*Quick background: I am a music education major and wish to teach middle school or high school band. This major requires almost 160 credits to complete and is very intense. Along with education classes I must “master” my instrument, which is flute and piccolo. This requires many performances each year, chamber groups, and private lessons.*
One of the many reasons I really wanted to travel abroad was to build up my self confidence. Confidence really is key; especially in the major I’m studying. In order to be a good performer you MUST have some amount of confidence in your abilities. This seems simple right? Be confident, perform well. The problem is, I can tell myself that all day long and I will still lack confidence in my abilities.
Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we continually question whether or not we can overcome something when we have overcome the same situation before? We put ourselves through stress and anxiety only to realize we made it through-just like we’ve made it through every other hardship in our lives.
How then do you gain this confidence? This question has been on my mind for years. It is CRUCIAL to have positive self talk before a performance. If you envision a negative outcome, it will happen the way you envision it.
Knowing ALL of this, why then do I still lack confidence in myself at times? Why then do I look at the negative and forget how far I’ve come? I can’t really answer these questions. But I can tell you that I’ve been looking for a solution and I may have found one.
I call it the Viennese mask (sorry it’s cheesy but it works in my mind). Today I was traveling by myself on the U-bahn (subway), which I’m very proud of! Because I didn’t have wifi to stare at my phone the entire time, I just sort of looked around at the people traveling with me. Each person seemed to have the same expression; tough and confident. I know that it’s not possible for an entire population of people to always feel as if they are tough and confident but that’s how it appeared, to me anyway. I’ve always kind of known what I’m about to say, but it really hit home today.
The first step in believing in yourself is to appear to believe in yourself. Before you know it, you won't only appear to have confidence but you’ll believe it too. I guess this is common sense but then again, if it were, everyone would have confidence in themselves right?
Constantly pushing myself out of my comfort zone has definitely helped as well. It’s good to have an arsenal of accomplishments in case you're having a bad day and think you're life is falling down around you (those days are usually good days to grab your cat, watch movies, and not leave your house).
Anyway, I hope to achieve this Viennese mask and eventually just become a strong, confident woman who believes she can do anything without worrying about it first! :) If you have any advice on confidence please leave a comment!! I’d love to hear strategies that work for you!