Chapter 3. The Magic of Thinking Big (visualized)

1 visualized chapter in your inbox every week. Today, we're about to Build Confidence and Destroy Fear.

Key takeaway

People are not born confident, but instead, confidence is an acquired skill everyone can get.

However, the biggest threat to confidence is fear.

And fear is real. We shouldn’t underestimate or deny it, but face it with action for action cures fear.

In contrast, indecision and doubt aggravates fear.

So whatever it is you fear, drill down to the core element and take appropriate action, as small as it may be.

To further build confidence:

1. Eliminate negative thoughts and replace them with positive self-thinking, since you are a product of you’re own beliefs and self-talk.

2. Remember that although others might look more important or impressive, at our core we’re all humans and nobody is bigger or better than the other.

3. Keep a clean conscience. Guilt erodes your confidence, while doing what’s right builds confidence.

4. To think confidently, act confidently: sit in front, make eye contact, walk with a purpose, speak up and smile big.

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My thoughts

I especially enjoyed the first half of this chapter about how taking action battles fear.

It’s such a simple but powerful statement - action cures fear. Boom. Take appropriate action and never fear again.

At least, so far the theory. But I can really relate to it as this has been the process of me starting this visual project (for lack of a better term).

You see, I’m somewhat of a multi-passionate person - a term I discovered recently.

Basically it means you have more than one big interest in life and I have many. Like, really many.

However, I also consistently fail at pulling through on these interests. Because, what if I commit and fail?

And the same happened to this visual interest. What if I hit publish and nobody likes it? Better to move on to something else..

But no.

• Isolate the fear: I’m scared of people thinking this visual stuff is dumb

• Take action towards it: Hit post a few times, and see if it’s true

So I did, and this was the result:

I already felt more confident even before I got my first likes. It’s as if the doing itself doesn’t leave enough room for fear.

And now I’m close to 100 posts and my confidence has soared - I can now safely say that I’m the best visual creator ever in the world. No, joking obviously.

In my head, there will always remain room for that well-known imposter syndrome.

So yes, I’m more confident (I’m even asked to give an expert talk!), but there’s sooo much more I can and want to learn from some of the big guys (see below).

Nevertheless, I greatly enjoyed reading this chapter and will definitely continue to harness that action-power.

Let me know your thoughts by replying!

More visuals

This feels like a good time to recognize one of the real OGs of the visual community -

Janis Ozolins

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I’ve been following him since he started on Twitter back in the days and frankly, almost all my work should come with the caption of inspired by Janis as his journey has been foundational to what I’m currently doing.

And Janis has visualized the power of taking action very effectively over the last years.

A few favorites:

• Do it, even do it scared

• Action leads to belief

• Action & ambition

• Only action really counts

This is really only a minor sample of his amazing work, so take a look and show some love if you like it! ❤

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Useful quotes

Action cures fear. Indecision, postponement, on the other hand, fertilizes fear.

No one ever does anything worthwhile for which he is not criticized.

Any negative thought, if fertilized with repeated recall, can develop into a real monster.

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Reading status

We’re 3 chapters in, still got 10 more to go!

Follow along by getting the book by David J. Schwartz here.¹

• ✔ Ch 1. Believe You Can Succeed and You Will

• ✔ Ch 2. Cure Yourself of Excusitis, the Failure Disease (last week)

• ✔ Ch 3. Build Confidence and Destroy Fear (this week)

• Ch 4. How to Think Big (next week)

• Ch 5. How to Think and Dream Creatively

• Ch 6. You are What You Think You Are

• Ch 7. Manage Your Environment: Go First Class

• Ch 8. Make Your Attitudes Your Allies

• Ch 9. Think Right Toward People

• Ch 10. Get the Action Habit

• Ch 11. How to Turn Defeat into Victory

• Ch 12. Use Goals to Help you Grow

• Ch 13. How to Think like a Leader

1. I use an Amazon affiliate link. When you buy anything on Amazon using this link, you support my work without it costing you a penny. Win-win ❤