For many women fear and a lack of confidence holds them back from achieving the career and business that they really desire. They are holding back from pursuing their dreams and not utilising their full potential.
If this is you and deep down you know that you want more for your career or business, or you want to feel confident doing what you currently do, here are some tips which if you apply them, will give you a confidence boost.
1. Be clear about where you're going
Create a vision for what it is that you want for your career or business. And don't do this in isolation from your personal life because they are intertwined. What do you want to be doing in the next 5, 10 years? Don't let thoughts of I can't.... get in the way. If fear or a lack of confidence wasn't an issue, what would you really be doing?
If you have a clear vision of what you want, when you face setbacks such as redundancy, or failing to win that contract, if you know where you're heading, it is easier to get back on track.
2. Have a plan
Devise a plan that will enable you to achieve your vision. Let it be your roadmap to get you there. What skills do you have and what skills do you need to develop? What are the milestones that will get you there?
Set yourself goals and frequently review your progress, adjusting them if necessary along the way.
Having a plan and setting yourself goals not only serves as your roadmap to achieve your vision, it will also help to keep you motivated.
3. Define your own personal measure of success
Success is very subjective and what success means to you may be totally different to someone else. But often we base our definition of success on what other people say it should be or what the media says it should be.
What are your values and the things that really matter to you? Success doesn't have to mean getting to the c-suite or earning a 7 figure income if that is not what you want. Define you own personal measure of success, based on who you are and what matters to you, not on what someone else says it should be.
4. Stay away from the pity parties
Your thoughts become your reality, they shape the way you feel about yourself and this helps you form a belief about the outcome of what it is that you want to do. This in turn affects how you act and behave.
if you are thinking that you're not good enough or that you can't do something, chances are that will be your reality, you won't achieve it and you will start having a pity party.
DON'T go to the pity party. Learn to recognise when your thoughts are making you self sabotage and rationalise them. What is the worst possible outcome if you were to pursue what it is that you really want to do? And if that was to happen, what could you do about it?
5. Take baby steps
If what you want to achieve in your career or business seems too overwhelming, take baby steps. Rather than looking at everything that needs to be done, getting overwhelmed, panicking and then procrastinating, break it down in to manageable chunks, focusing on one step at a time.
If you are stuck in a comfort zone or the task at hand seems too overwhelming, it can be easy to panic and procrastinate and then you don't take action to make changes to your situation. Taking baby steps will help to alleviate the overwhelm.
6. Accept yourself for who you are
Comparing yourself to others, putting yourself down because you can't do certain things or you're not good at them will only affect your self belief and make you feel crap about yourself.
There are multiple facets to you, you have many skills and abilities, things that you are good at and things you are not good at. This is the case for everyone on the planet. Rather than focusing on the things that you aren't good at, recognise that there are many aspects to you and those things that you are not good at don't determine who you are.
Make a list of all your good qualities, skills, abilities, competencies, the things that you do well. List everything whether it is work related or not. What do other people tell you that you are good at? What do other people like about you? Then make a list of the things that you are not so good at.
You should now have a long list that shows you that you are not a single entity and that there are many components to you. Some things you are good at and some things that you are not. Recognise and accept that you are so much more than the things you can't do.
7. Get support
No man is an island, we all need help and support to navigate through life. Who can help you on your journey?
If self limiting beliefs, lack of clarity and direction, lack of motivation, fear and a lack of confidence are holding you back, get a coach. If you want to learn from the expertise of someone who has trod the path before you, get a mentor.
Pair up with someone else who is also striving to achieve something and become accountability buddies. Check in with each other frequently to review progress, encourage and motivate each other and to hold each other to account. Join a mastermind group or other form of support group or create one yourself.
Remember you don't have to go through this alone, there are a variety of ways in which you can get support.
These tips will only help you if you take action, do something and move forward. So what will you do differently as a result of reading this post?
Originally Published on LinkedIn
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash