Wednesday Wisdom - Where does confidence come from?

Good morning, lovely WAers

I hope you are having a great week so far. Here is a little bit of Wednesday Wisdom I'd like to share.

Can you remember starting school for the first time?

It may be a long time ago for some, (me included) but most of us can remember something. I remember a knot in my stomach and feeling very small.

How did you feel - did you feel ready?

Maybe you ran into the playground full of confidence and excitement and launched yourself down the slide (yes we had those in my day!) Or maybe you held back, unsure, nervous, and wishing you could stay somewhere familiar just a little longer, clinging tightly to your Mum or Dad's hand.

Either way, I bet you didn’t start because you felt super confident.
You started… and your confidence grew from there.

And along the way, you learned a few things:

• Where things were, especially the tuck shop and the toilets!
• How to make friends
• What was expected of you and what wasn't
• What worked and what didn't

It was doing something that made the difference - walking through the door, letting go of our parent's hand, and trusting in the people they trusted, innately knowing that we would be alright.

Little by little, what once felt scary became normal, and we all learned how to navigate this strange new world - at least for a little while until puberty set in. LOL!

Building an online business is no different.

Most of us don’t feel ready when we publish our first post, build our first website, or put our ideas out into the world. Most of us feel the opposite - not good enough, not knowledgeable enough - just generally, not enough! So many wait to feel confident first. But guess what? They're usually waiting a long time!

Confidence is rarely a starting point when we are trying something new; it grows slowly, and is the result of action.

There’s a brilliant idea in education from Lev Vygotsky called the Zone of Proximal Development. It’s the space between what you can do on your own and what you can do with help from someone more experienced – what Vygotsky called a “more knowledgeable other”. In layman's terms, it's like saying that we can grow and develop more independence with the help and guidance of someone else who knows more than we do at that time.

That’s where real growth happens. Not in the comfort zone where we can do things independently, and not in a place of total overwhelm. What develops confidence and ability is in that stretch zone where support is available. And that’s exactly what the Wealthy Affiliate community offers. The old "Stretch and Challenge" that we teachers love so much, but supported and scaffolded with the help of people who've "been there and done that!"

Inside Wealthy Affiliate, you’re not expected to know everything on day one. You’ve got training, teachers, and fellow members who’ve already walked the path. When I started out, I asked lots of questions, got things wrong, learned and tried again. And I was helped all the way by a steady stream of magnanimous people willing to share a little bit of their own experience along the way.

• Will you face obstacles? Yes, of course.
• Will you get it right all the time? Not at all.

But when you get stuck, you can ask for help. When you become unsure, you can learn something new, ask for advice, and it's totally OK to wobble a bit until someone steadies you. It's like riding a bike!

And step by step, things that once felt impossible start to feel normal.

You don’t always need to feel ready. You just need to take the next small step and use the support around you.

Question for you:

What’s one step in your business that feels just outside your comfort zone right now, where a bit of help could make all the difference?

Let me (and the community) know what it is, and let's see if we can't help you through it together.

Have a great Wednesday

Gail