Got Confidence?
Hey, I want to share this blog from my dear friend and hypnotherapist, Sean Wheeler. His stories are so down to earth and relatable! He is cool with me sharing with YOU. I hope you enjoy!
For more information on Sean, you will find him on the Resource page and at www.purehypnosis.com
Be A Miracle.
Much Love,
Kathy
Here's Sean Wheeler!
Hi there. Hope your week is going well.
Quick question: do you have confidence in yourself?
Every week, clients come into my office, sit across from me in my fancy zero-gravity chair and tell me what they want.
Quite often, they say that they'd like to have more confidence.
And so I ask them, "Well, do you know what confidence actually is?"
I mean, if you know you want something, you should at least know what the heck it is, right?
But people are often at a loss to describe it.
"Well, I'd like to feel more confident."
"Okay," I'll say, "are you confident that you can safely drive your car home after your appointment today?"
"Of course," they'll say.
"And what makes you so confident about that?" I'll ask.
"Well, because of done it before."
That's right.
So here's the secret: confidence comes from memories of competence.
Now, maybe there's something you'd like to do, but you don't feel very confident you'll be successful.
Maybe you've never actually done that thing before.
So how to you get the feeling of confidence without having memories of doing it competently?
Let me tell you a quick story...
Many years ago, I was asked to host an event at Atlanta's famous Fox Theatre.
In front of roughly 3,000 people.
Famous musicians were performing that night.
I'd been asked to do this because I had experience as an improv actor and comedian.
And although I'd never been on a stage quite that big, I immediately said yes.
And on the night of the show, it was going very well.
When my part in the show ended, I said goodbye to the audience and walked off the stage.
I was on my way to the dressing room when the stage manager grabbed me and told me that the director (on his headset) said he needed me to go out there and do five more minutes.
"No problem," I said. "I'll just go do more of what I was doing."
"No," said the guy with the headset, "The marching band is about to come down the aisles, so we need the audience to stay in their seats."
(I'd been walking through the aisles and playing games with the audience all night.)
"And... we need you to go out there right now."
And just like in the movies, he hands me the microphone and literally shoves me through the curtain and onto the stage.
Imagine walking onto the stage at the Famous Fox Theatre, in front of 3,000 people, and having this thought:
"What the hell am I going to do?"
But within a split second of having that thought, I had another.
It was actually a thought accompanied by a picture that flashed through my mind.
The picture was a memory of the view from my old improv stage, where I'd performed in hundreds of shows.
The thought that accompanied it was quite simple:
"I can do this."
And to this day, I can't remember exactly what the hell I said or did next, but at a certain point, I once again said goodbye to the audience and walked off the stage.
As I handed the microphone to the guy in the headset, his jaw dropped.
"What?" I asked.
"That was exactly five minutes," he replied.
Funny. I wasn't counting.
You see, while I'd never before been on a stage that big, I had been on smaller stages, hundreds of times.
Although I'd never been asked to do what I did that night, I had done many similar things.
And what allowed me to remain confident on that stage was a simple yet powerful memory of competence.
Here's the thing: you have a ton of knowledge and experience that you forget about every day.
What's just as important as what you know is what you remember.
Hypnosis is one way of creating a mindset that ensures you'll remember the right information at the right time.
And when that happens, you discover that you're capable of far more than you ever imagined.
Sean
Original Post: 3.25.2021
Kathy Mullen
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