People of all ages, I dare you to start displaying your confidence starting in 2017 (now) to the end of your time. As Tony Robbins (businessman, author, and philanthropist) states “Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives.” Meaning that you have the capability to take what happens in your life, mold it, and turn that experience into something that will either lessen your confidence or take it to grow and go beyond what you were. As I have been studying over the past few years through communications courses and a magnificent high school/college experience, confidence is acquired in various ways; however, I will be going over four ways to reaching the maximum potential of confidence.

1. Never Be Afraid!

By afraid, I am meaning that a good handful of people are afraid to speak their minds and express themselves. The same goes for controversial issues, people generally do not tackle the controversial issues anymore, but instead, put them off for future generations to take care of. How many times have you heard, "Oh well why not wait to take care of this issue, let us put our focus elsewhere?" NO! The time is now people. When you are letting those people tell you to wait about confronting an issue, they really want you to forget about it so a bad name is not being put out. I have turned into one of those people that when I see an issue with anything going on around me, I am going to do my research and send/go to the office personally and ask what/why is this going on. The idea should mainly be practiced with politics because politicians are just as human as the citizens. Honestly, they don't know if there is a major issue with the community, school, recreation, etc. unless the issue is addressed directly.

2. Communication

Be confident in your daily speech. Avoid filler words and please do not talk in the form of asking a question when you are actually declaring something. Making your statements sound like questions just display you to look as if you do not know what you are saying. Another thing is to be sure to keep eye contact. Personally, I find myself on my iPhone more and more leading my eye contact in personal conversations to lessen. Less eye contact makes the conversation less personal and almost like you are afraid to talk to people to their face. My last tip under communication is stop saying "I think" or "I believe". If you truly know what is happening just state what it is in confidence. For example, "I think we had a good economic standing last year." No! If you know that you were in good standing, state, "We were in good economic standing last year."

3. Act Confident

Have you ever heard the phrase "Fake it till you make it?" Well if you have, I want you to start saying this phrase instead, "Fake it till you become it!" Trust me that is more accurate than making it to the finish. When I have the mentality of faking till the end, I lose confidence in my ability to do a task or being happy, but if I fake it till I become it? I will turn into what I was faking the entire time into a task I will enjoy. Sometimes we are not happy with the project assigned in a club/organization, but you fake it just enough until you hope for it to be finished. Well, what's the fun in that? None. If you fake it and have the mindset to like it, you will start to enjoy the project a lot more. Plus, tap into your creative side and make the assignment more interesting.

4. Dress For Success

Dress in attire you feel confident. Wearing sweatpants can make you feel sloth-like and less confident in speaking. Something about dressing nice and being well groomed manipulates a person's brain to thinking they are on top of the world. Personally, when I wear nice clothing or jeans and a nice shirt, the way I present myself is high. Mainly, it's due to the fact that when you look pretty/handsome, you are more trusting in how you will act upon the day.

Confidence is a major key to being successful in any aspect of your life. The four points are crucial for the future as we continue to become more emerged into social media. If I could go back in my life and take back anything I said or wrote, I would not, because I stated what I said to prove a point or spark some form of realization. Now, my goals are to generally go after larger groups even though I am realistically meaning around half to the minority of a group. I do that, so everyone realizes what is going on and not just one person. This pushes for some form of change within yourself and the others around hopefully in a good way. The confidence to say something can result in a negative path for the opposing side, but that should not stop you from stating your beliefs. Remember that faking till you become it will benefit your overall outcome of the situation and communicating with confidence will make you appear stronger. Last but not least, don't dress to impress but dress for success for yourself.