“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

Self-confidence is the belief in your ability to accomplish the task at hand. That doesn’t mean being deluded that you can do impossible things. Self-confidence is a belief that you can do something beyond your current level of experience and skill. It’s also having faith that you can handle adversity, and even if it doesn’t turn out exactly as you had hoped, you know you did your best.

Another advantage of believing in yourself is that it can lead to a better quality of life. Research shows that confidence is related to better mental and physical health, higher educational achievement, improved literacy, lower drop-out rates and better economic standing. If you have self-confidence, you are more likely to attend a better school, get a better job and lead a better life.

In fact, there is significant evidence that self-confidence is a more important factor in determining success than talent is. Although confident people aren’t any taller, smarter, better-looking or richer than you or me, they have is a belief in themselves, which anyone can develop.

Believing in yourself and self-confidence are more important factors in determining success than talent or ability alone.

Most people view self-confidence as an inborn quality that someone either has or doesn’t have. Nothing could be further from the truth. Self-confidence is a skill that anyone can learn.

Putting yourself in situations where you overcome challenges or obstacles—over and over again, even if they are relatively small—can develop the skill of self-confidence.

You don’t need to win a national championship or to be elected class president. You just need to do something that challenges you. Maybe it’s volunteering as an assistant so you can learn from the best, getting back into the job market after you have been fired, or sending your manuscript in again after ten rejections and having it be accepted.

Source: https://www.drivanjoseph.com/blog/if-you-don-t-believe-in-yourself-who-will

Our belief in our own ability to succeed plays a role in how we think, how we act, and how we feel about our place in the world.

Believing in yourself involves having faith in your abilities and trusting that you can achieve what you set out to do. Self-belief is about recognizing your inner strength, embracing life’s journey with its challenges, and understanding that each challenge brings new skills and strength.

Self-efficacy is “the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations.” Put simply, it is a person’s belief in their ability to succeed in a particular situation. Such beliefs play a role in determining how people think, behave, and feel.

High vs. Low Self-Efficacy

Having high self-efficacy is a good thing. People with a strong sense of self-efficacy:

• Develop a deeper interest in the activities in which they participate
• Form a stronger sense of commitment to their interests and activities
• Recover quickly from setbacks and disappointments
• View challenging problems as tasks to be mastered

Poor self-efficacy, on the other hand, can have a number of detrimental effects. People with a weak sense of self-efficacy:

• Avoid challenging tasks
• Believe that difficult tasks and situations are beyond their capabilities
• Focus on personal failings and negative outcomes
• Quickly lose confidence in personal abilities

“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

Source: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-self-efficacy-2795954

Believing in yourself is a powerful mindset.

Believing in yourself significantly impacts your success by fueling confidence, motivation, and resilience. When you trust your abilities, you’re more likely to take action, persist through setbacks, and view challenges as opportunities rather than threats. This mindset not only increases your chances of achieving goals but also improves overall well-being and quality of life. Believing in yourself:

• Boosts Confidence: When you trust your abilities, you’re more likely to take on challenges and pursue your goals.
• Enhances Resilience: Self-belief helps you bounce back from setbacks and keep moving forward.
• Encourages Growth: It motivates you to learn, improve, and step outside your comfort zone.
• Attracts Opportunities: Confidence often draws positive people and opportunities into your life.
• Improves Mental Health: A strong belief in yourself can reduce anxiety and self-doubt, leading to greater overall well-being.

Research shows that self-belief-often called self-efficacy-predicts higher achievement, better mental health, and a greater willingness to pursue opportunities, making it a more important factor in success than talent alone.

Self-efficacy is a person’s belief in their ability to complete a task or achieve a goal. It encompasses their confidence in themselves to control their behavior, exert an influence over their environment, and stay motivated in the pursuit of their goal. People can have self-efficacy in different situations and domains, such as school, work, relationships, and other important areas.

Self-efficacy is important because it plays a role in how you feel about yourself and whether or not you successfully achieve your goals in life.

Source: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-self-efficacy-2795954

What you focus on expands.

When you focus on what’s wrong with your life, you’ll miss what’s right with it.

You must focus on what is right instead of what’s wrong, on what you have not what you don’t have (gratitude), on where you are going not what you’ve been through.

You get in life more of what you focus on. When you stop focusing on the wrong or negative things, the right things start to happen.

Start focusing on the good things you have today, not on the things that were taken away.

Always believe in you and be grateful!

“What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.” — Greek author Plutarch

J.K. Rowlings commented during a 2008 Harvard Commencement address that “you might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.”

“Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.”

“The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned.”

Source:  https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/06/text-of-j-k-rowling-speech/

In an 2008 Harvard commencement addres, J.K. Rowling stated: “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all-in which case, you fail by default”

The key aspects of her perspective are:

• Failure as a universal experience: “You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable,” said to the assembled Harvard grads. 
• Stripping away the inessential: She described failure as a catalyst for authenticity, explaining it forced her to stop pretending and focus on her true passion (writing Harry Potter): “I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me”
• Rock bottom as foundation: “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life,” she said. 
• Lessons from failure: Failure taught her “inner security,” self-discipline, and the irreplaceable value of genuine friendships

Rowling’s reflections stem from her own post-college graduation struggles, including poverty, divorce, and single parenthood, which she called “failure on an epic scale”. She reframed this period as a necessary crucible for growth and creative rebirth.

Source:  https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/06/text-of-j-k-rowling-speech/

Many American retirees are feeling uneasy, with reports showing a surge in calls to AARP from seniors, worried about their Social Security benefit payments.

Concerns about Social Security Trust Fund’s stability are growing, especially as projections indicate the trust fund may run out by 2034. If no action is taken by Congress, Social Security Administration benefits could be reduced to about 79% of their scheduled amounts.

Yet, planned changes to Social Security by the Trump Administration and D.O.G.E. include layoffs of more than 10% of the Social Security Administration’s workforce, the closure of dozens of field offices throughout the country, and aggressive clawbacks of overpayments.

For example, the Social Security Administration (SSA) is taking new antifraud steps that will require more Americans to prove their identity when filing benefits or making direct deposit changes. As a result, more Americans will be required to go in person to a SSA field office.

The administration says it is streamlining the system and going after waste and fraud, but financial advisors say some of their clients and many Social Security recipients are concerned about their benefits.

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” -,Alice Walker

Your mindset and thoughts shape your reality. Pastor Craig Goesmen says that “your life heads in the direction of your strongest thoughts.” In short, your thoughts shape your reality, guiding your actions and ultimately determining the trajectory of your life. What we focus on consistently tends to manifest in the choices we make and the opportunities we pursue.

When you believe you lack control, you often unintentionally surrender your ability to act and influence your circumstances and life.

Self-awareness and confidence in one’s own agency is essential. It’s essential to take responsibility and ownership for your life.

Creatine is a compound that comes from three amino acids. Creatine is found mostly in your body’s muscles as well as in the brain.

Creatine is an amino acid-derived compound naturally produced in your liver, kidneys, and pancreas. The molecule is also found in your diet, especially in red meat and fish. The true potential of creatine centers on what it does inside your cells.
Creatine’s best-studied role is as a short-term energy reserve, helping cells replenish adenosine triphosphate (ATP)—their primary energy currency.

During moments of high demand, like intense exercise or mental exertion, multiple organs in the body tap into phosphocreatine (a storage form of creatine) to rapidly regenerate ATP. It’s believed that without sufficient creatine, your cells—especially in the brain and muscles—may struggle to keep up with energetic needs.

The relative value of creatine’s energy boosting capabilities may be most relevant in the brain. This is because the brain uses up a disproportionate amount of ATP to power our daily cognitive functions.

Your neurons in particular are major energy utilizers, taking up the majority of our brain’s energy to create and package neurotransmitters, send signals across synapses and reset after data transfer. Importantly, a host of studies have shown that as we age, our brains may have more trouble getting consistent access to fuel for these reactions, and this lack of availability of ATP may increase the risk for cognitive decline.

As the primary energy hubs for your cells, mitochondria are a key part of the creatine story.

Mitochondrial dysfunction (states in which mitochondria have trouble producing enough energy due to inherited issues or damage from exposures) is believed to be a major contributor to states as diverse as diabetes and heart disease, but also to neurodegenerative diseases, fatigue, brain fog and various mental health problems.

Early and primarily preclinical data are providing a signal that creatine’s mitochondrial energy-augmenting abilities might render it a valuable consideration for these states.

Source:  https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-modern-brain/202504/the-new-neuroscience-of-creatine-for-brain-health

Prioritizing physical, emotional and cognitive brain health and wellness.