Self -Confidence Rules: Socrates

John Kyriazoglou CICA, B. A., (Hon, University of Toronto, Canada),

jkyriazoglou.hotmail.com

Overview: This short article contains ten ‘rules’ to strengthen and improve your self-confidence and achieve peace and tranquility in your life.

Introduction

Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher who made a huge impact on philosophy and Western logic as he devoted his entire life to philosophy. He believed that philosophy would achieve results for the greater well-being of society. Socrates aimed to establish a system based on human reason by pointing out that human choices were motivated by the desire for happiness and that wisdom comes from looking within. 

Use the wise quotes of Socrates to live, listen, learn, be more confident, and create peace and harmony within yourself.

Summary of Socratic Self -Confidence (SC) Rules

·         SC1. Know your strengths and weaknesses

·         SC2. Be kind and generous

·         SC3. Be satisfied with less

·         SC4. Be positively curious

·         SC5. Forget the past

·         SC6. Empower yourself with knowledge

·         SC7. Talk less and listen more

·         SC8. Maintain friendships

·         SC9. Live your life to the fullest

·         SC10. Everything in life is temporary

Description of Socratic Self -Confidence (SC) Rules

SC1. Know your strengths and weaknesses

Socrates: ‘Give me beauty in the inward soul; may the outward and the inward man be at one.’

Your self is your enemy. Know yourself very well. Listen to your thoughts by maintaining a diary and writing your thoughts daily. Only then you can decide what to do. Spend time focusing on yourself. Happiness begins on the inside. If you’re miserable about how you feel about yourself it will reflect outwardly to others. Create a loving attitude toward yourself and be proud of everything you’re doing. Never forget how strong you truly are and affirm to yourself that you matter!

SC2. Be kind and generous

Socrates: ‘I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good’.

Feel good about yourself. When you feel good (see also HST03) and practice generosity others will appreciate you. This will make you and them happier and improve your value to society and yourself.

SC3. Be satisfied with less

Socrates: ‘He is rich who is content with the least, for contentment is the wealth of nature’.

Having goals and ambitions that are achievable and moral is a good thing. But, being too ambitious may be dangerous because if these are too difficult to achieve, your self-confidence is lowered and this makes you unhappy.

SC4. Be positively curious

Socrates: ‘Smart people learn from everything and everyone, average people from their experiences, stupid people already have the answers’.

Curiosity keeps your self-confidence to higher levels and is the foundation for growing and developing yourself. Intelligence, persistence and hunger for novelty will enhance your curiosity. It is wise to have and exploit them.

SC5. Forget the past

Socrates: ‘The secret of change is to force all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new’.

Focusing on your past makes you more negative and makes you less confident. Avoid it on all costs and focus on your present and future. Only this way you will be able to improve your confidence further.

SC6. Empower yourself with knowledge

Socrates: ‘Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for’.

Learning is the key to success in life. Don’t give up learning just because you get comfortable in life. Keep the curiosity of a child your entire life and you will reap the rewards in all aspects of your life.

Acquire knowledge, skills and dexterities all your life. The more knowledge you get the more confident you become. You can acquire knowledge by reading books, articles, magazines, taking seminars, attending lectures, etc.

SC7. Talk less and listen more

Socrates: ‘Nature has given us two ears, two eyes, and but one tongue – to the end that we should hear and see more than we speak.’

The world is a very noisy and loud place. Full of endless streaming of communications, disinformation, fake news, misinformation, social media, digital devices and technological gadgets of all kinds and types.

Spend time enjoying a real conversation with people you love and even strangers you meet. There is no substitute for genuine human interaction even in today’s world.

SC8. Maintain friendships

Socrates:’Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.’

Strive hard to make friends. Once you find someone that you can relate to and share goals with, make sure to not take them for granted. Long lasting friendships are one of the best things in life. Listen, love, and help the people that mean the most to you.

SC9. Live your life to the fullest

Socrates: ‘To fear death, my friends is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For anything that men can tell, death may be the greatest good that can happen to them: but they fear it as if they knew quite well that it was the greatest of evils. And what is this but that shameful ignorance of thinking that we know what we do not know?’

Live your life to the fullest every day so when death does come, it’s not 

something to fear. Go all out in every area of your life. Be spontaneous, take risks, have fun, and don’t fear the inevitable. Live a life that is true to you and will you find yourself happier than ever before.

SC10. Everything in life is temporary

Socrates: ‘Remember, no human condition is ever permanent. Then you will not be overjoyed in good fortune nor too scornful in misfortune.’

Remember that everything in life is temporary, both the good things and events as well the bad ones. When events and things are bad, find ways out and always try to achieve your goals. When things are good, don’t get too comfortable and stop doing whatever got you there in the first place. Work hard to stay disciplined all the time and you’ll have more highs than lows in your future.

Bibliography

Book 1. Live More Happily: The Ancient Greek Way

https://bookboon.com/en/live-more-happily-the-ancient-greek-way-ebook

Book 2. Anthology of Short Stories and Sayings of Ancient Greece

https://www.academia.edu/17398652/Anthology_of_Ancient_Greek_Sayings_and_Short_Stories

Book 3. Ancient Greek Pearls of Wisdom for the 21st Century: Quotations of noted Ancient Greek thinkers to improve your life

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08VYBPNHH?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860