Oct 20

What Happens When You Focus on Your Mistakes?

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Welcome to another edition of Unshakable, Unbreakable, Unstoppable Stories with Bonnie Jean.

Have you ever tried NOT to make a mistake but ended up making that mistake anyway?

I have. Lots of times. Way before I learned how to be an unshakable, unbreakable, unstoppable Dream Doer.

When I was growing up, I was very good at telling myself NOT to make mistakes. For instance, I remember an all-star softball tournament I was playing in one year when I was about 12 or 13.

It was the championship game, and we were up by one in the last inning. I was playing first base, and the other team had the bases loaded. But we had two outs on them. All we had to do was get one more out, and we would win the state tournament.

As the pitcher got ready to pitch, I bent down and got ready to catch the ball if she hit it to me. But all I could think was, “don’t miss it, don’t miss it, don’t miss it.”

The pitcher pitched the ball.

The batter hit it.

Right to me.

An easy ground ball.

As I watched the ball roll toward me, I kept thinking, “don’t miss it, don’t miss it, don’t miss it.”

Can you guess what happened?

That’s right.

I missed the ball.

It went right through my legs.

Two runs scored.

We lost the game and the championship.

The other team celebrated.

I cried.

You see, the more I told myself not to miss the ball, the more I hurt my confidence. Instead of being confident in the fact that I could catch the ball, I trained myself to be confident that I couldn’t.

Please learn from my mistake. If you want to boost your confidence, be positive. Train yourself to think of what you CAN do instead of what you CAN’T do.

To this day, I wonder what would have happened if I had said to myself “catch the ball, catch the ball, catch the ball.”

So how can you boost your confidence today? Think of something negative you’ve been telling yourself, then turn it into a positive. Focus on the positive point of view, and your confidence will begin to soar.

To Your Dreams,
Bonnie Jean

P.S. Please don’t wait as long as I did to find your unshakable confidence! No matter how old you are, you can be an unshakable, unbreakable, unstoppable Dream Doer today! To help, I want to give you three FREE gifts, which includes the entire audio book of The Dream Doers and the Summer of Secrets. To claim your FREE gifts, visit TheDreamDoers.com now.

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Oct 06

Is Your Confidence As Shaky as Mine Was?

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Welcome to another edition of Unshakable, Unbreakable, Unstoppable Stories with Bonnie Jean.

As a kid in middle school and high school, I wasn’t popular. I wasn’t super-smart. I wasn’t a good singer. I didn’t know how to play any kind of musical instrument. I was too timid to try acting in any high school plays. So I really wanted to be great at sports. Especially softball, volleyball and basketball.

I’d been playing softball since I was old enough to hit the ball off a tee. Then when I got to high school, I played volleyball and basketball.

I loved the competition. I loved working hard and learning new skills or improving the skills I already had. I loved being part of a team and being fit.

What I really wanted was to be a super-star. I wanted to be the best spiker on the volleyball court. I wanted to be the top scorer on the basketball court. I wanted to the top home run hitter on the softball field and the best strikeout pitcher on the mound.

Only I didn’t have the talent I needed to be any of those things. In volleyball, I was a setter. I set the ball to my teammates so they could spike it and get all the glory.

In basketball, I had a great offensive night if I scored two points and only got playing time because I could play decent defense.

In softball, I hit one over-the-fence home run in all the years I played. I mostly got base hits and the occasional double. As for pitching, I never threw very hard and had to rely on throwing different pitches to keep the batters off balance. Which meant I never struck out a whole lot of batters.

See, I was an average athlete with an average amount of talent. I was good enough to be good but not good enough to be great.

If I had understood my role on each of the teams I played on and focused on becoming great at my role, I would have had much more success and helped my teams be more successful.

Instead, I destroyed my self-confidence by comparing myself to my teammates. I was never as good as Sue in volleyball, Sarah in basketball and Mary in softball. (Not their real names, but there was at least one girl on every team who was better than me.)

But I wanted to have the talent that they had. I wanted to be as good as they were. I wanted my coaches and the fans to notice me the way they noticed the teammates who were better than me.

Only I was so focused on what talent I didn’t have that I didn’t maximize the talent that I did have.

Don’t make the same mistake I did. Don’t miss out on how great you are by comparing yourself to people with different kinds and levels of talent.

Find out what you’re great at, then challenge yourself to become better and better at that one thing. That’s how you develop and build your unshakable confidence.

To Your Dreams,
Bonnie Jean

P.S. Please don’t wait as long as I did to find your unshakable confidence! Life is really much more fun when you set goals and take action to make them happen. No matter how old you are, you can be an unshakable, unbreakable, unstoppable Dream Doer today! To help, I want to give you three FREE gifts, which includes the entire audio book of The Dream Doers and the Summer of Secrets. To claim your FREE gifts, visit TheDreamDoers.com now.

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