Tony Suriano walks through building confidence by doing the thing you fear, then using creativity tools like ChatGPT to generate one activity to practice for a week. He shares his own shift from shy kid to stage director, showing how each skill you learn feeds back into confidence and joy.
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You got to get into the thing first and learn from the failures you will inevitably have. If you don't think that way, you will not create and generate the confidence that will serve your life. First off, thank you for being here. You're with me in my backyard. If you're on YouTube watching, you'll see the backyard is green. It's raining. I hope the audio is still great here. I'll tweak it in post if I have to. I'm Tony Suriano. I'm your host today, and today we're talking about creativity, confidence, and that J word— joy. Are you bringing it? If you're here, you probably are, because so many people say they want more creativity, they want confidence, they want smiles, they want joy in their life, but they're doing nothing about it, baby. But you're here, and I appreciate you. And I respect you. Also, I know if you're here, you want to share the wealth, you want to connect with people better. And that's why I thank you in advance for sharing this episode to someone that needs to hear it. Thank you in advance. Today, confidence. Let's jump into confidence. But before we do, think about why you want to be confident. What could you have if you had more confidence? Who could you connect with? What conversations might you have that you're missing out on now? I want you to frame it that way because if you don't have a target and a goal of why you want confidence, you're not going to go after it. Can we agree on that? So for me, confidence leads me into more joy because I know if I see someone that's compelling, let's say they get off a stage somewhere, I was watching them speak. And then I see them over there and I want to say hi to them and see if I can grab some wisdom, even in 30 seconds. I know if I have confidence, I'll go over there, treat them like a regular person that has some wisdom, say hello, and I might get something amazing in my life from it. I might not. It might just be a cool conversation and that's it. But at least I went up and had the conversation. Have you ever had that with someone that maybe you're attracted to? You see them, you don't go up to them, and you You think about it all day and you say, why, why didn't I do it? Yeah, that was me years ago. It took me almost a decade to just be able to be free and condition that confidence so that didn't happen anymore. So these are the things I think about when I want confidence. And then the best way to get confidence is to go and do the thing that you think you can't do. I know it sounds simple and almost counterintuitive, but you can't wait to get full competency to then do the confident thing. You have to get into the thing first. Sure, if you can prep a little, that's great, but you got to get into the thing first and learn from the failures you will inevitably have. If you don't think that way, you will not create and generate the confidence that will serve your life. Simple as that. If you lack confidence or you know there's another level, I have several ideas for you, but let's just say a universal one is to write down why you want that confidence, what your life would look like if you had that confidence, and then what's the number one thing you can do today to get into it. To learn, to fail, to take in, and then repeat. The more you do that, that's how you gain competency. And then you get more likely to take on the next confidence endeavor without questioning yourself. You don't want that doubt. When doubt seeps into the brain, we pause, and then we procrastinate. And then guess what? The opportunity, that person, they're gone. And you don't know when the next one's going to be there for you. So get confidence by doing. Number 2, today, creativity. We all want to be more creative, right? Doesn't creativity bring that new joy in your life? Think about a time in your past. When were you creative? Let's go back to being a free child. You didn't have so many responsibilities, so you see something and you go, oh, I want to make something. This is fun. Then the weight of society, the, hey, don't do that, don't write that on the wall if that was you, don't take a bat, throw up. I used to use whiteout and a bat inside, and I'd, you know, I was creative, and I'd swing this whiteout and it blasted all over the walls. My mom didn't like that, but I was being creative. I didn't have a baseball at the time, I had a baseball bat. Okay. Now what I'm saying is not to get a bat and go Hit things you shouldn't unless you're really angry. They have rage rooms. You could do that. I, I don't know if those work, but I've heard of them. Haven't done them. I digress. To be creative is to be, to be human, to live, to enjoy. And if you're not as creative as you want, what do you do? It's similar to confidence. Just pick something. But I do have a special tool for you. If you haven't heard about this, it's called ChatGPT or a friend. If you're in doubt and you don't know how to be creative or what to do to get more creativity, just type in top 20 things I could do today to be creative and you'll have your list. And guess what? This is the most important thing. It's the biggest secret. Just pick one and do it for the rest of the week. See what happens when you stretch yourself and you try something new. When it's a little harder than the usual day, you get into focus mode, you get into flow mode, and then you get into joy mode. That's the third thing. How much joy are you having when you walk around this beautiful, magical world? Or are you just— Going in the motions, and days are blurring into weeks, into months, and then you don't remember what happened last year. There's so many people I meet and I ask, "How was your week?" Uh, it was good. It's all right. And then they put their mouth together. They press their lips together, which means they're holding something back. If that's you, let's change that. Find that list of creative things you can do. And pack it into your week. I promise you, you will enjoy your week more. You'll have better conversations, and this will spark your joy for the rest of the year if you just keep that in mind. I know this is what I'm all about my whole life. Once I realized that I can decide when to be creative, and I can be creative with a piece of paper and a pen, that's it. That's all I need. It's the cheapest creativity tool ever— paper and pen. I will either draw, I'll write a story. I used to make paper airplanes, which I might go back to doing sometime as an adult because it's still pretty cool. There's so many things you could do. Pick one, do it, go after it. And this ties into confidence because if you gain the creativity bug And you try something new that's a little hard and challenging, that is the loop. You get confidence because you're getting that competence in that new skill. Then your brain's like, oh, I did something hard. I learned a skill. I want that over there. It seems like that's for confident people, but you know what? I'm going after it. And then you do, and it's on repeat. And that's what happened to me. I used to be the shyest person. I couldn't look people in the eyes much, even my own grandmother, growing up into my early teens. And then I started to want more for myself. I wanted to go on stage. I wanted to become an actor, a filmmaker. I wanted to direct. And to direct, you have to have some confidence. When you direct films, you need to talk to each department and you need to tell them what you want and what you seek so they can fulfill it. And that, my friend, is my shift in everything from shyness, lack of confidence, to now speaking on stages and getting paid as a director and actor. That's my beautiful creative confidence and joy spiel for you. Get out there and bring more joy in your life because you can decide to do it. You can decide what to focus on. What things mean and what actions you're going to take to empower your life. This is how you direct your life. And this is what excites me, baby. If this excites you, drop a comment wherever you're listening to this, or if you're watching on YouTube, please subscribe. Share this episode with people that need to hear it, because the more you share, the more the channel grows, and then the more people actually are a pleasure to be around. That's the benefit extension. I know it seems a little cheesy, but isn't it true? If you send something good to someone and it sparks that goodness in them, it's a ripple effect. That's what happened to me. That's why I try my best to surround myself with people further along than myself and people that just have great attitudes, great feelings. They're helpful, they connect me, and they just bring joy to my life. That's it for this episode. Thank you again. Don't forget, get out there and direct your life. Don't forget, get out there and direct your life.
