Jordan and Frima needed practical advice on how to believe in themselves. They might be newcomers to the world of work and to romantic relations, but this does not mean that they do not have basic skills to do very well in both. They forget that they have some base in all the lessons that life has given them up to now, including from family, friends, teachers, and their own learning experiences.

Even when life lessons are negative, they can contribute to positive psychological growth. It is not so much a matter of what life gave you but of what you take from it and how you make the best of it. The best leapers might start out as the gangliest of kids.

You might have had experiences that you think have scarred you, but life begins anew each day, and when you decide that it is time to begin to let go the problems and bad habits that you might have developed in your past, the present will become easier and more positive.

By knowing your core strengths and core values, you can help keep a good outlook no matter what situation you are in. By realizing that at your core there are many positives and that stress or difficult situations cannot change them for the worse, you will neither get overwhelmed easily nor feel out of control.

Getting a sense of control is not about controlling everything. Rather, it is an attitude that builds on knowledge that you can live, learn, and grow in any situation. You might have less skills compared to someone else, and surely that is true for all of us, but that does not mean that you have less potential, cannot learn to help yourself and others, and cannot improve to become your best.

Confidence in yourself is not determined only by what happens to you out there but also it is determined by what is inside you, how you approach situations, and what you think of yourself. Empowering the core starts with believing in it and wanting to have it grow.

You exercise physically, but also you should exercise psychologically. One relevant exercise for empowering the core is to imagine that you have a lack of self confidence and then saying to yourself that you will increase it by a good attitude and by learning the right skills. The first step in improving the self is wanting to improve the self, and the second is following through by taking the right steps. There are no magic solutions in self-improvement but there are magic beginnings and the time for you could be now.

Once your psychological core begins to become more positive, confident, and sure of itself, it will continue to grow because you will find that there is nothing more exciting or pleasurable. Gaining increased self-confidence and building better social connections because of it is the best reward that comes from working hard at self-improvement. You will see some of the change both at work and in your relations.

But can a new positive attitude and self-confidence last? Persisting at wanting to grow is the best positive habit that you could have. By keeping on this path, you will help others around you grow in this way, too. You will learn that psychological strength means more than being firm and sure of the self because it also means being flexible and sensitive to the other (but without sacrificing the self).

Being fair to yourself and to others is the fairest way to be. Self-confidence grows when the other, such as your work colleagues and life partner, are involved in a fair way in your life. Empowering your psychological core in this way will help empower the psychological core of the people around you. In turn, the increasing strength in their core will feed your increasing core power.

Jordan and Frima are learning these lessons well. They are embarking on new voyages in self-confidence and growth. Perhaps you will meet them in your psychological and life travels as you grow in the self-confidence in your core, too.