I was always somebody who had many confidence issues as I grew up, from a child, through to adulthood. I would feel very sorry for myself and would often be down and depressed. The issues that I had in my life were:

A bald patch the size of a ten pence piece on my head

A problem with my speech known as a stuttering

A weight problem, I was quite fat for my height

I am quite short for a male at five-foot-four

Certain people would take the mickey out of me, and their comments would hurt. I made sure that the people around me could not see the amount they were hurting me but inside I was full of anger and frustration.

I could not live life this indefinitely and aged 22 I decided to fight back. My quest for a better life began with me reading a lot of literature to do with how to gain confidence and how to increase self-esteem. I was eager to become a success as I wanted to run by own business selling external doors. I had spent far too long offering advice with regards to Voucher Codes and needed a change.

These were the things I had to take on board:

It is not important what other people think of you, it is what you think that counts

You need to start to like yourself

There are various things about your person, you do not like but which you can not change. It is basically a matter of knowing that there are many other people from all over the world who would love to swap into your shoes; you may think that you are rather unlucky but the truth of the matter is that you are in fact one of the lucky ones.

You need to have respect for yourself

Do not accept second best in life

Be happy

Learn to relax

Treat yourself to some pleasures. Like a regular massage or reflexology.

I had managed to achieve a personal happiness by following the advice in the above paragraphs.

There were a range of things which impacted upon my overall self-confidence and self-esteem levels as I grew from being a young child to a man. These included:

A small patch on my scalp which was bald

A speech impediment known as a stutter

A weight problem, I was basically too fat

I am quite short at five foot four

Certain people I met would be quite nasty and would try to make fun of me. I tried really hard to ensure that these nasty people did not affect me however I must admit that there were many a time when I would shed a tear. Life at times was quite tough especially where I worked at the company offering a Medical negligence claims service.

Aged 22 I decided to do something about this pathetic way of living – I needed to become a real man – I needed to become strong and far more care-free. I decided I needed a big change in attitude and started to read books about life and about positive thinking etc.

These were the things I had to take on board:

Who cares what other people think about you? As long as you like and have respect yourself nothing else really matters

It is time to start respecting and liking yourself

There are various things about your person, you do not like but which you can not change. You therefore have to start accepting these things and realising that maybe there are other people in life who are more unfortunate than you.

You need to have respect for yourself

Do not accept second best in life

Be happy

I tried hard to implement this advice and even though it was not easy to change, I knew I had to. I basically live life to the full now and try not to worry about anything trivial. I have also managed to eradicate the stuttering problem.

I have now become a successful external doors salesman and my life is now much happier overall.

I hope this article will be of benefit to the people who read it.

 

I used to be quite a fragile character, some would say that I was even scared of my own shadow. I was always paranoid that people were talking about me and laughing behind my back.

So why was I like this? Well it was mainly because, in my opinion, I had a stutter. It started when I was aged four and despite attending various forms of stop stammering therapy I was unable to find the solution which would enable me to achieve fluency.

I decided that enough was enough by my mid-twenties and decided it was time to toughen up. I could not continue to live my life as I had been, as I would probably be dead by the time I was fifty.

I then went about a self-help program to increase my overall self-confidence and self-esteem. I was extremely keen to discover the secrets to happiness; to achieve fluency and of ways to deal with my depression.

What I found out over the next twelve to eighteen months would change my life forever.

These are the things I had to do:

The self-pity was something that had to end. Yes I am not perfect but who is.

I had to think in a more positive way. This was something I had somehow learnt to do in my business life where I work for a company that offers a medical negligence claims service but I had never managed to do it in my personal life.
 
I had to stop worrying about the future.

I needed to become a much more care-free person – I was at that stage far too concerned about what other people thought of me.

I needed to smile more.

I needed to learn to relax. Over the last few months I have been using meditation to help me with this.

I had to learn to like myself.

I needed to become stronger to fight away the negative thoughts in my head.

I realised that I needed to concentrate on the positive aspects of my life rather than wallowing in the self-pity of thinking about what I believed I did not have in life.

I started to implement the above and it helped me no end. The depression that plagued my earlier life still came back to haunt me around once a month. When it does descend, I now write two lists. What I am happy about in life and what I am sad or worrying about. I then analyse both lists and more times than not, I am actually over-reacting.

I am now a much more positive person and this is having a good affect on my business life where I now work for a ”Asda voucher codes” company and I also offer a DVD duplication service.

I wish you every success with your efforts to gain in self-confidence.

One day when I was around my early to mid twenties, I went to the hairdressers for my monthly trim. This woman enquired about whether I had heard about the tragic car crash that had recently occured. I hadn’t and she then went on to describe what had happened.

Three young men who were all aged twenty-two, were on the way for an evening in the local public house. One of them decided he would drive and on the way there, partly due to the fact that he was driving too quickly, he lost control of the car. His vehicle had then careered straight into a large tree, all three of the people in the car had died at the scene.

She continued that one of the men which had died, had worked in the butchers, which was only two doors away from her shop. She described the man in question, which turned out to be a person that I knew, just to say hello to. I actually saw him on most mornings and we often smiled at each other, and would say something like, hi there.

Later on when I was at home, I started to think even more about this particular person. Even though he was friendly, he always looked quite stressed and did not seem that happy. If he had known what was about to happen to him, I am sure he would have made the most of the time he had left.

It should not have taken this kind of tragedy to bring me to my senses, but it did. Morbid as it is I pondered on the thought that we all have to die at some stage and that none us know when that day will come. I am sorry if that is a bit morbid, but it is true. Not all of us will live until retirement age and our lives could end tomorrow.

I have always been a bit of a worrier; mainly about my speech I suppose as I had a stuttering speech impediment. I did eventually manage to gain fluency via an intensive one-to-one stuttering therapy course but even then I started to worry about business; I work for a composite door company and for a business cost reduction specialist on a part time basis.

I now have learnt to stop stressing so much – life, I have now learnt, is just too short.

I remember when I was growing up, my parents used to become vey annoyed with me when I stated that I could not do my homework or could not do other things I had been asked to do.

They would advise me that I would be able to achieve any goal that I had via hard work and by having a positive attitude. The word, can’t, does not exist in my vocab Steve, I sometimes find certain tasks difficult however always believe that I will be able to succeed, my father would say.

He ensured that I learnt this most important of lessons by keeping on nagging it to become a part of my natural character. It has helped me to achieve many things and to also overcome some of the issues I had in my life.

School and employment

I was not the brightest student at school and as previously mentioned would often say that I could not complete the work through my lack of belief in my own ability. I actually worked my socks off and eventually left school with some very good grades; my parents were very proud. I continued this success into my work life and became a successful upvc front door salesman as well as offering Mobile Phone Voucher Codes. 

Stuttering

From the age of four I had suffered with the speech impediment known as stammering or stuttering. By my early twenties I had had enough of this struggle and went about trying to overcome the stutter. I had superb support from my family who would always pick me up when I was feeling down and who also continued to ram home the message of never giving up.

I did, after a huge amount of work and dedication, manage to overcome this most annoying of speech impediments, this enabled me to have the freedom and confidence to say any word that I wanted to – this was a huge relief as you can no doubt imagine.

Do you have a stutter or stammer? Are you looking for techniques that would enable you to overcome your stutter? If you have answered “yes” to one or both of these questions then this article may well be of interest to you.

The How To Stop Stuttering Centre was established in 1996 by Steve Hill. Steve is a person who developed a stutter when he was a four year old boy and who managed to eradicate his stutter when he was aged twenty-two. Steve states:

“To achieve fluency is far from easy and anybody who is looking for some sort of magic potion or magic pill that they merely swallow to enable them to “stop stuttering” will be left disappointed. Those people however who are willing to work hard and who are determined to kill their stuttering demons will be able to achieve the dream that is fluency”.

Steve mainly helps people by running one-to-one speech courses. The courses are held in the centre of England in a city called Birmingham. These stuttering courses are held over a 2, 3 or 5 day period with each day lasting approximately three and a half hours.

Steve also offers alternative stuttering therapies to the speech course. These include a DVD, an audio book and an e-book. All of these products include full descriptions of each of the techniques that are required to achieve fluency.

Steve has helped people from many different nations including India, Pakistan, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, the USA and Australia.

Steve has been featured in the media on a regular basis over the last thirteen years and has said that he is looking forward to helping more people who have a stutter or stammer in the years to come.

It is suggested that out of all of the people that suffer with stuttering there are three times as many men as women that have this form of speech impediment. The stuttering centre in the UK helps all people to achieve fluency whether they are adults or children, women or men.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact the stuttering centre.

 

There were many reasons as to why I was a shy person. Each and every member of my family seem to be forever worrying about something – it really is quite bizarre. The majority of us basically have the wrong attitude to life; I am not really sure why this is but the result has been detrimental to our quality of life.

I also grew up having to cope with a stammering problem which as you can imagine did not help my own confidence levels and only added to what was already the difficult task of mixing with other people. I did eventually manage to achieve fluency and to stop stuttering but only after suffering with the speech impediment for eighteen years.

I now help people to overcome stammering, I also provide Asda voucher codes as well as offering a medical negligence claims service.

I have to say that I always preferred to be by myself and was what many people saw as a loner. When I am on my own nobody can hurt me and I was also in no danger of stuttering. The weird aspect was that inside I was a very confident person who was desperate to show the world, the real Steve Hill.

Being shy made it difficult for me to form relationships with women and made my work life also more of a choir.

At the age of around twenty-one I decided to attempt to overcome my shyness once and for all. I had to understand the real reasons behind why I was shy and to deal with each one in turn. I went through a period of asking myself a number of questions; for example:

Why are you scared of people? This was because I had a fear of not being accepted or liked. They may hurt me by being aggressive towards me or by taunting me about my speech etc. This was me being paranoid, so I decided that if I don’t try, I won’t know.

Why are you afraid of socialising? This was because I did not feel that I had a lot to say and believed people would think I was boring. I decided just to try my best and to see what happens.

Why won’t you approach a member of the opposite sex? This was because I thought that they would only tell me to go away and that they would not be interested in me. It is similar to the case above; how I am supposed to know if I am not willing to give it a go.

I have now come to realise that out of ten people I meet, three of four of them might not like me, but that means there are six who will. Life is to short to be constantly paranoid and stressed. I have to battle against my shyness and break free of it once and for all.

I now have more confidence than I ever have had. I still have periods where I become shy but these are becoming less and less as time goes by.

I personally believe that it is essentail that we set ourselves personal targets over various periods including a lifetime goal. It should not be purely a case of making personal targets – we need to make sure we attain them.

Write down your goals

I have always wanted to be a success and to have a happy life, I am sure this is the same for most people. In the early part of my life I was unable to achieve both of these aims; this was partly because I had a stuttering problem. In my early to mid twenties I decided to attempt to learn about ways in which I could ensure that the future would be a lot better, than what the past had been. I soon began to read literature about these subjects in my quest to improve my life.

I soon realised the importance of setting goals and targets and was hopeful that this could help me to stop stuttering. I thought about what I wanted to be and which course I wanted my life to take. I wrote out three different lists of my aims for the future.

The first list included what I wanted to achieve within the next twelve months. The second list contained what I wanted to achieve within five years and the third list was my lifetime goals – one of which was to own my own company selling composite front doors.

Avoid negative people

There are people out there who try to bring me down. Nasty comments, dirty looks and gossiping were all things that these nasty people would do. They would treat me as if I was some sort of freak and as if I was one of life’s losers. These type of people have caused me many sleepless nights and have had a negative affect on my self-confidence.

I knew that I had to steer well clear from these bad influences; this can however be easier said than done.

I am pleased to report that I have now overcome the speech impediment – life is now far much happier for me.

I also own a business and also work on a part-time basis working along side a business cost reduction specialist.

As you can see life is now so much better for me and I am sure that it could be for you.

 

In my late teens I was far to over-weight and was not happy about it. I often thought about the different ways in which I could try to become slimmer, but that is all I would do, think.

I suppose that I was obese due to the fact that I comfort ate because I had a stutter. The stuttering treatment on offer was not working and I could just see no prospect of me to ever stop stuttering.

These are the reasons I would make at that stage of my life, to put off my attempts at losing weight:

I am too tired. In the morning, I would wake up with very good intentions. In my mind I would make a vow that I would make a start on the fitness work after I had returned home from work – this would start with a run around my local area for a few miles. It will then be a case of some weight training – oh yes I do love pumping some iron and I have no doubt that I will be hitting some new personal bests later on. Then there would be the many rounds of press ups and I would most certainly stay away from those nasty fatty foods which are causing me so much heartache.

After work, I would return home and would then make up the excuse that I am too tired. Instead of going for a jog today, I would start my fitness regime tomorrow etc. Working for a composite door company, selling cheap holidays, was far from easy and I would come home very tired. This is perhaps one reason why I now work for a group of DVD duplication experts lol.

My body is aching. This was a regular excuse. I would tell myself that if I start exercising today, I may well do myself more damage than good.

It could be dangerous. Going back to my idea of jogging, I then had the bright idea that it could actually be quite risky. I could bump into a murderer or a rapist who could then in turn end up killing me?

I eventually after many years decided to stop making up these excuses. I had to be determined to not only start up a fitness regime but to stick to it. It was not easy at all but after quite a long time I reached a weight which I was happy with.

 

I am now in a happy place, I have pride in where I am at in comparison to where I have been and I now live a contented life. Why? Well because I have managed to turn my life around. The days when I stress, worry and become depressed over the slightest thing are over. I now live life with a smile on my face and am very much looking forward to the future. With the contents of this article I will be describing my journey to happiness and hope that it will prove to be an inspiration to other people out there.

Besides my nervous way of speaking (I had a speech impediment commonly referred to as stuttering), the following areas of confidence coaching were of interest to me:

I had, for whatever reason, a lack of belief at the workplace

I had a negative belief that I would fail in whichever task I attempted to do

I needed to become much more assertive

I would often get dragged down by negative comments

I was paranoid (at least a subtle feeling) that people don’t like me

I used to walk around as if the world owed me something and would often feel
very sorry for myself

I wanted to be able to speak with authority and presence

I wanted to see fear and anxiety as a challenge and not as a prison cell

I wanted to learn to be self-assured and to be able to feel comfortable in any place, anytime

I wanted to be able to talk to anyone, at anytime and feel completely in control and natural

As you can see I wanted quite a lot! By reading literature about how to gain confidence, how to increase self-confidence and about how to become a success helped me, in some degree, with all of the above. I realised that I needed to be a lot more care-free, I needed to stop worrying about what other people thought of me and I needed to appreciate what I had in life. Only by doing this will I ever have any chance of becoming a success.

I am now a lot more confident and proficient in my business life which is in the composite doors sector and offering bargain holiday deals. It is a good place to be – happy at work and happy at home.