7 Rules of Confidence, By Christina Greve

7/29/2019 7 Rules of Confidence, By Christina Greve

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Rules of Confidence

7An encouraging no-nonsense guide for photographers and creative souls.

Let go of who you think youre supposed to be, overcome the

comparison trap, and embrace a new confident + creative you.

By Christina Greve

freeguide


2/21

Imagine waking up in the morning, feeling confident and energized, with a mind full of creative

ideas. You have those happy butterflies in your stomach because you just cant wait to get

started. You have no fear of failing, only confidence that whatever you do today, it will be a

wonderful experienceperhaps youll create an outstanding image for your portfolio or youll

learn from experimenting.

Imagine if you let go of harsh self critique, the bad habit of comparing yourself with others and

the fear of failing: your world will change dramatically because of it.

I personally guarantee that if you lack self confidence you can change this and turn yourself into

a rock solid, powerful, confident younot arrogant or ignorant just someone who loves

herrself and is proud to be herself: 100% true to your hearts desires.

There are so many steps you can take to build your confidence, and in this guide Ill share the 7

key strategies to develop the mindset that helped me as well as many of my clients.

Imagine

This guide is 100% FREE!

It is my gift to you. If you like it, feel

free to share it with friends and family.


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Self-confidence is a state of mind

Self confidence is our own attitude towards ourselves, our belief in what we are capable of. It is

our perceived certainty that we have what it takes. We express it in our body-language, in what

we say, in how we say it and how we handle any given situation.

Confidence is also connected to our self-esteem, which is our self-image and determines how

much we value ourselves. Improving self-confidence usually improvesour self-image as well,

and to succeed as an artist and photographer we need to develop both.

Every moment of every day,

you decide who you are and what to believe!

You get a second chance every second!

State of Mind


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Confidence

Why do you need confidence?

As an artist and photographer, confidence is needed to involve your emotions and your self

into your art and your images.

Its important to believe in yourself enough to:

$ enjoy the sometimes lonesome journey of artistic creation

handle times when inspiration is lacking

navigate any technical difficulties

ignore your insecurities about the quality of your own work

sufficiently and fairly price your work and your time

stop comparing yourself to others

share your images on a website, Flickr, Facebook or other social medium

show your work to potential clients, buyers, friends and art galleries

receive and grow from any comment or criticism you may receive

sell yourself to make a living out of your craft + passion

Believing in yourself is simply the fastest way to succeed as an artist.


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The 7 Rules of Confidence

1. You are not your past.

2. Know what drains your self confidence.

3. Stop comparing yourself to others.

4. Challenge Yourself.

5. Dont give a sh*t what others think.

6. Screw perfection, be playful.

7. Get off your (cute) butt and take action.

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning,

but anyone can start today and make a new

ending.

- Maria Robinson

Lets look at how you can start building your self confidence right now.


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Rule no.1

You are not your past

Regardless of how you view yourself, regardless of your past experiences, regardless of your

personal storyyou can start to grow your self confidence today!

If you lack confidence, chances are that you spend too much time looking back at your past

and looking for both proof and evidence that you are a person who lacks confidence. Your mind

turns into a movie player that plays your bad memories over and over againand the

messages is clear; we all have those stories from our past where we failed, looked stupid, did

something that made us look foolish, got rejected, picked on, forgottenand maybe someone

even laughed at something we were proud of!

The more you keep returning to those memories, the more confidence you will lack. Therefore,

its absolutely crucial that you make a decision right here, right now: not to live in the past

anymore. The past is gone and the past does not in any way determine how your future looks.

YOU decide right at this moment how you want be.

Know that you are not your past, and every second, every day, you can make a new decision

about who you want to be and how you want to live. Its as simple as that. Your past is a part of

you: you learned some valuable lessons, but your past does not define who you are.

Dont build your self image on

past negative experiences. Build

it on your dreams for the future!

- Christina Greve


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Know what drains your self confidence

Lets compare your self confidence with a battery. Sometimes our self confidence battery is

fully charged and provides lots of energy and great ideas. When its fully charged, things are

great. You can smile at challenges. You can laugh at yourself and be easily present in the

moment. You can care for others and still have enough energy left for yourself. You feel more

brave, make goals and take big steps towards your dreams.

But then, sometimes the battery only runs on a half-charge or gets burned out completely. I

bet you remember times when you felt your creativity was low or gone? During these times

you probably felt completely unsuccessful as an artist and a photographer.

Its important to understand that even the most confident woman can, if shes not careful, find

herself in a state of feeling unworthy and lacking confidence. Confidence is not a constant

state, but a state of mind that you consciously need to work on, on a daily basis.

Many things can drain your self-confidence battery: stress, lack of sleep, negative thinking,

impossible schedules, life challenges, difficult decisions, procrastination, too many chores,

too much unhealthy food and lack of exercise...to name a few. To feel confident you need to

take care of yourself and be mindful of what drains your confidence.

Rule no.2


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Of course, some of what I mention above is okay once in a while and in small doses. But the

longer you are in danger of draining your inner battery - youll eat up your confidence in the

end. So be aware of the foundation.

You develop real

self-confidence

as an artist by knowingyourself,

following your heart and being

100% true to your inner self.

Follow your gut instinctas one of your

highest valuesand never compromise on it


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Rule no.3

Stop comparing yourself to others

If you took the strength of others, and compared them to your weaknesses, how do you think

youd size up? And do you think this would make you feel good? The funny thing is, this is what

most of us do at one time or anotherand some of us do pretty often. Its a sure-fire recipe for a

drop in self-confidence and for unhappiness. Its also not useful for the development of your

creativity.

When you compare yourself with another photographer or artist it can kill your creativity, your

energy and bring down your self esteemnot always of course but sometimes. Perhaps you

know the feeling? I certainly do.

If you are like me and most creative people in the world, you more than likely admire a few

people, and maybe even see them as better or more qualified than you, or as competition (if

theyre at the same level as you).

Comparing yourself to them does not encourage you (or me) to stretch our imagination and find

alternate sources of inspiration. Of course its great if they inspire you and make you glow with

passion and ideas, but if you feel terrible and "not good enough" then dont look at their work! Go

out and play and have fun instead, testing your own ideas to feel alive and creative.


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If you compare strength to strength, there will always be those who are better, and those who

are worse. Even if you do well in comparison with others, you may be artificially inflated from

this comparison. Its a short-lived ego boost if you win the comparison. Youll be easily knocked

down.

When our "inner critic voice wants to sabotage our passion and creativity by comparing itself

to another, it distracts us from our flow, our value and unique contribution. Thoughts like: I

suck they are so much better. I am a total failure. Look at where they areI should be

there, doing this or doing that and I am not good enoughI am a loser.. etc.. are like water

on your inner passion and fire, it simply kills creativity!

Photographers, especially women, struggle with comparison. So let's cut to the chase and put

it as simply as possible. Comparison kills the little positive seeds of inspiration growing inside

of you! Dont use comparison to bring yourself downyou are too unique! In fact, there is no

one on earth like you, so comparison is not worth spending time on anyway!

What really matters is that you dare to aim for the stars (go for all your crazy ideas and

dreams) and aim from your heart (be sure to create and photograph what you truly LOVE)

nothing else matters! Focus on being you and bringing YOU into your pictures. If you look to

much at others work, you will bring to much of their vision into your own work.

Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

They somehow already know what you truly want to

become. Everything else is secondary.- Steve Jobs

Courage


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Dont let fear stop you.

If you drop all your doubts, fears and

worries for a few hours, you will be absolutely

astounded at what you accomplish.

Do what you fear, and the fear will disappear.

Success comes to those who string together

the small accomplishments, one after another,

after another despite and because of their fear!


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Challenge YourselfFeel the fear and do it anyway

To be really proud of yourself and develop self-confidence you need to challenge yourself

from time to time. That means to get out of the comfort-zone.

The comfort-zone is a good thing because we feel safe there and its healthy for us to feel

safe, but its not in the comfort zone we grow the most and its not in the comfort zone we

develop confidence. To do that you need to step outside and put your pretty feet on

uncertain ground, so to speak.

It can be scary to follow your dreams because to do so, you often need to leave the safe

zone and do things that make you doubt yourself, that make your heart pump faster, that

make your hands sweaty.

But staying inside the comfort zone is the big enemy of any accomplishmentand tends

to have a negative impact on our confidence.

To fully LIVE and become confident the key is to feel the fear and then DO it anyway.

Successful people are often successful because of this. Despite their fear they keep

taking steps to reach their goals. They consciously move forward every day, little by

little.

Rule no.4


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Doing something that you know is good for you, even though you feel fear, will grow

your confidence fast. And the good thing is that the more you do what scares you,

the more it starts feeling easy and comforting.

Challenging yourself to higher standards. Dont live by standards of other people, you

are the only one that knows what is good enough for you. Above anything else, you

need to be true to yourself.

Take the risks involved to get to the next level by trusting that if you give all you can

that only good will result. Again, if you are really proud of yourself then you know you

are on the right track.

Fully Live


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Dont give a sh*t what others think

The thought of what other people think about you can hold you back in life and erase

your confidence. This might be the fastest way to lose faith in yourself If you care too

much about theiropinions.

Sometimes we dont take action because of fear of being judged by someone or people

in general. Strangely enough we fear being judged by people we dont know very well or

even want to know. How odd is that? When we have a connection with people and like

them, we fear their judgement much less.

Another funny thing is, those other people whose opinions you care so much about?

They dont have time to focus on you, because they are so busy caring about what

others might think of themperhaps even what YOU think of them!

The number one fear in humans is to be rejected, not being acceptedand that is the

reason why this takes up space in our minds. We are afraid to be left out and left alone.

This fear drives us to please others even when we hurt ourselves.

Rule no.5


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As photographers and artists we fear that no one will like our art, that someone will

think we lack talent or skills. We fear rejection and therefore tend to sit around waiting

for someone to discover us, waiting for someone to see our talent and come dragging

us out of our hiding place. But the fact is 99% of time it just t doesnt happen that way!

Thats why you need to say f**k it and proudly show off your skills and craft as the

creative human being you are.

Rejection and judgement will come your way, but for every one time you are rejected,

you will be accepted ten times or more. Focus on those who cheer you on and

support you. Forget the rest!

Life is too short to live in the shadow of others judgementand remember they feel

the need to judge only because they themselves lack confidence.

Confident people rarely feel a need to judge others, they are too busy living their life.

Be Proud


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Rule no.6

Screw perfection, be playful

Twenty years from nowyou will be more disappointed by the things that you didntdo than by the ones you diddo. Sothrow off the bowlines. Catch the trade winds inyour sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain

Never wait for your perfect creative mood to strikejust get to it and create it. Body

movement has a strong impact on the mind, therefore if you feel uninspired, dont sit

and wait for magic to happen.

Do something active. Some of my best ideas come when Im in the gym or while

running. The more you move the more your creative juices will flow, the stronger and

more confident youll feel.

The trick is not to aim for perfection, but to aim for creating. In other words; the final

result should not be your main focus - in stead focus on having fun while making your

art. Be playful, experiment, test new techniques and more. .

Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do

that, but the really great make you believe that you too can become great.

- Mark Twain


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The more you focus on the creative process and the joy of playing with ideas, the

better your end result will be. If you start out aiming for perfection, chances are that

youll be too hard on yourself, too negative and way too judgmental over your own

skills and ideasand then your confidence disappears in a heartbeat.

Allow yourself to be a little crazy, to do silly stuff, you dont have to explain yourself

to anyone. After all its your art, your style and your camera.

As you manage to let go of putting pressure on yourself to create perfect images,

creating wonderful images actually starts to get much easier. Its kind of funny

really. :-)

The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the

ones who do.- Steve Jobs

Be Playful


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When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is

and your life is just to live your life inside the world.

Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family

life, have fun, save a little money.

Thats a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you

discover one simple fact, and that is - everything around you that

you call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than

you.

And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your

own things that other people can use.

The minute that you understand that you can poke life - everything

change!

- Steve Jobs

Quote


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Rule no.7

Get off your (cute) butt and take action

Eighty percent of success is showing up. - Woody Allen

Confidence training is a lot like doing exercise: if you dont exercise, you dot get fit; the

more you work out the better shape youll find yourself in. Its exactly the same with your

confidence. You are the one who decides if youll be confident and you are the one who

decides how confident youll feel.

The best way to train your confidence is by doing the right thingfor yourself. This means

looking out for yourself by being your own best friend, allowing yourself to reach for your

dreams with integrity and setting healthy goals to improve your life.

A sense of accomplishment will obviously make you feel more confident. So quit

putting off those new creative ventures, whatever they may be.

The best way to move towards your dreams and grow your confidence is to focus at one

goal at a time. Then do something every day to move yourself closer to this goal. Just do

one thing everydaythats all it takes.


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For every action step you take, your confidence will rise. And when you finally reach

your goal, your self confidence and self esteem will blossom like never before.

Its fantastic, right?- Not only will you reach your goals, but youll feel confident, too!

Seems simple enough, right? So get out there and show them all what you are made

of and evolve into a newly confident you! You have nothing to lose and nowhere

to go but up.

You can write absolutely anything on a blank pageanything at all. Every time you

wake up, you face a blank page. No matter how much time you think youve wasted

or lost in life, it is never too late to make the very most of the moment you have

now.

Let go of the past. Life is yours to be lived now. You'll gain nothing by hiding from it.

Surround yourself with only the best people. Let go of the rest. Change doesn't

happen in the futureit happens right now by taking action in the present.

Your time is now!

Take a Step


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The End

About the author

Professional portrait photographer and life

coach Christina Greve celebrates, supportsand coaches photographers and creative

souls to create a career and life that they love.

Through her work behind the lensand during her workshops and coaching sessions

Christina has empowered hundreds of women to get behind the camera and create

their dream lives.

Christina is known for her elegant and dreamy photography style.Her portraits are

very much inspired by whimsical fashion, beauty and glamour.

As a self-taught photographer with a flair for entrepreneurship, Christina has

successfully built her business in only a few years.

On her popular blog(http://www.divasanddreamsblog.com), she shares helpful tips

and free tutorials for career, life and photography inspiration. You can also follow her

on her personal blog (http://www.christinagreve.com)

Check out her portfolio (http://christinagrevephotography.com/) or connect with her on

her Facebook page: Divas and Dreams (https://www.facebook.com/Divasanddreams).

Christina lives in Arhus, Denmark with her husband and three children.
http://www.christinagreve.com/https://www.facebook.com/Divasanddreamshttps://www.facebook.com/Divasanddreamshttp://christinagrevephotography.com/http://christinagrevephotography.com/http://www.christinagreve.com/http://www.christinagreve.com/http://www.divasanddreamsblog.com/http://www.divasanddreamsblog.com/

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7 Rules of Confidence, By Christina Greve