24/8/05

Presentation today. I thought it was good at the beginning but it ended with a sucky feeling inside me. This presentation required our group to identify things in a financial statement that may be subjected to manipulation by the management. For this task, I provided all the points needed for the presentation. I identified 5 obvious ones and 2 hidden ones. I thought I had identified all but the tutor defer. He pointed out another 8 hidden items. I was devastated.

1st, I thought I was already a good financial statement analyst because of my experience with it in another course. 2nd, I actually didn't put in total effort because I didn't read the whole annual report, in particular the M&A and the notes to accounts. I was disappointed with myself.

Lets talk about another thing. I joined a free online investment game a few days ago and spent all my virtual money on the shares of 4 companies. only 1 company appreciated in the share price while i lost big time on the other 3. Haha I'll try to sell them as soon as possible.

Slice of Life

Building Self-Confidence

Very often, before other people will start to have faith in you, you have to have confidence in your own abilities. Self-confidence is a very powerful state of mind that other people quickly notice and easily respect. So how can you develop a high-level of self-confidence?

Consider these steps:

First, choose to concentrate on your strengths rather than on your weaknesses. Confidence comes from within. You have to concentrate on the positive things about yourself. Remember the past is over; you can only change the future. If you have trouble doing this, write down ten positive things about yourself. People often find it very helpful to actually see the words.

Concentrate on your potentials. These are the reasons why you should love yourself and believe in yourself. Give yourself credit for every successful or good thing that you do.

Next, remind yourself of past successes. Confidence builds on past success. The more you do this, the more convinced you'll be that it's possible to succeed again. Most people unfortunately can't help focusing on what they did wrong in the past. This failure to forget and let go damages their self-confidence.

Also, learn to take risks. Risk is a crucial part of life; it is necessary before any great success can be achieved. If you spend your life avoiding risk, you'll never experience all that life has to offer.

Cultivate an enthusiasm for trying out new things. Once you get past that initial barrier, you'll find that it's very empowering. Yes, you will fail sometimes but the lessons and experiences are invaluable. As you do and try more, your confidence level increases because you realise that you become more and more knowledgeable. Approach new experiences as opportunities to learn instead of occasions to win or lose.

Next, use self-talk as an opportunity to contradict destructive beliefs. For example, if you catch yourself expecting perfection, tell yourself that you can't do everything perfectly; that it's only possible to do your best.
And visualize your future success. Our minds cannot distinguish the difference between something real and something vividly imagined. What will your future look like, smell like, taste like, and feel like? Who will be with you, and where will you be? How will you be feeling? Placing this much vivid detail into your mind increases the likelihood of success, and supports greater confidence!