How To Gain Confidence

How to gain confidence? Ha! As if! Last time I checked, confidence comes from the inside. Not from the outside. But according to the some idiots in the corporate and media world, this is not the case.

Okay, so I'm not about to start being all preachy about how the media causes peeps to be all emo about their body image, turn to drug-use to satisfy their lives, and all that other stuff, because I think we all get enough of that already at school. Well, at least I do. For the last three years in Health, I've had to do countless projects and assignments on how the media affects our society. But enough about that, on with the post.

Aaaah! Time to be embarrassed >.< (if you're reading this and go to my school...do not harass me about this on Monday >.<) Okay, so I like to read self-help books, because 1) I LOOF psychology and 2) I'm always looking to improve my life. People who think that their life doesn't need any improving can think again, because there's always room to be better than what you already are.

Examples of the self-help books I've read! (not gonna name all of them...a lot of them are kinda embarrassing...)

• The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
• The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens
• The Six Biggest Mistakes You'll Ever Make
• The Secret
• The Secret to Teen Power
• The Law of Attraction made Plain and Simple
• The Success Principles for Teens

Those are all super good books, by the way! I also have books on world domination, but I'm not gonna give that title away. Otherwise, I shall have an enemy! :O

Anyway, in every single one of those books, the author increases your confidence levels by teaching you how to...well, be happy. Like in The Success Principles for Teens, the authors strongly encourages following your dreams and passions, and tells you 20 success principles that should help you accomplish them. In The Secret to Teen Power, it's all about The Law of Attraction, and how you can use it to improve relationships, money, health, education, and more. In The Seven Happy of Highly Effective Teens, the author teaches you how to have a less stressful life, and just be happier in general :)

By the way, I Lost The Game! XD

On the other hand, in this book I found buried somewhere in my Closet of Doom, the author has a different approach on gaining confidence. Forget following your passions and seeking a fulfilling life! Forget becoming a more responsible person and how to deal with stress better! Forget choosing to see the light in every setback that happens! No! The way to gain more confidence in yourself is to wear make up.

Yes, Make up.

In the book, a twelve year old girl asks the author during a question and answer session how she can gain more confidence. Her response is makeup. The author's response to a twelve year old girl asking how she can be happy, is makeup! If a twelve year old asked me that question, I would tell her that she's already awesome. You know, say all this positive stuff to get the vibes going, so the LOA starts attracting all this epic stuff to her. I mean, if you believe you're awesome, chances are; you are awesome. If you're convinced you're a piece of crap, chances are; you are a piece of crap! But the point is, would I think for one second to tell her to get a new wardrobe, get a new hair style, get a nose job, lather on the eyeshadow? No... I wouldn't. I would never think to say that, because that's not how you go about achieving confidence.

I'm sorry... I don't mean to sound preachy :(

I have a couple more examples of the media ruining lives, but I'm only gonna mention one more of them, because when posts get too long, nobody reads 'em.

Okay, so what kind of music do you listen to? Country, rock, pop, rap, or...? I used to enjoy listening to those new songs everyone seems to be listening to. You know. The ones by Brittany Spears (eewww! I hate her, though!), Lady Gaga, Rhianna, Beyonce, Bruno Mars, and Pitbull? I really liked the beat of the songs, and since I took hip-hop, it made sense to listen to that kind of music (please note the singers just mentioned don't sing REAL hiphop music, except for maybe Pitbull). However, last year I began to listen to the lyrics of the songs. Like, REALLY listen. And wow-flipping-wow, I can't believe the kind of words that were streaming through my ears! It was bruuuuuuutal! :o All the singers ever sing about is drugs, alcohol, and sex :S

Umm...okay? We understand that you enjoy smoking your weed, but that doesn't mean you have to sing about it. I love Spider Man. That doesn't mean I sing about...oh wait. Never mind.

Okay, if you like listening to that kind of music, the ones with the drugs and the sex and the swearing...cool. My opinion of you is not degraded whatsoever. But I firmly believe that this is subconsciously corroding people's brains -_- Not to sound like one of those moms who would kill the creators of Call of Duty if they could, or anything.

Hooray! I finally did a not-so-long post :P

QUESTIONS FOR READERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Has the media affected you? (positively and negatively)
• how do you think one goes about gaining confidence?
• What kind of music do you listen to?
• Have you ever milked a cow?
• other comments... :)