When I was a teenager, I had an issue with confidence, I had the same challenges and obstacles that many had growing up. But at the time, I didn’t know it. I assumed that everyone else was totally confident in themselves, and I was the odd man out. Fast forward a few decades, and I’ve come to realize that most people question themselves and struggle with self-confidence. When faced with challenges, many are too concerned with what others might think. They worry that their actions or decisions might be wrong, stymieing their decision-making ability and increasing thoughts of worthlessness. If not addressed early on, this fear of failure builds upon itself and can lead many adults to question every action they take, causing them to atrophy out of fear of making a mistake.
Think about the people in your life that you trust implicitly. Your doctor, your pastor, maybe even your banker. Part of the reason you trust these people is because of the confidence they have in their ability to do their jobs. A doctor must spend close to a decade getting educated and paying his dues before he’s ready to go out on his own. But when he does, he’s confident because of the sacrifices made.
Now think about the last time you endured an interaction with an individual who was obviously out of his element. Maybe it was that kid down at the fast-food place who attempted to press the right keys on his kiosk while taking your order. Or a restaurant server who got your order wrong and spilled water on you. Of course mistakes happen but these people were far from being at the top of their game.
You barely give a concern, as to the abilities of those in the first example and come to expect that most everything they suggest is true and right on. But you keep guarded when around those in the second example. You double check their math and ensure that they heard everything you said so no mistakes are made. It’s because the professionals in the first example are highly confident in their abilities and have learned that not being so is equivalent to death in their particular field. That’s not to say that a restaurant server or a fast-food attendant cannot become adept in his or her chosen field. But many in those positions are still quite young and have not grown to understand how vitally important being confident is.
So how do you do it? Become confident? Do you just make a decision to do as many self-help gurus suggest? “Fake-It-Till-You-Make-It”
I don’t think so. There must be room to grow and if you’re running around faking that you know everything already you’ll be missing out on a lot of learning. I think the best course of action for becoming confident in the towing industry is to get involved, make mistakes-and learn from them. Become determined to learn something new everyday. When problems arise and instead of complaining you capitalize on them you’re open to a multitude of ways of getting the job done. Rather than being rigid and pressing on with what you’re determined to make work, you’re like a sponge taking on information as you go and changing your plan of attack as needed. But if you let on that you know everything already, you’ll be reluctant to ask questions and your learning will stop. When mistakes happen you’ll take it personally and your frustrations will be evident, reinforcing your inability in the customer’s view.
I can hear you out there. You’r suggesting that merely deciding to learn something new everyday doesn’t solve the problem that a newbie tower might have when dealing with customers.
Well I believe it does.
First and most obviously when you’re learning something new everyday you’ll gain a lot of knowledge in a short period of time. But secondly and most importantly when you’re goal is to learn something new everyday you’ll be confident because, if you don’t know the answer today, you’ll damn well know it tomorrow.
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