Know your Identity: A Guide to Authentic, Lasting Confidence

Welcome to the Authentic Confidence and Self-Esteem Masterclass. Over the next 45 video lessons, you will learn how confidence is not the certainty that everything will work out 100 percent of the time. It’s knowing you have the ability to deal with the outcome and correct your course for success, regardless of how it turns out. Your instructor throughout this training is Kain Ramsay.

It's important to establish the reason why we want to be more confident. If our bodies were vehicles, confidence is like the fuel that drives us, so it's important to establish what our end destination is - this is the only thing that will drive us to grow and develop. In this video, Kain introduces the course by discussing a highly practical pathway for your continuous personal growth.

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This brief onboarding article offers basic course instructions and directs you to Udemy Support for any questions or issues you might encounter while using the Udemy website.

Are you rigid in your thinking? Science evolves as scientists test theories and makes new discoveries. Sadly, many people don't take this same approach to their lives and become fixed in their thinking about who they are and what they are capable of. Fluid thinking involves seeking new information and being open to evolving in our thinking. In this video, Kain unpacks these concepts in depth.

The actual self refers to how individuals perceive themselves realistically, whereas the ideal self refers to how people would like to see themselves or how they would like to appear. This video discusses a teaching in which Kain provides a differentiation between our actual selves (who we are currently) and our ideal selves (the person we hope to become in the future).

Often our first reaction to something we don't like in ourselves is to defend ourselves, which is why self-awareness can be a challenge. How you conduct yourself publicly will be representative of how you identify and feel about yourself privately. As he uses the Johari Window model in this video, Kain helps you to establish a foundation for your own self-awareness and growth.

Much of the self-help world promotes '5 steps to inner ultimate confidence' or similar, but this is nothing but misleading; the truth is we're either fully secure in who we are or we are not. In this video Kain outlines eight different categories of confidence for no other purpose than to provide you with a vision for the kind of people you might grow to become.

It's possible to be self-aware to some degree and still be unsatisfied and lacking in fulfilment. While self-awareness has many advantages, it is, by itself, not the point. Ulric G. Neisser was a German born psychologist who researched and wrote about the different levels of self-awareness. In this video, Kain explores these different levels to help you consider your own measure of self-awareness.

Self-awareness is an important characteristic to possess in our contemporary society, as it allows us to comprehend our own character and feelings at any given time. There is a significant difference between thinking and reflecting on something. The purpose of this video is for you to reflect upon a series of questions related to Neisser's levels of self-awareness.

If you believe that you can or cannot, then you've already made your decision. It is your thinking that will determine the trajectory of your life. The combination of vivid and clear ideas in the mind obtained from information or experiences with good interpretation constitutes knowledge. Throughout this video, Kain explains one of John Locke's concepts on where ideas come from.

In life, no experience has any meaning unless we assign a meaning to it; the way we misinterpret events is based solely on our perception. As Kain shows us in this video, understanding how we interpret our experiences in life and the consequences we experience as a result can help us to make sense of our behavior and emotions (and also where confidence, or lack thereof, comes from).

We achieve freedom not when we are accepted by other people, not when we accumulate more material objects, but rather when we begin to accept our imperfections and failures. Throughout the video, Kain discusses the four elements that influence how much freedom we perceive ourselves to have; he then outlines the four different states of consciousness.

As children, we are taught to compete in academics and to excel in our exams. School and college learning has always been geared toward academic courses, but what about self-improvement and personal development that play an equally important role in people's lives? As Kain explains in the video, you can adopt several general attitudes in your life to promote continual self-improvement.

Low confidence occurs when we attribute negative self-belittling meanings to our life experiences. We are constantly making assumptions about ourselves. Maps are limited and do not represent the territory accurately. The interpretations and beliefs that we have come to believe to be true are also limited and are not accurate depictions of reality. Kain explores these ideas throughout this video.

Our minds are where we wage our war. It is also the place of our victory. Thoughts become arguments, and arguments become strongholds. The meaning we assign onto a situation, or circumstance can change how we perceive it. By changing our perception, we will change our way of seeing, feeling and reacting to something. In this video, Kain discusses these ideas in greater detail.

According to the "Circles of Control, Influence and Concern" model, if we cannot control something, don't get upset about it, and if we cannot control something, don't focus on it or get upset about it. Healthy perspectives involve focusing on what we can change, not on what we cannot. Our lives will remain disempowered as long as we are swayed by things outside of our control. In this video, Kain discusses the circles of concern and control - and just see how they might be relevant to your life!

Many people become addicted to happiness or success and spend their days trying to 'feel' better about themselves; it's only when we commit to growing and developing ourselves that we get to 'become better', and we become more confident as a result. In this video, Kain describes the characteristics of a fully functioning human being. They aren't attributes we arrive at; rather, they are traits that we are constantly working towards acquiring within ourselves.

In this video, Kain outlines a series of self-reflection questions that you can ask yourself to think about the main ideas and lessons you have learned throughout this section of the course so far.

Many factors, both internal and external, influence confidence. The internal factors included personal perception and expectations, prior experiences (i.e., operational), and seeing personal skill development. As humans, we're all guilty of fortune telling and predicting how our lives might turn out. As Kain explains the determinants of confidence, he draws on S. Freud's Iceberg Theory.

The power of your mind is immense. Most of us, however, rarely give much thought to the way we think. Who really thinks about thinking? However, your perception of yourself is your reality. You will limit your potential if you draw incorrect conclusions about who you are and what you can do. Your thoughts create self-perpetuating cycles. Feeling and acting are directly influenced by what you think. In this video, Kain offers a time-honoured model for understanding the human mind.

Destructive thinking often lends itself to stress, and you can reduce your stress by altering how you think. That's right; destructive thinking can be changed. Most problems people face have to do with the accuracy and truthfulness of their thinking styles. In order to stay objective in life, we need to learn to step apart from our thoughts. The video explores unhealthy thinking patterns.

Socratic questioning refers to the process of asking questions in order to stimulate critical thinking and reflection. A socratic question is a type of open question in which people are invited to evaluate the accuracy (and correctness) of their thinking. In this video, Kain discusses the various socratic questions we can ask ourselves in order to challenge negative attitudes and perspectives.

In the event you have developed low self-confidence or low self-esteem, it is likely that you are unreasonable with yourself in your thinking. In general, people who suffer from negative emotional states have not yet learned how to evaluate their thought patterns and regulate their behavior. In this video, Kain offers another series of questions that can be used to challenge negative thoughts.

Pygmalion effect is a psychological concept that describes how expectations can affect a person's behavior. It provides evidence for the self-fulfilling prophecy, which is based on the idea that people's beliefs become true upon acting and behaving that they are. In this video, Kain unpacks the 'Pygmalion Effect' which explains the self-fulfilling prophecy that spawns from our mindset in life.

In his Cognitive School of Thought, A. Ellis proposed that the root causes of most unhelpful emotions and behaviors can be traced to a small number of core beliefs. Elis' beliefs are intentionally extreme in order to convey the idea that people are sometimes inclined to take exaggerated stances. Throughout this video, Kain takes the time to discuss each one of these beliefs in detail.

Many people are constrained by their beliefs. The future is filled with opportunities, and it's waiting to be discovered. By taking control of your life, you can create the life you want. The only way to remove negative thoughts from your life is to take note of the ones that hold you back. This video presents questions for self-reflection by Kain that will allow you to consider your current beliefs.

Connecting the dots of our lives is crucial to understanding ourselves. Understanding ourselves is easier when we are more self-aware. We are then able to identify changes we want to make and recognise our strengths so to build on them. As we learn more about ourselves and our own lives, we become wiser. In this video, Kain illustrates this point with an example from his own life.

The past is not the present. Your past is just that - your past. Your past shapes you as you are today, but it doesn't define how you need to go forward. Instead of dwelling on regrets, learn from your mistakes and move on. We all have the final say on whether we want to take our histories forward. Kain outlines an exercise to help you uncover how prevalent your past is currently in your life.

Our ability to regulate ourselves begins only when we become aware of our emotional triggers. Kain provides a series of questions for self-reflection in this video, which if you take some time to answer, will assist you in identifying your own opportunities for further growth and self-improvement.

Assessing yourself is akin to walking on a path of mental progress. When you evaluate yourself as a person, you find your strengths and weaknesses. Life is all about finding your weaknesses, accepting them, and working on them. Comparison thinking is pervasive. By gauging our progress inaccurately, we can end up over-inflating ourselves, or even undermining ourselves unintentionally. Here, Kain poses questions and outlines an exercise to help you think about how you evaluate yourself?

It is better to associate less with certain people. Successful individuals are impatient with those who think or act negatively. As you grow, your network will also change. Some people do not want you to grow and need you to remain as you are. Those that don't increase you will eventually decrease you. In this video, Kain discusses this idea giving examples of the type of relationships to look out for.

We gain insights into ourselves as a result of interacting with others. Every relationship we invest time in will either enhance or detract from our lives. The more we can tell the difference, the more wise we are. Typically, in unhealthy relationships, one person will try to overpower or undermine the other through engaging in roleplay. This video examines the main types of conflict in relationships.

Stephen Karpman first described the Drama Triangle in the 1960s. The model is a character study of dysfunctional social interactions illustrating how three roles represent a common and ineffective response to conflict: victim, rescuer, and perpetrator. In this video, Kain discusses the disempowerment dynamic and empowerment dynamic, drawing a comparison between them.

Hermeticism is a philosophical tradition based on the writings of Hermes Trismegistus. The practical application of these Hermetic principles attracted the attention of many humanistic psychologists back in the 1950s. If we want to become masterful in life, there are certain principles that we must consider and build our lives upon - Kain unpacks some of these principles throughout this video.

In this video, Kain outlines a series of self-reflection questions that you can ask yourself to think about the main ideas and lessons you have learned throughout this section.