3 Top Tips for a Confidence Boost!

Confidence. When we’ve got it all manner of things become easier. When we’ve lost it all manner of things become harder…

It’s such a nebulous thing but fortunately there are things we can do to boost our confidence when the confidence wobble strikes.

Here are 3 of my favourite tips for becoming more confident:

1) Take a deep breath.

Not too deep – don’t hyperventilate! If you can, plant your feet firmly on the floor, hold your torso as straight as you can (stay comfortable), breathe out as much air from your lungs as is comfortable and now breathe in. Feel the breath flowing through your body. Try that a couple of times and then just breathe normally.

When we begin to feel lacking in confidence we tend to want to make ourselves small, hunch up and try not to be seen. That has the effect of further decreasing our confidence. (Read An Easy Confidence Boost for the science!) Looking more confident and allowing your body to breathe properly actually helps you to be more confident! Try it now.

2) Tame Your Inner Sabateur

We’ve all got one. That little voice just waiting for our defences to drop before it kicks in. On my Renewyou course I call this the internal mail that you really need to delete before reading it. Recognise the subject heading and do not open!

Take a few moments to listen to your inner dialogue when lacking in confidence. It may be something like “You can’t do that“, “What are you thinking? You’ll look ridiculous“, “Better to say nothing and not take a risk“, “Don’t get above yourself“, “You didn’t get the job last time, don’t put yourself through that again“.

You can really boost your confidence by harnessing that inner saboteur and converting it to your side. The negative message is very powerful in sapping confidence but the good news is that a positive message can be very powerful in boosting your confidence! Turn the negative into a positive. For more information on how to do this take a look at Tips on Positive Thinking but in essence talk kindly to yourself and be your own best friend.

3. Get Back in Your Zone of Confidence

Take yourself back in your mind’s eye to a time when it did come together. It may have been at school, in a previous job, or maybe just yesterday! Often we have confidence in certain areas of our lives and not in others. So we’ll happily undertake a half marathon but are fearful of public speaking. Or vice versa…

Focus on your confident area and remember there once was a time when you couldn’t do that either. (Read First You Wobble, not least because  it has a lovely picture which will make smile!). We get confident by having a go at something. If you can think yourself in the frame of mind when you are good at doing something, it’ll boost your confidence for that first time feeling. (Hope I’m making sense here!!). Take a few moments out to see yourself being good at something and shift your focus from failure to success!

If you have any tips to share on how to boost confidence, please do use the comments section below. I love to hear from you! And if you’ve enjoyed this post you might like to get them sent straight to your in box – simply fill in your email in the RSS box, top right of this page!

Photo Credit: Beth McDonald

No 2. You Can Be Fabulous in 2011!

Making significant change in our life is not always easy.

I’ve just been for a walk around the village I’ve lived in for over 30 years. Years ago a whole new development was added changing many of the footpaths. As I was walking today I found myself trying to take a defunct footpath. It hasn’t been there since my son was in a pushchair (he’s now 24!) yet my brain had that old pathway stored away and, because I wasn’t concentrating, led me up it!

And that’s what can happen to us with our new year resolutions. We want to make a change and all is well initially. But then we drop our focus for a moment, the work piles in, we get busy, or bored, or miserable and suddenly we’re back on an old pathway!

How Do YOU keep on Track?

What would work for you to keep you on track? It’s worth spending a little time anticipating that inevitable drop in enthusiasm and doing what you can now to keep your self focussed on success.

For example, if you use a paper diary, write an encouraging note to yourself for a month’s time. Or a pop up message on your mobile phone, or electronic diary. Or negotiate with a friend to help you; give them permission to remind you of your resolve! Perhaps you need to plan in a reward for yourself at an appropriate stage in proceedings? Or even take some professional advice and support?

You know best what works for you, so try and plan that in to give yourself the best chance of success and achieving your resolutions for 2011! And if you haven’t done so already, you could sign up now for my newsletter, which is packed full of inspiration and helpful tips to help you be fabulous in 2011!!

Follow Your Dreams!

In a recent article Jane Asher, actress and  successful businesswoman said, “If you have the choice, pursue what you enjoy”. Good advice, as long as you know what it is you enjoy!

When coaching I am always encouraging women to follow their dreams, whatever they are. And it is the knowing what we want that can sometimes be difficult. So many of us know that what we have is not fulfilling us, but just don’t know what we want instead (which is why I wrote ‘When Work isn’t Working‘.)

Any Age

Whatever age you are, it’s worth investing some time to work out what you want to be doing with your life. It may be something you can’t possible ever imagine achieving at this point in time, but it’s always good to have an aspiration. Knowing where you’d like to be in life will help you with all your decision making.

Maybe you have what currently seems like a fantasy of giving up the safe and reliable day job and instead running your own business? It may seem an impossible dream now but there will be things you can be doing now right now which will take you nearer your goal.

Free Help

For example, did you know that the tax office in UK provides all sorts of free seminars for would be business people? Or that Business Link has masses of information freely available on its web site? Get yourself a dream folder and when you see something helpful, put it in your resource pack!

Or maybe you can take up a part time role, perhaps unpaid with a charity, which will help you develop the skills you need to achieve your ultimate goal when the circumstances are right. Remember, luck has been defined as preparation meeting opportunity. Successful people in all walks of life have taken advantage of opportunities that have come their way but they have almost always put in the leg work beforehand.

And don’t let age stop you! Many dot com millionaires are still in their teens when they make it and equally many who have achieved their dreams have done so later in life. I was in my late forties when I pursued my dream working life! And Beryl Cook, at one point the most famous popular artist in Britain, didn’t sell a picture until she was in her sixties!

So what is your dream for your life? And what can you do right now to help take you a step nearer?

And if you’re not sure, please do try out my free visualisation- simply click the link up on the right ‘Your Perfect Day‘.