Exactly how does one get more confident.

Today I wanted to talk about confidence and how it affects the results we get in business. Every day we read the papers and hear stories of big companies going bust or having a big drop in share prices because the market has lost confidence in the business, or in its leadership. It’s no different for us.

In fact as women, our personal confidence affects how people perceive us and whether they are willing to do business with us in the first place and whether they are happy to pay you what you think you are worth.

Words by Griselda Togobo 

Confidence also affects our ability to pursue bigger and better opportunities so we can achieve our dreams and aspirations.

So confidence is such a key ingredient in business success and personal growth and everybody should make an effort to increase their confidence over time – just so that you can you step out there in a bigger way and truly go for your dreams.

I wanted to share three quick tips on how to improve your confidence in less than 5 to 10 minutes. Every day you can do these, anywhere and anytime, especially if you find yourself losing confidence and feeling you’re not deserving to be where you are.

Just do one of these often and you’ll find yourself feeling better and confident.

What stories are you telling yourself?

So the first tip is really about the stories that we tell ourselves. If you keep telling yourself that you’re stupid, you’re undeserving then it’s going to be more of the same. You’re just going to be doing more of the same because our thoughts become actions.

If you need to change how you feel about yourself then you need to stop thinking the way you’re thinking. So tell yourself some really positive stories. Tell yourself you’re good enough; if you get something wrong it doesn’t mean that you’re a loser, everybody gets things wrong.

Visualise – so put things in perspective.

The second tip is really about visualising the results that we want, so if you’re about to go on stage you don’t start about thinking about falling off the stage and people laughing at you. That’s not going to make you a confident presenter. Rather you need to focus on being confident on stage and people love you being on stage. People are interested in what you have to say and the more you focus on these positive images, you will also come across more confident. This applies to all other areas, whether it’s a one-to-one meeting you’re having with somebody, the more you visualise a positive engaging outcome the more likely that’s to happen.

Take action.

Go out there, step outside your comfort zone and do what needs to be done. You can tell yourself positive stories. You can visualise yourself as being successful but if you don’t take action none of that is really going to make any difference, so confidence comes with doing things.

So when you next do something small and you step it up and do something slightly bigger and you get better results, over time that builds your confidence which grows through the level of activities that you do.

Business can be fun but it can also be tough.  You’ll face a lot of rejection, criticism and you fall several times, but you have to be tenacious. You have to be strong. You have to believe in yourself.

I hope you found this article useful. If you’re not on our mailing list then I encourage you to go to www.fowardladies/newsletter join the community there.

I look forward to meeting you at an event soon.

Here is your assignment:

1. Book onto an event, the bigger the better. Our National Awards, sponsored by HSBC, is the largest celebration of female led businesses in the UK. Here is the full list of our events.
2. Don’t come on your own, bring along a friend.
3. Show up on the day.
4. Connect with as many people as you can. Here are some networking tips to help you get started. 
5. Follow up after the meeting – this is where the magic happens.

Everyone is afraid to start, yet we are all in the same situation.

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