ABSTRACT
Three elements make up the assertive behavior of an individual-what is said, what is done (behavior), and the inside components-the thought, emotion and self-confidence that underlie behavior. I touched on the issue of what is said in the last chapter-but there is much more to come on that. Then there is the display of behavior-how a person speaks, how she stands, how her face looks, gestures, and so on. There is also the inside component that is the driving force of behavior-feelings, thoughts, emotions, and the longer-term orientations such as self-esteem, where a person feels she fits in her academic, social, family, and personal worlds. In this chapter, I am mainly going to focus on the overt display of behavior and I will begin to deal with thought, emotion and self-confidence, and in particular its relationship to the display of behavior. Sometimes these mental activities (thought, emotion, and self-confidence) and display of behavior are at odds, and you need to be aware of this in yourself and in others. Though you can often only guess what is going on in the mind of another, your guessing is likely to affect the manner in which you choose to behave with her.
