In our pre-proficiency class we have been talking about "success". Julia has written about how she pushes herself to reach her goals.

MAKING THE MOST OUT OF YOURSELF

I’ve always been aware of my capabilities, and ever since I can remember I’ve reached whatever I wanted to, pushing myself to the limit and working for my goals and dreams. Although this sounds quite good, there is a lot of effort involved, and it isn’t always as easy as it seems, or as we would like it to be.

I feel that right where I am at now I’ve already managed to make the most of myself, but I have to keep going to maintain it, or I’ll lose everything I’ve gained before. I don’t really have any technique to keep me accountable or any significant goal which keeps me motivated, it’s more of a thing I have and I carry with me. I call it the “hard working woman mood”, and I’m honestly really happy to have this in my personality, even though it sometimes even annoys me. This doesn’t have anything to do with an improvement in my confidence at all, but it does contribute to it in an indirect way.

When you say to yourself that you are capable of everything, keeping in mind that it takes time for things to happen and to change, you are forcing your mind to look further, to give the most and best of yourself during a prolonged period of time. What I think is indispensable is to notice your evolution and improvement, and to embrace the little steps that get you closer to your achievements. This really does boost up your confidence, because it’s like a reward for all your previous work. It’s this satisfying feeling that I hope everybody has experienced at least once in their lifetimes, and that also pushes you to keep going.

You have to learn to trick your mind and to believe in yourself, and when you do that, there will be nothing that prevents you from growing out of yourself and shining.