How To Become More Assertive

I am a person who at many times in my life have felt down and depressed about various issues that I have had in my life such as the fact that I had a speech impediment, stuttering. I was desperate to find a way to stop stammering/stuttering and was more than happy to work hard to achieve fluency.

From reading life coaching and positive thinking books, I realised I had to become a far stronger person, more care-free and to have more respect for myself. I decided that if I did not want to go somewhere I wouldn’t, whatever anyone said. I was well aware that it would be tough to ensure that I kept up this new found attitude but I knew I had to give it my best shot.

Then came the first challenge to this new found attitude; it happened at my friend Ian’s house. He is a very successful business man; he provides an SEO service for a living and can be quite an assertive person, he also works with a group of cost reduction specialists and has just sold a poster printing business. He was trying to organise a night out for the following Saturday. There were numerous reasons why I did not want to go out on that particular night. Ian soon asked if I was interested in going out to which I answered in the negative.

That answer was not enough for him and he proceeded to question my reasons for not wanting to go. I felt all of the eyes of the people present descend on me and I felt quite awkward. Normally in this situation I would give some excuse but instead I asked him why I needed to give a reason and why my answer of no was not enough for him. To say that he was shocked would have been an understatement; he was actually speechless.

Things are now far much brighter in my life; I have achieved fluency with the help of a chap called Steve from The How To Stop Stuttering Centre in the UK and I am generally a far more confident person.