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7 confidence tips for daring greatly in your career

Confidence is the spice that will have you creating success on your terms. My tips will grow your self-belief in a way that’s easy and fun.

 

As a confidence coach in Manchester, I have this conversation a lot:

Client: “I really want to do it. It would be so amazing if I could [speak up more at work/apply for a promotion/be bolder in my business/start a new project]. I’ve been thinking about doing it for ages. I’m just too overwhelmed. And I’m scared I’m going to look stupid”.

Me: “What would need to be different for you to take action?”

Client: “I just need more confidence. If I had more self-belief that would change everything”.

Help is at hand. I’ve got 7 confidence tips to kick-start you into action:

1. Create a confidence soundtrack

If you could think of a song or piece of music that makes you feel confident, what would it be?

Maybe the music reminds you of a time when you felt particularly care-free or you achieved something you’re proud of. Perhaps there’s something about the beat or the artist singing that enables you to channel confidence when you listen it.

Experiment with listening to this music and moving your body before taking action towards something you’re feeling fearful about. By connecting to your inner confidence and getting out of your head, you’ll find it far easier to take that first step.

2. Connect to your confidence story

Without necessarily realising it, you’re always creating a narrative about your life and who you are. Sometimes we can find ourselves creating a narrative that we lack confidence and look for all the evidence we can find to support that story. But what if you were to connect with your confidence story instead?

In a journal write down a memory where you felt at your most confident. Note down all the visual details, sounds, smells and how you felt in your body. What did you believe about yourself at that time?

It can be particularly powerful to write this in the third person e.g. “Sally stood up on stage…” as this frees up any part of you that might feel critical or self-conscious about writing about yourself.

Consider examples of when you persevered even when you didn’t feel particularly confident to begin with. You’ll probably recognise that you were able to experience confidence as a by-product of persevering, rather than a pre-requisite to taking action.

3. Embody confident posture

Whilst people talk about the mind and body as separate entities, they work together as one system. When you’re feeling confident you will naturally hold yourself differently.

How your body feels when you’re feeling confident is completely unique for you.

Close your eyes and connect to a memory where you felt at your most confident (just like in tip 2). This time just concentrate on how your body felt. How did you hold yourself differently? What small adjustments can you make to your posture right now that makes the confident feeling even stronger?

The more regularly you practice embodying confidence, the easier it becomes. Just like flexing a muscle, you can move into your confident state by making these small adjustments to your posture and your confident mindset will follow as a result.

4. How can I serve?

This question is particularly powerful for ‘visibility’ goals like presentations, interviews or when you want to put yourself out there more for your business or employer. Your worries might naturally turn to yourself “what if I’m not good enough?” “what if I fail?” “what if I embarrass myself?” All these beliefs stir up nerves and cause procrastination or underperformance.

The cure here is to turn your attention outwards instead and ask “how can I serve?”

In whatever it is you’re doing, how can you help your audience? What would help them most? What would be most useful to them? What will your help bring them?

By focusing on how you can help others, concerns about your confidence levels naturally take a back seat.

5. Use a confident scent

This is a remarkably simple way of connecting with your confident self. Inhale a perfume, cologne or essential oil that reminds you of a time when you felt confident and you’ll find yourself transported there with all the accompanying thoughts and feelings.

When I want a confidence boost, I put on my favourite perfume which makes me feel confident, empowered and even a bit giddy about what lies ahead.

6. Connect to something bigger than you

Connecting to a bigger vision or purpose broadens your perspective and shifts your awareness away from worries about yourself towards what inspires and nourishes you.

For some people “something bigger” this might mean God, the Universe, nature, or Love. For others it’s about connecting to the positive impact the goal will bring to others. Perhaps your new project will change lives for the better. Maybe being able to spend more time with your family will transform your relationships with them.

Don’t get stressed about ‘finding your purpose’. Just ask yourself: “if there was something bigger than me which could support and strengthen me to take action towards this goal, what would it be?”

7. Use your strengths

When I work with people who are having a crisis of confidence, they’ve simply not created enough opportunities to use their strengths whether it’s at work or outside of a working context.

If you’ve lost touch with your strengths, ask yourself:

What strengths lead you to feeling most like ‘you’? Appreciating beauty? Using humour? Channelling your creativity? Showing love and kindness to others? Take the VIA Strengths Test to discover your strengths if you want to dive deeper.

These answers may lead you to things that you haven’t done since childhood. Perhaps they involve using strengths that you haven’t given yourself permission to use because they seemed to frivolous or ‘unproductive’. Let me bust that myth for you, because when we give ourselves the opportunity to use our strengths we feel more connected to ourselves, we feel in flow, our energy grows and we feel more confident. What could be more productive than that?

Stop over-thinking and take action with one tip

Finally, I encourage you to start taking action to grow your confidence today. Pick one tip that feels good for you and experiment with it this week.

 

22 June 2021