I talk A LOT about pulling up your BIG PANTS and just getting on with it in relation to building confidence. But there is much more to big pants than meets the eye! The first thing to say is that when you talk about big pants, people resonate with it, they usually smile and smiling makes you feel great, maybe even a bit more confident (go on, smile, give it a go, you know you want to).
I’m not really one for positive affirmations, unless they really mean something to you and they are deep rooted meaning that you’ll actually live by them. But every now and then something comes along that really means something to you and then it has the ability to truly become your mantra.
That something is ‘Pull up your big pants’ and it has become my mantras over the last couple of years or so it’s helped to build my own confidence levels and continues to do so.
When I was thinking about starting my business I vividly remember going to my first ever networking event and walking down the street, feeling really nervous about it. I even considered not going and spending the hour shopping (no-one would know would they?). I managed to get a grip on myself and heard myself saying “Come on Gayle, pull up your big pants and just do it”. It goes without saying that I’m glad I did it because the fear I had soon dissolved when I found myself sat amongst some friendly, welcoming business owners.
From that point on BIG PANTS were here to stay and they have been in our household vocabulary ever since. There’s nothing quite like having your own mantra quoted back at you out loud on any occasion to spur you into action!
It’s important to remember when we talk about confidence that it’s about what we think and believe we can & can’t do, and if you believe that you can do something by pulling up your big pants your confident feeling will most definitely be heightened, they help you to believe that you can, because YOU CAN.
You see, when you pull up the big pants you get an instant feeling that it will be okay, you stand taller and suddenly you feel more confident. It’s a little bit like when a hero pulls on a cape, it comes with a built in superpower.
It’s worth taking a moment to visualise what your big pants look like for you, don’t worry I won’t be asking you to share that visual image with anyone! Once you have a picture of them in your mind, it will be easier to imagine yourself pulling them up.
But big pants are BIGGER than simply just pulling them up. In that moment where you have decided to pull them up you have made a decision. Yes you still feel nervous, anxious or scared, you’ll take your concerns seriously – they are justifiable and real feelings. However you have made a decision to do something and this triggers a surge of confidence to flow through you giving you a little shot of courage to take action.
Throw your big pants at that fear in the ultimate expression of assertiveness.
Once you’ve thrown your big pants at fear you will realise that a lot of it is wrapped up in indecision or maybe you were in fact wearing your procrastination pants!
Procrastination is one of the most common cop-outs that prevent us from pulling up our big pants, it’s like having a bug in the system, ants in your pants!
These procrastination pants are holding you back, stopping you in your tracks, preventing you from taking action. So I challenge you to change those pants right now for a pair of BIG PANTS and to make one small decision to move forward by taking one small action that will make you feel more confident.
I know it’s all easier said than done and we all have a tendency to avoid things that we don’t like or don’t want to do. We listen to our inner child saying ‘there is absolutely no way am I doing that’! So by making a decision to pull up our big pants we allow ourselves to become the wise, mature, capable, competent, logical & experienced adult that we are, enabling us to get jobs done, make plans and take action. They engage your sensible, responsible self because you know that you have to do it!
Big pants allow you to take control, choosing how you want to respond to events happening around you and how you want interact with people. They let you assertively look fear in face and deal with it by making a decision to take action.
So come on then, pull up your BIG PANTS and just do it – because actually what’s the best that can happen?
The power of the BIG PANTS is palpable.
