3 easy steps to increasing Self- Confidence

By Lori Hammond

Coach and Professional Hypnotist. Giving you simple tools to stop overwhelm and harness joyful forward momentum.

How do you feel when someone says "fake it till you make it"?

 

If you're like most people, it probably makes you cringe. 

 

If I had a dollar for every time someone told me...

 

"I just want to be my authentic self"

 

...I'd have a LOT of dollars. 💲😂💲

 

What if I told you that it’s impossible to fake something that's not authentically you?

 

Read this cheat sheet at your own risk. It might just shatter the illusion of who you think you are (in a good way).

 

I'm going to give you 3 facts that prove "fake it till you make it" is impossible...

 

Then I'm going to teach you The Avatar Protocol that lets you CREATE your authentic self according to your desires. 

 

FACT #1: If you can observe it, it IS authentically yours. 

 

Brain scans show that when a monkey watches someone peel a banana, the monkey's brain lights up just like she's peeling the banana herself. 

 

If you looked at my brain scans while I watch Batman walk into a room full of bad-guys with courageous confidence that makes their knees shake...

 

...you would see the courageous confident part of my brain light up. 

 

Have you ever cried during a sad scene in a movie?

 

Have you ever jumped out of your seat when your favorite player makes a touchdown in the last 2 seconds of the game? 

 

That's because your brain lit up as if that sad thing was happening to you or as if you were running the ball across the end-zone. 

 

The fact that you are aware of confidence, courage, sadness, or joy in others, proves that your brain knows how to "do" each of those things. 

 

If you can perceive it, you can have it. 

 

FACT #2: You're not faking it, you're activating it.

 

Todd Herman, the author of The Alter Ego Effect, explains that when you imagine being someone else (like Batman) it allows you to activate your own confidence. 

 

If you've ever experienced confidence...

 

...even for a split second...

 

...then it proves that the "confident" part of your brain knows how to light up. 

 

You ARE authentically confident! 

 

You just haven't practiced stepping into confidence enough for it to become a habit. 

 

SIDE NOTE: When people label themselves as "shy" or "a procrastinator" or "anxious", it's complete nonsense. The fact is that they've practiced those traits so often it's become automatic for them to act that way.

 

The exact same thing happens when you practice/fake/activate being the person you WANT to be.

 

Every time you practice confidence, you strengthen the "confident" part of the brain until it becomes easy, automatic, and authentic for you to BE a confident person. 

 

FACT #3: The only thing you need to activate confidence is PERMISSION. 

 

The only person who can give you permission is YOU. 

 

The best time to give yourself permission is NOW. 

 

I recently had the honor of interviewing Chase Hughes on my podcast. He talked about the importance of activating confidence by giving ourselves permission...

 

Even if we don't feel ready or worthy or "authentic". 

 

Chase said that everyone, including himself, (who comes across as one of the most confident humans I've ever met) is faking it. 

 

He went on to say that it's really not faking...

 

...it's permission.

 

And you have permission now. All you have to do is step into it.

 

Let's recap, then I'll show you an amazing way to activate confidence now. 

 

Fact 1: If you can observe it, it IS authentically yours.

 

Fact 2: You're not faking it, you're activating it. 

 

Fact 3: The only thing you need to activate confidence is permission.

 

How to activate confidence in less than 60 seconds:

(Yes it really is this easy.)

 

If you've been reading my cheat sheets for awhile (or if you're familiar with NLP) then you already know how to do this. 

 

But maybe you didn't realize you had permission to actually use it...

 

Right now. And from now on.

 

The Avatar Protocol: 

Creating your authentic self with intention.

 

An Avatar is a representation of a character in a video game. I'm going to date myself with this one but here goes...

 

If you've ever played Mario Bros and you made Mario jump to get pennies out of a brick, then you're familiar with avatars. 

 

I wouldn't be surprised if, like me, you even made a jumping motion with your body when you got really enthused. 

 

That happens because you imagined being Mario. 

 

As a teen I used to play Galaga on an old school arcade machine at the skating rink. (Yes, I was that cool.)

 

I was standing there in my roller skates with Michael Jackson's Thriller playing in the background, but in my mind

I WAS the fighter spaceship!

 

The Avatar Protocol lets you imagine the trait or emotion you want so vividly that you can't help but become it. 

 

STEP 1: Think about someone who already has the trait you want. 

 

This can be a person you know or have heard of, a fictional character from a movie or book, or a historical figure. 

 

Examples of traits: 

 

🔆 Confident

 

🔆 Joyful

 

🔆 Peaceful

 

🔆 Organized

 

🔆 Patient

 

Ask yourself, "How do I WANT to show up in my life?" then think of someone who would be really good at doing that. 

 

STEP 2: Imagine how that person would act if they were in the situation you're nervous about. Just let this be easy. As you daydream about that person/character, answer these questions. 

 

🔆 What is their BODY LANGUAGE like? (This is a way bigger deal than you might realize. You must answer this.)

 

🔆 How are they BREATHING? (It's totally ok to just pretend you know the answer.)

 

🔆 What do they BELIEVE about their ability to have the trait I desire? 

 

HINT: If you adopt the Body Language and Breathing of the person you're thinking about, it will be easy to make up an answer for what they believe. 

 

Yes, it's ok to make it up. Just go ahead and guess.

 

STEP 3: Become the Avatar.

 

You've just vividly imagined your Avatar. 

 

All that's left is for you to give yourself permission to playfully take on their 3 B's...

 

Body Language

 

Breathing

 

Beliefs (this is just self-talk)

 

It's vitally important that you adopt your Avatar's self-talk - even if it feels like faking it at first. 

 

The more playful you get, the better it works.

 

If taking yourself seriously worked, you'd already be confident, right?

 

You can even imagine that your Avatar is standing in front of you and he/she steps inside your body or you step inside theirs.

 

The best part is that you can decide to only absorb their most powerful and best characteristics!

 

The Avatar Protocol in a nutshell:

Vividly imagine an avatar who has the traits you want. Observe their 3 B's, then adopt those 3 B's as your own (Especially their beliefs/self-talk).

 

If the Avatar Protocol piques your curiosity, here's how to ensure you actually use it, instead of just reading about it.

 

Vividly imagine yourself doing it right now.

 

Think about a time when the Avatar Protocol would be useful and mentally rehearse stepping into the 3 B's of your Avatar.

 

Who will your Avatar be and when will you use it ?