Are you 100% confident in all situations?

Probably not, and would you actually want to be? Let's face it a 100% confident person who never questions themselves and what they are doing, would possibly be a rather arrogant, unpleasant person! But you'd probably like to increase your confidence in certain situations, n'est-ce pas?

As women, we are extremely good at being hard on ourselves and very good at knocking our own confidence from inside! If you are allowing the negative gremlins in your head to dominate your thinking, you are not on the way to having the life you want (and deserve).

I believe we really need to get this issue of confidence sorted out once and for all, so we can stop preventing ourselves achieving all we are capable of. We miss out on so much because we don't feel confident enough to put ourselves forward for promotion or apply for a better job, or we don't believe that we could start and make a success of our own business so we don't even try.   This is becoming a bit of a hobby horse for me as I'm frustrated at seeing highly intelligent, capable women holding themselves back because they lack self belief!

Can we do something about this?

Yes, we certainly CAN! It is true that some people have more confidence than others (or at least appear to have). But we can all learn tactics and techniques which will raise and grow our existing self confidence and as we expand this level of confidence, we will attempt more and more things in which we will succeed, which will, in turn, develop our confidence and so on - it is like a glorious spiral upwards!!

ABC of Confidence

Here's an exercise you can do right away!

A= Analyse your confidence skills.  Get really clear about what skills you use in those situations when you already feel confident (think hard and find some as they are there - of course you are already confident in some situations). If you can be confident in some situations you can transfer these skills over to the situations you find more uncomfortable.

B = Be aware of how you feel and how you behave in all situations. Awareness is the key to change and without it you cannot unlock the door to your confident future, a future where you'll be achieving what you want and letting your light shine into the world!

C = Challenge yourself to go into 'new' situations. Make a decision to go to that networking meeting, or that party or apply for that job even if it's uncomfortable. If we don't take the risk we are missing out on so many new opportunities in life and business.

Take the time to write down your ABC and then make specific action plans to make some changes!
  
More Action!

Here's another exercise:

Make a list of (at least) ten positive qualities you possess, the aspects of yourself that you are most proud of. They could be things like integrity, responsiveness, flexibility, fun ....whatever you come up with needs to be positive of course!! Keep the list somewhere safe and add to it when you are feeling good about yourself. Take it out and look at it when you are preparing for a job interview, or a new situations, or at any time you are experiencing a dip in your confidence - this will give you a boost!

And if you'd like to do more then join my confidence building programme which combines personal support from me with online exercises you can do when you have time. The details are on this page www.katecobb.com

Good luck!

Kate
kate@movingforwardyourway.com