Last week, in our post, Imposter Syndrome: You’re Not Alone, we encouraged you to watch the short TED-Ed talk, What is Imposter Syndrome and How Can You Combat It?. We hope it was helpful to learn more about this surprisingly common experience that can seriously undermine your confidence, and get in the way of success.
As a result of last week’s post, we had a lot of people asking if there is any way to bolster their confidence.
Many of us have been made to believe that there are confident people and people who lack confidence and that there wasn’t much you could do about it. Yet, what we’re coming to understand is that confidence is a practice, and some people have had more practice building confidence in their life experiences than others.
To support you, we’ve identified the 5 areas that you can focus on to grow your confidence, and express it effectively. Here are the 5 C’s of Self-Confidence:
- Conviction:
- Conviction is the practice of reflecting on and coming to know your truth.
- Many of us never name what we believe in because we’ve been taught to “go with the flow” or follow direction…but you can do both!
- You can go with the flow and follow direction if you choose, and still know what you believe.
- When you know what you believe vs. what you’re expected to believe by others in your life, you have more choices about what you do with your beliefs.
- Certainty:
- Confidence in its simplest form is trusting your truth – holding that your truth is your truth.
- Knowing your truth and having a sense of which truths you trust and which you’re not so sure about will help you become clear about what you have confidence in.
- Commitment:
- Once you begin to have some truths, some beliefs, and you trust yourself you can then take the next step in practicing self-confidence — and that’s considering how your truth can actually guide your actions.
- Courage:
- For those of us who have not known our truths or have hidden them from others, taking action on your truth requires courage because it’s a new way of moving in the world that is less “other” based and more from your own internal guidance system.
- Connection:
- Being confident in yourself isn’t about being arrogant or uninfluenceable. It’s about staying clear that this is your truth, while respecting their truth.
Remember, confidence is something you work on over time. You may start to feel more confident and then get hit with a surprise that deflates you which is to be expected, so don’t give up!
When you’re learning a new way of being in the world the ups and downs go hand in hand. It’s a lot like when you learned to walk – falling down actually helped you figure out how to walk more steadily.
This week we hope you’ll choose one of the 5 C’s to focus on, and then choose another one next week. The goal is for you to start to build your confidence in a simple way so that you can start having the successes you desire.
We’re here for you!