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You are here: Home / Articles / Building Confidence by Progressing Through Struggle

by Robert Kalwarowsky Leave a Comment

Building Confidence by Progressing Through Struggle

Building Confidence by Progressing Through Struggle

While I was at the gym last week, I was listening to the Brendan Burchard podcast and he was talking about building confidence. He mentioned that you cannot build confidence with external rewards like trophies, awards, promotions, etc. and that you need to build confidence from the inside. The statement that hit me the hardest was that the way to build confidence is by progression through struggle.

Why?

In reliability and in life, we experience the push-back & roadblocks from ourselves and others while we try to change. Sometimes, we get caught in a circle of frustration and blame as we feel those roadblocks come up. That frustration doesn’t help us move forward, it slows us down.

If you’re a frequent reader of my newsletter, you’ll know that I’ve embarked on a process of change in my own life as I try to shed my limiting beliefs and step out into the world as who I truly am. Over the last month, I’ve had significant amounts of anxiety which has resulted in panic attacks. While dealing with this struggle, I became frustrated at myself for “not getting it” and “failing” at this change. What I realized by listening to this podcast and by writing out my progress, was that I am progressing through the struggle and it changed how I felt.

Wrapping It Up

If you’re feeling frustrated at work because of the push-back to your reliability program, I recommend you write down every win that you’ve had. It could be something small like convincing your lube tech to filter the oil or it could be a save you’ve made using a predictive maintenance tool. Write that list out and see how you’re progressing. Keep it in a place that you have access to and refer to it when you need to change your state.

Thank you for spending your valuable time with me. I appreciate each and every one of you.

Reliability Never Sleeps,

Rob

Filed Under: Articles, on Maintenance Reliability, Rob's Reliability Project

About Robert Kalwarowsky

Robert Kalwarowsky joined Fluid Life in the spring of 2014 and currently focuses on machine learning, lubrication & reliability audits and reliability product development. Previously, Rob worked as a Reliability Engineer at Teck Resources and his work focused on condition-based monitoring analytics, failure prediction, risk analysis and spare parts optimization. He also has consulting experience in financial modeling with an emphasis on optimization and cost benefit analysis. Prior to that, Rob graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Management.

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