The gift of giving is perhaps one of the most important things you can do to get you closer to achieving success. It's definitely important to focus your efforts on getting to your goal, but the one problem with goal setting is that you tend to have a "Me" focused attitude. You should focus on the gift of giving, and find a way where you can add value to someone else. Zig Ziglar said it best: "You can have everything you want in life if you will just help enough other people get what they want."

If you want more courage, use the gift of giving and find a way to encourage someone else. If you want confidence, instill confidence in someone who needs it more. My mentor told me a story about how one of his employees developed self-confidence by simply instilling confidence in someone else. In this article, let's call her Mary. When my mentor conducted a performance review, he discovered that Mary lacked self-confidence to perform her role to the highest standards. He knew that Mary had a great deal of potential, so he decided to help her build her self-esteem and self-confidence.

My mentor knew that pep talks and positive reinforcement were not enough for Mary to boost her self-confidence. He knew that Mary would need to help someone else gain confidence in himself before she could develop her own confidence. So he encouraged Mary to spend some time with someone who lacked self-confidence. Mary knew a girl who lived in her neighborhood that lacked confidence. Mary talked to the girl, and found out that she enjoyed soccer, but did not excel in it, so she didn't feel confident in herself. Mary excelled at soccer, so she decided to coach the girl as her gift of giving. After spending time coaching the girl, Mary noticed that the girl's self-confidence grow dramatically. When Mary saw how this girl grew in confidence right before her eyes, her own self-confidence started to grow because she knew the value she was contributing to the girl's life. Once her self-esteem and self-confidence expanded, my mentor mentioned that her performance increased dramatically.

While it's important to stay focused on your goals and doing everything you can in your power to achieve them, take a step back once in a while and think about what area in your life you would like to develop. Then find someone who needs it more, and help that person develop in that area. Through that gift of giving, you will see yourself making improvements in that area without even thinking about. Just remember what Zig Ziglar said about helping enough people get what they want first, and then you can have anything you want.