Self-confidence is essential to high performance. When you exult self-confidence, you can better take risks, learn faster, and go beyond what you think may be possible for your career. There is only one problem – many skilled professionals have more doubts than confidence.
Why are intelligent people so full of doubts? Here is my take on why. Look at these three sentences below. What do they have in common?
- I can be more confident when I successful complete this project
- I can be more confident when leaders recognizes my skills and contribution
- I can be more confident when I know about this subject
These are all self-limiting statements basically telling ourselves that we are not enough yet and that we can only be more confident when something more happens. If you can related to any of these statements, then you are limiting yourself from being confident today.
I will tell you a secret -You can be confident right now with exactly what you know today. You just need to be give yourself permission. You have the power to be confident NOW without depending on future action or outside factor.
Giving yourself the permission to be self-confidence may not be as easy as it sounds. Here are five tips to help you get there
Tip 1: Surround yourself with your supporters – there is no room in your life for people that like to put you down. Do you have anybody like that around you? If you, stop being around them. Distance yourself.
Tip 2: Amplify your inner ally and tell your inner critic to shut up – the most damning voice on your confidence is actually your own. You have two voices internally – choose to listen to the supportive one – your inner ally. Yes, you can ignore your “inner-critic”! In fact, I insist.
Tip 3: Have short memories of “mistakes.” – The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake. That’s how you learn and evolve. Yet many over-achiever swill dwell on “mistakes” for days, months, even years and let it chip away at their confidence. A mistake is simply an opportunity to learn and nothing more. So don’t make it mean anything more.
Tip 4: Just try it and start with your physical posture – Having confidence is a mental/emotional muscle. Similar to the physical muscle on your body, the more you try it, the more it will stick and become a habit. You can start with something fairly simple – stand up straight and walk tall. I know it sounds trivial, but posture is key to self confidence. Those with low confidence usually hunches over. Here is a Ted talk on “Fake it until you make it” that will tell you more about this.
Tip #5: Work for a leader that believes in you – I had the fortune of working for someone in the last 3 years that really believes in me. She would tell me with 150% conviction the things I can do before I believed it myself. We all need leaders like that in our lives. I have probably tried more things I didn’t think I can do because of her conviction.
This posts highlights just some of the things we discussed on our last month’s coaching call – How to Build Your Self Confidence. For more details on this topic, listen to the full coaching call here.
Your comments: What is your level of self-confidence? Which of these tips helped you the most? What will you do tomorrow to boost your self-confidence? I look forward to your comments
Your comments: Do you have an inner voice that tells you that you are not enough? Do you where it comes from and how to ignore it? I look forward to hearing from you.
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