Having a lot of different experiences gives you knowledge as well. You can’t learn the truth just from reading textbooks and Internet. So, try to experience many different things.
Don’t be afraid of having experiences or of failing or making a mistake. Failing and making mistakes is better than worrying too much about it and not doing anything. 

Make sure you don’t compare yourself with other people, because if you do, when you see someone better than you, you lose your confidence straight way. Compare yourself to your past.

You have to be careful what you think about things, what you say too. This is a lot to do with your subconscious mind. 
When you try to do something, you shouldn’t think or use these words such as “ I can’t, that’s too hard, impossible, I feel no good, I’m too tired, etc “.
Your subconscious mind is the closest one to listen to those words, so you are making yourself weak by using those words. 
You also shouldn’t criticise people. You may feel good just after you criticise someone, because that makes you feel you are better than someone.
Your subconscious mind can’t tell if you criticised yourself or someone else, so you will lose confidence afterwards.  
You should always use these words instead “ I can do it!! , That’s easy!! , I feel so good!! , I got so much energy and power!! “ 
Say those words with your head up and back straight. 

You don’t have to be elegant or pretend to be tough. The real confident people don’t have to do that. 
They are so natural, they don’t need to put on an act of confidence it comes from deep inside, from their experience and mindset. 

                
Confidence can be strengthened by many different experiences and your mindset.
These are a few different experiences that helped me build my confidence, so I think they will help you too.

1, Experience of repetition over and over

If you have the experience of doing the same thing a lot of times and you get so used to doing that, you become more confident.
For Martial Arts training, repetition of practicing the techniques over and over everyday, and then having the experience of competitions over and over gives you confidence.

2, Experience of passing small goals and success

Confidence means believing in yourself, right?
What kind of people you believe or trust?
I probably believe and trust people who don’t lie and when they say they will do something then they actually do it.
To be able to believe in yourself is the same.
When you decide to do something, you have to really start, and promise to yourself that you will keep doing it and never give up.
For example, if you decide to go to the gym everyday or study something everyday, make sure you really start doing it and keep going.
Decide to do something → Take action → Keep going. Having that experience lots of times, then you get confidence.
If you are always giving up and not confident in yourself, you may possibly be in a bad cycle of trying too hard → giving up → self-image goes down → lose confidence.
Don’t worry, that might not be your fault.  You just didn’t know how to make an achievable goal and mindset.

3, The experience of getting through the hardships and obstacles

When I look back, a long time ago.  I think I got confident in myself by having the experience of going over every obstacle or going through the hard fights and not giving up.  Winning or losing, doesn’t matter as long as you try your best and don’t give up, you will get confidence.
Your attitude is important when you face to the hardships and obstacles.
Do you smash the obstacles or get smashed by the obstacles?

Keep focus on your goals when you hit the obstacles, and don’t focus too much on the obstacles.

You have to remember that whatever you do, obstacles will always come up. You may think, that would be fun, easy or smooth to do, but when the obstacles appear, you can only see them, and forget about your goals.

If the obstacles are easy to get over or there are just one or two, that is not too bad, but usually they will come one after another just like an obstacle race.

When that happens, you may feel that its too hard or you have no time for that, then your motivation goes down, and you start finding excuses not to do it, and then give up on your goals.

There are no goals without obstacles.

Your journey won’t be a straight way, there could be a lot of sharp curves, and sometimes u-turns, and the obstacles are just processing points you have to get over.

For Martial Arts training, obstacles could be injuries, not winning competitions or too busy or your lazy mind. These don’t just happen to you. They happen to everyone, you or me, world champion’s even very successful people.

I think the difference between people who achieves their goals successfully and people who don’t, is that they are always focusing on their goals with passion and they know the obstacles will give them improvement.

When you hit the obstacles, keep focusing on your goals, so you can find a way, and think that will be a good opportunity to improve yourself.

People tend to think that bad times last forever, but there is no everlasting night, and it’s always darkest before the dawn.

Keep looking at your goals, and instead of trying to make the obstacles smaller, try to make yourself a bigger person to smash the obstacles!!

There are a few different positive mind skills I learnt from Martial Arts training and fighting.

If you think about things positively, your mind stays happy, relaxed and calm, which attracts more positive situations.

If you keep visualizing about your goals, results and future, positively, your subconscious mind will try to find them and you keep going towards those goals, results and future automatically like a guided missile.

But you have to remember that you must make an effort. If you want results, always use this formula, Cause → Effect. Just thinking doesn’t change anything.

Sometimes your effort doesn’t cause results straight way but you are definitely getting closer to your goal. There are no wasted efforts.

Another important thing you have to remember is to prepare for the worst situations or scenarios in your mind. When your subconscious mind stays positive, small things won’t affect you much, but if the worst situation comes up, and your mind is not prepared for it, you panic and can’t control the situation.

From my experience of fighting, Most times fights don’t go as you had planned. When you find yourself in a bad situation and you are not prepared for it, you lose control of the situation and most likely give up and lose the fight.

Our life is very similar. It doesn’t go as we planned sometimes, and there are a lot of obstacles in our life, but we should still stay positive and always make 100% effort, try our best, and then we will definitely reach our destination.   

Breathing exercises are very good for your body and mind.

You can get a few different benefits from doing this breathing method.

Because of using your abdominals to do this, a lot of muscles around your core area work. You will feel your core muscles getting tired when you are doing this.

It’s a good exercise to develop your core strength.

Controlled, slow, and deep breathing takes maximum air (oxygen) into your body and brain, so it makes your body and brain function work at their best.

It’s known that this kind of breathing can make a hormone called serotonin work better in the brain, so it promotes a feeling of calm and relaxation.

I usually do this first in the morning when the sun is coming up and take in the morning sun.

This is originally from ZEN monk’s meditation. They believed that deep breathing and morning sun could prevent and heal any kind of sickness. That could be true, because I haven’t been sick for about 10 years since I started this morning ritual. Hear birds singing, insects, wind, and feel nature make you feel good too.

You don’t have to do this for long time. Try to take 5 slow and deep breaths using your abdominals for 1 minute. After a couple of minutes doing this, you will feel so good!!  

This year is nearly finished and the New Year is coming soon. Has everyone achieved their goals for this year and made new goals for the next year?

When you make your goals, don’t make them too big. Make sure your goals are achievable. Even make smaller goals for every month, and then think about what actions you need to take towards those goals, and after that just focus on the actions. Enjoy your daily tasks and improvements.

Promise to yourself that you will keep doing the tasks and try to achieve those small goals every month.
Reward yourself each time you pass the small goals, so your subconscious mind thinks “that’s great to pass the goals!!“ then it becomes less of an effort. You will become more confident towards your ultimate goal if you keep the promise to yourself and pass those small goals. 
Successful experiences give you more confidence. 

Usually, that action becomes habit after 3 months, so it will take less effort, and confidence will increase after 6 months.

The most important thing is you take action and don’t stop. Most people want to start doing something but they never take action. Even if they start, they don’t keep going and give up easily, and forget about their goals.
“Our greatest weakness is giving up.” “Many of life’s failures are people who didn’t realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Thomas Edison.
” Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success. They quit on the one-yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game, one foot from a winning touchdown." Ross Perot

Write down your goals and what actions you need to take on paper, then keep looking at that and reminding yourself.

Visualise yourself after you have achieved your ultimate goal, so you can look forward to that moment all time. 

If you want a little bit of pressure, feel free to use this facebook page and write down your goals and action you will take. Announcing to other people gives you some pressure but can also encourage each other.
Let’s achieve our goals together. 

“Persistence is power!! Winners never give up!!”

Life is short and you only have one chance,

Are you living your life with passion?
You were born into this world to improve your potential and to accomplish or achieve something. 

Not to have a boring life with no passion or excitement or a lazy life style. Don’t wast your time on un-resourceful things. 
Time is limited, there are only 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, if you have that about 80 times then your life ends. Watching TV for 1 hour, or training hard for 1 hour and trying to improve yourself are both the same hour. 

When you are training, give 100% focus and try your hardest or if you just go through the motions and wast time its still the same hour but that makes a big difference after 1 year, 3 years, 5 years time.

This moment right now is only once, so try your best and give 100% effort every day, every moment of your life.

Make your life with no regret. Japanese greatest SAMURAI “MUSASHI” said, “Don’t have regrets about what you have done”. This means you have to try things that you want to do; otherwise you will regret it later if you didn’t. 

Once you have tried and failed or did not get what you wanted, at least you have learned something from that experience, keep trying instead of having regrets. 
I have heard that many people, as they grow older and their lives are nearing the end, they regret they didn’t do something they had really wanted to do, accomplish or achieve. Which do you prefer? Just before your life ends, do you want to think, “I wanted to do so many things, but I didn’t achieve anything I wanted to”, or “I tried everything to the best of my ability and achieved lots of great things, so I have no regrets with my life”.

Remember, life is very short and only once.
Don’t wait until next week to start something. That then becomes next month, then next year. If you wait, you will never start.
Start moving right now!!

You can’t leave your mind in one place in fighting.

For example, if you know your opponent has a very strong right uppercut and you think or worry too much about his right uppercut, he may get you with a left hook or a kick or even a double leg tackle. If you have in your mind one strategy and that doesn’t work, you will panic.

Keep an open mind and manipulate what comes.

You have to aim and expect the best you can do but prepare for the worst scenario too.

This is not only for a fighting mindset but also for our everyday life.

If you worry too much about one small thing, other things will go wrong too. If you obsess over one mistake you have already made, you can’t concentrate on what you are doing now, and you make more mistakes.

You have to live in the present moment and focus on what you are doing now.

Keep an open mind, which is unwavering and not being confined by anything.