What are the best confidence boosting tips for women?
You know, we don’t enter the world with it. No one has it all of the time. Talking about it won’t help you gain it. I’m referring to self-confidence. We, women, have particular difficulty developing self-confidence. Compared with men, women don’t consider themselves as ready for promotions, they predict they’ll do worse on tests, and they generally underestimate their considerable abilities. And, yet, self-confidence is linked to almost every element involved in a happy and fulfilling life.
Confidence gives you the skills and coping methods to handle setbacks and failures. Self-confidence doesn’t mean you won’t sometimes fail. But you’ll know you can handle challenges and not be crippled by them. Even when things don’t turn out anywhere close to what you planned, you’ll be able to avoid beating yourself up.
Reflect for a moment on how self-confident you think you are. How confident do you feel around your work? What about your confidence when you are with friends and your family? How confident do you feel about making a presentation at work or talking to a stranger?
You, and only you, can make new things happen in your life. If you wait for serendipity to provide you with good fortune, or with increased confidence, you’ll be waiting a long time. Realize that the path toward self-confidence is one that you will have to travel — no one else can do it for you.
If you lack confidence and want to build your self-confidence, it is important to keep in mind that it is a process and it can’t be built overnight. So, today, we’re going to talk about the steps that you can take to help you increase your self-confidence – and the more you practice those steps, the better your end result will be.
So how do some women create the belief in self required to push the limits of their abilities? How do they continue to try, even at the risk of public failure and humiliation? Today, I’m going to share with you my formula for self-confidence so you can claim your power and change the world!
First, let’s set the stage.
Today, there is a particular crisis for women—a vast confidence gap that separates the sexes. Compared with men, women generally underestimate their abilities across the board. A growing body of evidence shows just how devastating this lack of confidence can be. In fact, it turns out that confidence predicts success much more than competence. No wonder women, despite all our progress, are still woefully underrepresented at the highest levels. Overqualified and overprepared, too many women still hold back on seeking opportunities. Women feel confident only when they are perfect. Or practically perfect. The good news is that with work, confidence can be acquired. This means that the confidence gap, in turn, can be closed.
For years, women have been convinced that with enough hard work, our natural talents would be recognized and rewarded.
And, we’ve made undeniable progress. In the United States, women now earn more college and graduate degrees than men do. We make up half the workforce, and we are closing the gap in middle management. Half a dozen global studies, conducted by the likes of Goldman Sachs and Columbia University, have found that companies employing women in large numbers outperform their competitors on every measure of profitability. Our competence has never been more obvious. Those who closely follow society’s shifting values see the world moving in a female direction.
And yet, as we’ve worked diligently, the men around us have continued to get promoted faster and be paid more. The statistics are well known: at the top, especially, women are nearly absent, and our numbers are barely increasing. Half a century since women first forced open the boardroom doors, our career trajectories still look very different from men’s.
So is it really surprising that women are less self-assured than men? But, the evidence clearly indicates that to succeed, confidence matters as much as competence. So, this is an urgent issue. But, it’s not an easy task to change your worldview and cultivate confidence. How do you begin building confidence in your personal or professional life?
The first step is self-awareness. It’s identifying that these are challenges that we all have, and limiting beliefs are universal – everyone struggles with limiting beliefs. The reality is that we all have negative thoughts and self-doubt. But, the magic is when we come to understand how to manage that self-doubt and those limiting beliefs.
For instance, have you ever made a statement like “I’m not good at math” or “I have two left feet and would never make a good dancer”? These are examples of limiting beliefs that put you in a corner of your own making and often falsely define you.
A limiting belief is a state of mind, conviction, or belief that you think to be true that limits you in some way. This limiting belief could be about you, your interactions with other people, or with the world and how it works.
What if I told you that you have made one decision about yourself that is dominating every area of your life and stopping you from obtaining your desires. As humans, we only make conscious decisions 5% of the time. The other 95% of our lives are controlled by our subconscious minds. In fact, 70% of our subconscious mind consists of limiting beliefs learned from past experiences.
Limiting beliefs can have a number of negative effects on you. They could keep you from making good choices, taking new opportunities, or reaching your potential. Ultimately, limiting beliefs can keep you stuck in a negative state of mind and hinder you from living the life you truly desire.
The good thing about limiting beliefs is that you have the power to change them at any time. This doesn’t mean that doing so will be an easy process, but commitment and a greater level of self-awareness can make it possible.
Identify some of the thoughts and beliefs that hinder your success, and your happiness – your sense of fulfilment and joy. Consider all the different aspects of your life – your relationships, your health, your career.
Then, once you have identified those limiting beliefs, you have to reverse-engineer your thinking. Examine the limiting belief that you have, and then trace back to the birth of that belief, that original experience that forged the identity you created. Some of the beliefs we have about ourselves are serving us, but some of them are sabotaging us. And, for those that are sabotaging us, hindering our success and happiness, where did they come from? Do they belong to you, or do they belong to someone else? And now, do you still want that person, or that belief, to have power over you?
When you begin tackling your limiting beliefs, and you know, without a shadow of a doubt, that you have value, you instantly become a stronger person. You respect yourself, and you demand respect.
Linda Fisk
Linda Fisk is a multi-award-winning leader, keynote speaker, podcast host, author and university professor dedicated to amplifying and extending the success of other high-calibre business leaders. She is the Founder and CEO of LeadHERship Global, a community of unstoppable women enhancing their leadership blueprint and embracing their power to be the best version of themselves- in work and life.
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