Self-confidence is something that impacts the belief you have in yourself, your abilities, your self-worth, and filters through to the decisions you make in everyday life such as your career moves.  

Ever backed out of going for the promotion because you didn’t feel confident enough?  Or maybe what you really desire is to pursue a new career but haven’t the confidence to go back to college?  The good news is whatever area your self-confidence is low, it can be developed.   Confidence is not about striving for perfection, true confidence is believing in your own unique self.  

Low self-confidence can originate from life experiences such as failing an exam, having self-limiting beliefs (I’m not smart enough), or having been bullied and taken the words of the abuser as truth. These beliefs can then affect the level of roles we apply for or the career path we truly want to pursue.  It’s surprising how negative experiences can show up in our lives for years without even realising their impactor.  Building confidence requires us to look at our beliefs and inner dialogue.  

Here are 7 tips you can implement to improve your self-confidence and potentially transform your life:

1. Bash your Inner Critic – Think of yourself as a security guard for your thoughts and be aware of what type of thoughts you are allowing to enter your mind.  Your inner critic may be making an appearance more often than any positive thought, so start listening out for the negatives and only let the positives in.  Les Brown, the motivational speaker, is famous for highlighting the power of our thoughts especially the power of “I am”.  Les believes these are the two most powerful words you will ever speak as what follows them becomes your reality.  What words are following your “I am”?  

2. Start Daily Positive Affirmations – Affirmations are so effective in transforming your opinion of yourself and reprogramming your subconscious mind.  Whatever it is you lack confidence in, state a positive affirmation to develop confidence e.g. I am beautiful, I am smart, I am….. (whatever is relevant for you).  Write these out each morning repeatedly and say to yourself throughout the day.  In the moments when your self-talk is negative, switch it to the affirmation.  Through repetition, you will start to believe it. What narrative are you telling yourself?  

3. Develop a Growth Mindset – Carol Dweck, from Stanford University, developed the concept of a growth mindset. This is the belief that your ability to learn is not fixed, it can change with your effort.  Adopting a growth mindset is a great way to begin increasing confidence as once you deepen your knowledge on a particular area, your confidence in your ability will also grow.  What mindset have you got?  

4. Review your habits – Are your habits helping you to be more confident or are they a part of the problem?  Think about this.  Are your results because of poor habits?  Do you scroll social media and compare yourself to others?  These types of habits do not serve you well.  A great way to introduce a positive habit is to habit stack, a method suggested by James Clear author of Atomic Habits.  This is where you create a new habit right after an existing habit that is already in place e.g. following brushing your teeth.  This makes it easier for the new habit to stick. 

5. Set Goals – Achieving goals is a great way to boost confidence so start by setting small achievable goals and gradually increase them.  Achieving goals will do wonders for your self-confidence.  I recommend keeping a record of your daily wins.  This helps us to become aware of our successes and do remember, small wins lead to big wins. 

6. Hire a Coach or Mentor – Coaching is an excellent tool to help dig deep into those limiting beliefs and help you to see things from a different perspective, develop clarity, and unlock potential.  Mentoring is a great way of escalating your knowledge in an area by learning from an expert already in that field. Both coaching and mentoring can propel your development in a short time period.

7. Have a Powerful Circle – It is believed we become the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with.  Be mindful of who you are spending your time with and be aware that not everyone may support your growth.  Don’t be brought back down because of the fears or the limiting beliefs of others.  This is your journey and your time to start believing in you so spend time with people who build you up! 

The above tips are a great starting point to begin developing your self-confidence.  Only you can begin the change process and you can do it.  Make the decision it’s time to start believing in you!

Our new 6-week Self-Confidence Programmer starts Thursday, 23rd of September. Book your discovery call to find out more https://bit.ly/SepProgramme