How to Build Confidence And Be Less Nervous
Learning to Step Into Your Stretch Zone With Joy
😎 Are you a confident person? Honestly - are you? How do you feel when you try something new, enter a big room full of people, or get ‘put on the spot’?
If you ask me this question my first answer is: “YES! I’m confident!”, followed up by, “I had a fortunate upbringing, positive life paths and some relevantly useful character traits.” And it’s true, I do now feel confident most of the time.
If I’m honest, though, it wasn’t always this way. I used to be a bit of a wreck, in truth. I was unsuccessful at school, generally erratic, full of self-doubt and I never, ever arrived at anything on time because it felt too stressful and risky. Hmmm, not so confident after all!
Now, however, I’m solid, consistent, comfortable in my own skin and have fairly good boundaries.
So I’m asking myself, what’s brought about this change? And as I got into it, I realised that I wanted to formulate a path towards confidence for you, too, and make a list of tips and hints.
Cue an appropriate challenge: to post a Confidence Trick per day on LinkedIn (Follow at www.linkedin.com/company/the-offer-bank/ . Search #TheOfferBankConfidenceTricks for all 30 posts.
Point is, how did this make me feel? It made me feel UNCONFIDENT, my friends - unconfident.
I’ve put myself into my Stretch Zone and suddenly, the nerves were going. I’ve got butterflies.
But I’ve given myself a three-pronged confidence scaffolding (tentpoles, if you will). Let me explain:
I have a support network.
My wonderful facilitator fam at FLOWN.com and our ‘Back To Flown’ month (a back-to-school reset) makes me feel brave.
I have an achievable daily goal.
It’s a little post each day and it’s my specialist subject. It doesn’t all have to arrive fully formed and perfect. Bite-sized is best.
I have taken the focus off myself.
Make the scary thing external and you’ll immediately lower the stakes. It’s no longer your very being that’s held up to scrutiny, just a piece of advice. It' helps to realise who / what you’re gifting with your actions. So this collection of posts isn’t about me: it’s about a reader feeling empowered.
Want to feel a bit more confident? Need a team at work to step into their Stretch Zone?
Follow me on LinkedIn this month for the tips and techniques I’ve picked up along the way as Former Chaotic Mess Turned Confidence Coach (links above).
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