was recently with a friend and they were saying how much they loved the acronym of fear, which is false evidence appearing real, and it was very timely given the topic of this week's podcast, but that's what fear is, outside of you are being chased by a lion who wants to eat you, which I hope most of us don't ever have to worry about, but false evidence appearing real nowadays is nothing more than the thoughts we have about things that could impact us, which if we say it out loud, if we analyze it, there there really is nothing that is going to harm us if we try. So the gold in what he's sharing in this quote is really the second part, is action breeds confidence and courage. Because the moment we take that very first step, even a tiny step can help us disrupt and stop that false evidence appearing real idea and start putting us on the path towards confidence and courage and momentum. Every little step that we take tells our brain, you got this, keep going, don't stop, keep giving us feedback. Even when an event occurs where failure might be present, you are not a failure. Failure is an event.
Penny Casselman:
We get to interpret it as feedback. Our brain gets to use that to help us continually move forward and build our confidence. And that is where courage lives, in the doing, not the waiting. So I'll share Dale Carnegie's quote one more time. Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. And now back to the episode. Cheers.
Penny Casselman:
Alright. Circling back to our topic of the science of confidence. Small actions can lead to big results. So what are some of the issues that we face when we're thinking about increasing our confidence? The first one, we overthink. How often have you caught yourself stuck in your head having a conversation with yourself that, if you were saying it out loud to a perfect stranger, might have them thinking, there's something wrong with you. We hesitate when we have these false evidence appearing real, when we have that fear in our brain. We wait, we stall out, and we hope that confidence is somehow going to magically appear if we think about it enough. One of the other things that happens, we have those thoughts, we often discount and downplay the power that our physical body, the state of how we carry ourselves, our breath, our posture, our energy, we discount the impact that those attributes have on our confidence.
Penny Casselman:
I've touched on this earlier, fear, false evidence appearing real, shows up wearing many disguises. Think procrastination, perfectionism. I'm not ready yet. Maybe when I All of those thoughts that we have is simply fear showing up, hindering our ability to build confidence and find courage. Confidence doesn't come from knowing it'll work. It comes from proving to yourself that you can figure it out and you can handle it. It is not outcome based. Courage is in the action of doing.
Penny Casselman:
So I wanna share some solutions, strategies that you can employ to help you build your confidence and move forward with belief and a bold vision. So the first one is power poses, and this truly activates all parts of your body to help instill a sense of confidence. So what does that look like? That means standing tall, shoulders back, chin up. Try that for two minutes. Set a timer on your phone, stand up, if you need to put your hands on your hips, do the superman pose. In doing that, it boosts hormones that help lower your stress. It's kind of your built in armor. When you are feeling not as confident, force your body to recognize and stand tall, and you will notice a difference in less than two minutes.
Penny Casselman:
The second way you can start to build more confidence is doing breath work and using your voice. Breath work is not simply a meditative practice. Breath work also helps completely ground your nervous system. So I'm sure you have felt in your body those times when you were fearful to do something. It was challenging for you to take an action, speak up, try something new. But by breathing at a constant and consistent and paced way, your body can help bring those anxious feelings into check, and a simple way to do it is breathe in through your nose for four counts, and breathe out through your mouth for four counts, and do that three times in a row. It might help to even close your eyes. Breathing in for four, out for four, three times in a row will help ground your nervous system and help you find that confidence to take the first step.
Penny Casselman:
The third thing I can suggest is do a daily courage challenge. What does that look like? Pick one small uncomfortable thing each day. Ask the question that you wouldn't normally ask. Say no. Speak up. It could also be as simple as ordering something different from a menu that you habitually order the same thing from. Every small step, every small action that you take helps build your snowball of confidence. And over time, as your body adjusts to taking those small micro bravery steps every day, you will find it easier and easier to summon the courage and find your confidence to move forward.
Penny Casselman:
And the fourth thing, which I do every single day and I do it at the top of every episode now, is what are we celebrating? Do you have a celebration ritual? Why is that important? Again, too often we dismiss small steps of bravery, small steps of courage in our daily life. When you do something scary, when you take that small micro bravery action, think to yourself, I did that. Heck, go look in the mirror. Tell yourself, you did it. Celebrate with someone close by. Give yourself a wink in the mirror, maybe you give yourself a high five, whatever makes you feel good. Celebrate the evidence that you have taken action. Celebrate that you have added one small step.
Penny Casselman:
You've done the rep of finding confidence. So those four things again, power poses. Two minutes, set a timer on your phone, and stand there like you are superman. Second, breath work. Simply take three repetitions of breathing in and breathing out because that will help calm your nervous system. The third thing is micro bravery action steps on a daily basis. And the fourth is find a celebration ritual for yourself. Give yourself a high five, look in the mirror, say it out loud, I did that.
Penny Casselman:
Because in those moments, your confidence muscle is being built. Now these are simple, very practical tools, but don't mistake simple for small. These shifts, those four strategies that I just outlined are the foundation for your long term change. And showing up with confidence is something we can all benefit from in order to achieve our phenomenal futures. Now that pink and white Schwinn taught my five year old self a lesson, and I'm still living that today. Confidence is built while you're in motion. You don't need to wait to feel confident, you just need to start. So director, what is one small courageous action that you can take today? Something that nudges your confidence snowball forward.
Penny Casselman:
Go do it. Don't put off for tomorrow what you can do today. Pick up your red marker, summon the courage for you to build your confidence muscle. And hey, if no one has told you this yet today, you've got what it takes, director. You already have inside of you what is necessary to live your phenomenal life, and you're doing great. I'm here cheering you on every week, even through the wobbles and the small wins along the way. Until next week, go hop on your bike and ride the confidence wheel forward. Friend, thanks for listening to this episode of pivot with passion.
Penny Casselman:
If you've been feeling stuck, exhausted, or frustrated, this is your permission slip to go grab a red marker and claim the life you desire and deserve. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend, and then hop over to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts. Because my goal is to put a red marker in everyone's hand, and I need your help to spread the word and make that happen. Until the next episode, go grab a red marker, get excited for your future, and make your first move to pivot with passion.
