Facing Your Reality With Confidence

Posted on May 08, 2012 by Early Jackson, One of Thousands of Performance Coaches on Noomii.

Have you ever had someone describe an experience they had with such vivid details that you felt as though you were there? When these conversations end, you are left breathless with images and sensations of a well told adventure. This is the phenomena known as ‘imagination’. It is humanity’s passport that grants access into worlds of possibilities. At times our imaginations serve as an escape mechanism, not because we are seeking distant travels, but to slip away from the harsh reality of daily life. It can be a bitter sweet embrace as we wrestle with where we dream to be, and where our feet are firmly planted right now.
Greek philosopher Plato once pondered the same importance of imagination as it relates to reality in his work The Republic. It is here he places before us an allegory of people chained and bound in a cave. This cave is home to these slaves and restricts both their sight and hearing. With heads forced to view life from the vantage of a fire’s reflection, these slaves equate both their image and the image of others as they see from the shadows. Once these shadow images are received as reality, every idea they form comes from this information. Think for a moment; every challenge presented is met from the reality that life looks just like the shadows on the wall. Thus their perception of what is real is greatly impaired. These prisoners, if forced out of the cave will become violent and dangerous. Why? Rather than face the truth of the sun, they reject it and seek the familiar. The cave has become the only home they know. It is amazing what dysfunction we revert back to simply because it is familiar.
The common thread between Plato’s caves and our imagination is seen in our tendency to seek relief from pain. The fact is, the truth hurts! What Plato is saying is in order for there to be a significant shift in our perception and change of life, we have to embrace seeing things as they really are, not just the shadows from the cave. Our perspective is the defining quality of life. Life is neither good nor bad, but how we determine to see it. Armed with this revelation we can face tomorrow with an incredible confidence knowing that no matter what happens, we ultimately control our response.
Here are some tips to strengthen your confidence:
• When you are faced with new information that challenges you, run towards it: Our first instinct when pressured is to find relief. But this is exactly what’s needed to develop character. We are defined in times of testing.
• Pay attention to those who irritate you: When we seek a circle of friends, we obviously avoid people that rub us the wrong way. This is a mistake. It is the rough people that remind us of sand paper that chip away at our bumps to create a smooth surface.
• Do something different each week to advance your network: If everyone you hang out with is exactly like you there is a problem. This means they have all your strengths and all your weaknesses. You need to diversify your ‘people portfolio’ to reflect where you are striving to go.
• When necessary, admit mistakes quickly: As we come out of our ‘caves’ there is bound to be some mishaps. Change and growth come with periods of adjustment and what messes us up is our refusal to fuss up when we are wrong. Admit it so you can grow from it.
Our stories are our own. We are living life the way we see it inside, for good or bad. If we are truly ready to make steps toward the exit sign of our ‘caves’ it will require a full commitment. It is never easy adjusting our eyes to the reality staring us in the face. Just as those cave dwellers, we have spent our lives looking at the world through a broken perspective. As we are exposed to the light of how life can be, we must move forward. Our confidence is in the reality that if the cave we emerged from could not destroy us, neither can the discipline of new habits to live a better life.

See you at the TOP!
Early Jackson