NATIONAL YOUNG WRITERS’ AWARD 2020 INSIGHT CATEGORY

How to be Superman
by Sadat Hamid

Alright, the title is a bit misleading, I agree because the only way you can be
Superman is if you were born on another planet.

However, hear me out; what if you had his confidence? That’s still pretty good, right?
The courage to do anything you want, the ability to stand out and be the most
confident person in the room. That’s precisely what I am going to talk about today. I
am going to give you guys an insight into self-confidence. Hence, why I am applying
for the insight category for this essay competition.

What is confidence? Confidence comes from a Latin word ‘fidere’ which means ‘to
trust’; therefore, having self-confidence basically means having trust in yourself. I
copied this from Google.

It is the ability to believe in yourself to accomplish any task. Without self-confidence,

you will never be able to become what you are truly meant to be and reach your full
potential. I copied this from a book.

I’ll try my best to explain how I was able to acquire it and use it to excel at the things
I do. There are 3 main steps which you have to take. I did not copy this.
I swear.

The first step is Mastering your craft. This can be any skill, Singing, Teaching,
Dancing, Graphic designing, etc. For me, this was Card Magic. I have done a lot of
shows all over Dhaka, from small to big events consisting of different crowds. I never
failed once. Hard to believe, right? But what you don’t know is that I have been
practicing magic for 10 years. That’s a lot of practice. That gives me confidence in
my abilities because I know for a fact that no matter how many people I face, I will be
able to do a successful magic trick. It’s because of the time and effort I have put in
before actually coming out to do it. If I only practiced the night before, I wouldn’t be
able to pull it off as successfully because I’d probably get nervous and fail. So put in
the time and effort to master the craft, and it will help you improve your confidence.
As you have more trust in your abilities, you will have more trust in yourself.

The second step is, don’t be afraid to fail. I am sure you have watched a lot of
inspiring videos of successful people talk about this using example such as Oprah,
J.K Rowling, Micheal Jordan, and others while there is very motivational music
playing in the background. But this rule works in any case, and for me, it was girls.
I couldn’t talk to girls until the 9th grade. I was just very shy and scared. Afraid the
girl I like won’t like me back. However, one day from a few inspirational words from
my friends, “Bro, you the man,” I decided to take my shot on the most beautiful girl in
my school. I realized there was nothing to be afraid of because I had nothing to lose.
This was a win/win situation. Best case scenario, I’ll get the girl, or she’ll say no, and
I’ll get her later when I’m older. So that was my mindset. And what do you know I just
went for it and, she said yes. She was a senior, by the way, 11th grade.
So, take your shot. Don’t be afraid. You have nothing to lose. YOU THE MAN.

The last step. The most important step. Believe in yourself. No, I mean, actually
believe that you’re Superman. You may be a funny superman, a polite one, a smart
one, whatever your thing is. Believe you are Superman and be secure in your
abilities.

I use this rule the most when I am playing Football. When I first started out playing in
big tournaments, I used to get nervous a lot and failed to give my best. I used to let
my team down who always expected the best from me. How did I get rid of my
nervousness? Self-talk. Trust me, this thing actually works. So our mind is like a
computer, and whatever you feed into it is what it processes into its programming,
and it gets translated into our actions. If you keep saying to yourself, “Omg I am so
nervous, I am going to mess this up” that’s exactly what your brain takes into
account and, that’s the way you start to act. However, you can fool your brain by
saying positive things. Things like “I am the best. I got this, I got the girl. I will give my
best today and, there’s nothing that’s going to stop me”. Simple stuff like this can
really fool the brain and, that’s what it will accept into its programming and, that’s
how you’ll start to act too without even realizing it.

So fool your brain. Feed positive things into it. Once you start doing this, you’ll
actually start to believe in yourself without even realizing it. In this case, and ONLY,
in this case, you can actually fake it till you make it.

So here comes my concluding paragraph by which I have to end my essay since it’s
standard essay rules, and this is an essay competition. Follow these 3 steps, and I
promise you will have more confidence than you can ever imagine. Master the craft,
don’t be afraid to fail, believe in yourself, and get the girl!
Superman always gets the girl. Become Superman.