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Gaining confidence Many of you are getting ready to return to school over the next few days. If this is your first return after many years, you're probably feeling apprehensive, wondering whether you'll really be able to do this. I know, I've been there, too. I'd like to share a small story that helped me get through those first few weeks. It wasn't until I was 9 that I finally had an opportunity to learn to swim. I really thought I wanted to do it. Yet when I got to the pool I was paralyzed with fear. I stood in the water up to my waist – that's it – just stood there. For a full two weeks, my instructor tried everything to get me to trust – the water, her help, and, most important, myself – enough to float. No matter how many times she showed me that she could do it, and that my camp mates could do it, without sinking to the bottom, I just didn't believe I could do it, too. No amount of cajoling helped. In fact, the longer this went on the more fearful I seemed to become. Finally I knew I either had to get completely in the water or quit and go home defeated. So I did it. Nothing terrible happened. I didn't sink, I didn't drown, I wasn't even scared anymore. Here I was at camp for only a month and it took me fully half that time just to put my face in the water! In the second half of my stay, I finally started learning how to swim. And despite the slow start, I learned well enough to compete on the local swim team a few years later. When I returned to school years later, the memory of those camp days helped me stick it out. I learned that the hardest part of getting started is…getting started! No one can tell you how. No one can show you. Some people take to the water like a duck. But if you don't, don't get discouraged. Give it time. With each step, no matter how small, you're getting closer to your goal. And with each small victory, your confidence will increase. You'll begin to trust yourself enough to know that if things aren't going the way you expect, it's not a personal failure. You may be in the wrong program. If so, you can find another. What makes a program right? 09/04/01 TOP |
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