Up until I got into the university and started living by myself, I didn’t know how important having self confidence was. I had to learn the hard way after it became obvious to me that if I didn’t build up my self confidence, people will walk on me like I was trash because I won’t be able to say or do anything due to the lack of confidence.
I remember back in the days, my dad would complain bitterly about how he hated the fact that I was scared to interact with people. And this wasn’t because I was introverted or anything like that. I enjoyed playing with my friends and talk to people I know but talking to strangers or someone I know but haven’t really spoken to before scared the hell out of me.
One time my dad had asked me to go borrow a hymn book from someone down the street because he was documenting something and was trying to remember a hymn. I remember taking forever to get to their house because I was thinking of how I was going to go through with the whole thing.
I remember standing at their gate for nothing less than ten minutes, doing nothing other than thinking about how I was going to knock and asked for their hymn book. The errand was a difficult one for me because this was the first time my dad was asking me to go collect something from this people, prior to that time, I didn’t even know he was friends with them.
I had later found out that my dad had been sending me on errands like that on purpose because he was trying to boost up my self confidence and trust me, it worked.
Although it didn’t cure the whole thing but it started the process and then I completed it myself after I would continuously hate myself for not saying things at the appropriate time I should have said it. I remember telling myself one day that enough was enough and I wasn’t going to live like this anymore, I am a man and must act like one and up till this day, that was the best decision I’ve ever taken because right now, I’m the one working so hard to boost my friends self confidence because I’ve come to hate it when I see people who lack self confidence because they remind me of who I used to be and I hate being reminded of that.