Piggy Banks

Most kids grew up with some kind of a piggy bank. A porcelain piggy in your bedroom or a bank account.

Your balance, the momentary sum of everything you have done, always changes. Deposit more than you withdraw, and you will see your “running total” grow.

This concept can be applied to a lot of other things. Two favorites: confidence and health.

Confidence is a sense of certainty about your ability. It allows you to bypass conscious thought and execute unconsciously. So, if you want to perform to the best of your abilities, you have no other option than being confident.

Confidence is learned. A consistently constructive thinking process allows humans to do two things: (1) retain and benefit from their successful experiences and (2) release or restructure their less successful experiences.

It doesn’t matter how much “success” you’ve had if you don’t let it work for you. These are the deposits in your “confidence piggy bank.”

To minimize your withdrawals, selectively reinterpret any mistake as a learning opportunity. View that failure as a momentary, isolated incident, and take any negative comment directed at you as a stimulating challenge.

What would happen if you similarly approached health? Which deposits contribute to your health? Which withdrawals are happening? How can you increase your running total? What should you do immediately to improve the momentary sum of what you have done so far?