How to Build Self-Confidence + Success

“I love the smell of possibility in the morning.” - Unknown

Last week, I shared my “pull weeds” system to help make life easier. Today, I’m sharing my favorite ritual for building confidence and success, and it may surprise you because it’s not the usual advice one hears.

PLANT SEEDS

For me, planting seeds is a daily morning ritual that is on par with washing my face: both have the most profound impact for nourishing radiance.

THE “PLANTING SEEDS” SYSTEM

Planting seeds is any action that has the potential for personal or professional growth, such as connecting with colleagues, applying for a new opportunity, or taking a new class. It’s Step #4 in the Savor Beauty Planner.

If there is one ritual that brings and replenishes abundance, it’s planting seeds. In fact, it’s what helped me to build a 7-figure skincare brand.

When I first started creating lotions and potions in my kitchen, I planted multiple seeds every day—usually in the morning when I feel fresh and energized. I…

• called different farmers and asked questions about their ingredients.

• purchased various ingredients, such as rose hip, evening primrose, and pumpkin, to test which ones felt the best on the skin.

• went to Whole Foods and conducted unofficial tests on random customers to get their blind feedback on which lotions or sugar scrubs they preferred—either my own concoctions or “competitor” brands I loved.

Eventually, I planted hundreds of seeds to start my skincare business. Some didn’t grow, while others blossomed. Some seeds took a few minutes to sprout, while others took years.

After planting my seeds, I try to detach from the outcome and trust that each flower will bloom when the time is right. Working toward goals and simultaneously letting them go is not giving up; it’s creating the freedom and room to allow small and big miracles to flow into our lives.

Planting seeds is an antidote to the fear of rejection and a tonic for confidence.

If you don’t plant seeds daily, it’s easy to become attached to random outcomes, which breeds insecurity and fear. Think about it: if you have very few seeds that you’ve planted, each outcome matters significantly to you.

If you plant seeds as a daily ritual, you don’t become attached to any one outcome and gain an attractive confidence as you experience a multitude of blossoming seeds.

Prepandemic, all of my seeds were professional. They included pitching a new product to the QVC producers, traveling to Seoul with my mom and daughter, and planning self-love events with like-minded partnerships.

My daily seed list looked like this pre-pandemic:
• Schedule walk-and-talk meetings with new staff members.
• Pitch to three beauty editors.
• Email Seoul contacts.
• Send beauty-event presale announcement to partners.
• Connect with QVC buyers.

I planted this QVC seed years in advance of getting onto the Beauty IQ channel!

When COVID-19 and the New York City lockdown wiped out all of those plans, QVC suspended all of its live segments. I didn’t see my mom for over a year. All work and personal events were canceled.

So instead of planting seeds to achieve company goals, I began planting seeds that helped me to grow personally.

In 2020, my daily seed list looked more like this:
• Do meditations and “I am radiant” affirmations.
• Sign up for virtual Kundalini yoga class.
• Go on socially distanced hikes.
• Read The Magic by Rhonda Byrne.

Planting seeds helps you radiate confidence

Personal growth translated to business success, as intuition and confidence guided me to make decisions with wisdom and clarity.

You can use the “planting seeds” system for anything from dating (yes, responding to app messages is a seed!) to finding a job to building a business. I teach my employees to plant seeds, and this is how we build confidence and success as a team.

And if you plant just three seeds a day, you will have planted over 1000 seeds in one year.

Before you know it, you will have a gorgeous metaphorical garden filled with abundance, beauty, and joy. ☀️

Edited excerpt from RADICAL RADIANCE: 12 Weeks of Self-Love Rituals by Angela Jia Kim.
Copyright © 2022 by the author and reprinted with permission of St. Martin's Publishing Group.