There are 2 things that scare me in life. Firstly sharks, and secondly when I am not near the water or swimming, the thing in this world that scares me the most is heights.

I cannot handle being high off the ground, especially if the platform that I am standing on is unstable. Recently at our home we built a new outdoor area. Some friends and I, one who happens to be a carpenter built the frame and put the roof on top. Now of course building a roof over an outdoor area requires one to be off the ground, so of course I was forced to face one of my biggest fears.

I guess it does sound a little bit strange but even the thought of being on a ladder right now gives me the shivers. Really it doesn’t matter how high I am, it is all about the platform that I am standing on and how stable that is. Standing on my old ladder balancing a piece of timber, trying to hammer or even using a paintbrush did not go down too well. The interesting thing about it is at the beginning of the day, moving up and down the ladder was very slow. Walking around on the frame, I was very cautious and took my time working my way around the heights. By the end of the day I was confidently climbing a ladder with both hands full of tools and walking around standing up on top of the frame without any fear of falling.

When I thought about this I realized that the experience that I had gained through out the day took away my fear and made me confident. I guess you can say that confidence comes from actions, and in this case from repetitive actions.

If there is something that is causing you fear, or leaves you feeling less that confident about a situation, the way to build confidence is to repeat the action over and over again. In my case climbing up and down the ladder scores of times a day gave me confidence. While it sounds very simple it’s a great rule of life to live by. Action creates confidence.