The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-09-15
THE BASIS OF sELF-coNFIDENcE

Have you ever felt the chagrin of
knowing that you have failed in an
enterprise, whether this may have
been mere incident of business or an
entire career, purely through lack of
self-confidence?
Thousands of men have failed in
just that way.
Self-confidence is a factor in success
of such Importance that the man
with moderate ability but plenty of
confidence will succeed where the man
of far greater ability coupled with a
lack of confidence, will fail. This
has been proven probably a few bill
lion times in the history of human af-
fairs.
There are both physical and mental
factors in building self-confidence. 1t
is a simple matter to tell a man to
| have faith in himself, and to tell him.
self twenty times each day that he
has confidence in himself. This plan
may be helpful in many instances. In
other cases we know that it fails.
The problem is deeper and broader
| than that.
Practically all writer's on the sub
| iect overlook the physical basis OF
self-confdence. The truth is that the
weakling cannot expect to develop the
spirit of courage and self-reliance sc
long as he remains a weakling. The
| fundamental basis of confidence is
strength, both physical and mental
This is only natural. 1t is the con
seriousness of weakness that causes
one to fear and lack confidence.
If you are one of the timid folks
the first thing for you to do is to take
up physical training and athletics
with the Interchangeable aim of build
ing yourself up into real man. Ply
steal culture is most valuable, not fol
the sake of building strong muscles
but for the sake of what these mean
in the way of health and reserve nerve
strength. Athletics, for instance
/ tend to build up a reserve of power
which may be available either fol
athletic use or for any other form OF
exertion. This reserve power may be
l CdllCu llICO pay do uCANC 1OASS WAASA
| the demands upon the system are OF
a nature other than athletic.
The sense of strength means great
deal, psychologically. 1t is true that
/ there are men who are physically
great big brutes, who have shown
the elements of cowardice. Such
things have been known, although
they are exceptional. They do not
| fit in with our general impressions
of life. The fact is that these men
would be much greater towards
were they physically debilitated.
The man who is strong, and who
| feels strong, has confidence in him
SELF And because he is sound and
normal, it is a scientific fact that he
is better able to withstand Shock,
in the medical sense, with compar-
atively little impairment of his men,
tai and nervous condition.
| A fairly good line on the sources
| of courage and confidence will be
found in those conditions which de-
velop the extremes of lack of con
| fidence The man who is a broken-
down nervous wreck, whether from
overwork, dissipation, late hours, or
strain of any kind, loses his courage,
Virility means courage. Virility is
a quality that is expressed through
the nervous and mental condition
as clearly, if not even more strik-
ingly, than through the state of the
body.
The first requirement, therefore, Of
| the timid and bashful man is to build
up the vigorous physical foundation
| that underlies mental strength and
character strength. This is not theory.
The plan works. In many cases, the
building up Of nervous strength and
the mental vigor which goes with
lit, is sufficient to restore or deyel-
lop 4 normal state Of self-conf-
dence. LII other cases, however,
1.-The problem iii more complicated.