We’re not born with self confidence. It comes with life experience. And some find it earlier than others.

M. remembers me as that young woman who lacked confidence, and when we first got back together, he’d say things that were clearly meant to build my belief in myself.

It threw me, because if anything, I have an overabundance of confidence and am usually treated that way.

He’s rearranged his thinking on that, but I can’t fault him; we were apart nearly 30 years. And at some point in that time, I gained my confidence. Probably after I pulled off a move to California, alone, without a job, to a city where I knew no one.

Confidence comes from knowing our accomplishments and acknowledging them to ourselves.

Oh, I can hear you now. Me? What have I done? Nothing!

If we take time to review our life, the accomplishments are there. However minor they may seem at first, if we look at them more impartially, we might see that to others, they may represent climbing a major hill.

If not a mountain.

And maybe that’s how we should be seeing them, too.

Confidence comes from realizing how much you’ve actuallly done and giving yourself the credit you deserve.

Sometimes, we wait for others to give us those kudos. Those words of appreciation. Of admiration. Of acknowledgment.

Don’t wait.

You don’t need someone else to give you credit. You only need to give it to yourself. Believe in yourself. And the abilities to have gotten this far in life.

It’s been my experience that I can build anything on my belief in myself.

And so can you.