ANECDOTAL
As a small boy living in the
country with few and distant
neighbors, his closest playmate
was Jimmy. Jimmy rode on the
the house for lunch (he didn't
eat much). Jimmy was a good
friend even though invisible.
Early on he found he thought
about things his friends and
most adults didn't. He grew up believing he had a lucky star that always looked after him. Although sometimes accused by his peers of having been born "too serious," he created and enjoyed elaborate imaginative games, alone or with friends, physical and non-physical.
Because of a childhood physical problem, for most of his early years he believed he was defective in some way. Thus it came as a surprise when he learned indirectly that a high school teacher he respected considered him smart -- he had always considered himself below average. And it still came as a surprise when in his senior year at UVM he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated cum laude.
In Junior High he lacked self-confidence. He had a friend, Fred, who was almost annoyingly confident in all situations. When facing a situation he didn't know how to handle, Ray would ask himself what Fred would do in this situation, and then that is what he did. This "acting-as-if" worked and by his mid 20s he had become a confident person. You can, too!
