How to Find Your Confidence, When You Need It Most

Have you ever felt like you're not as confident as you want to be?  

As you move forward into greater success, you're likely to experience this from time to time.  It's normal to feel unsure of your abilities to create the outcomes you went to.

This is especially true when you're pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone doing things for the first time or choosing to move in new directions with your life.

But, nonetheless, confidence IS important.  When you're not confident you are leaving so much potential on the table.

In this video, we'll explore what confidence is and how you can find it when you need it most.

How to Find Your Confidence, When You Need It Most

Transcript - February 6, 2020

So today let's talk about confidence. 

Confidence is everything. Because without confidence, we wouldn't pursue half the things we've pursued in life. 

Without confidence, we wouldn't have reached the level of success we have in our careers, in our businesses, nor in our lives. 

It takes confidence, to do bold things, to take a step in the direction of what we you most.

So confidence is everything. But yet, we don't always have confidence, right? 

And it makes a lot of sense. There are times where you don't have a lot of confidence. Why? 

Well, because you’re doing things for the first time, you’re stepping out into the unknown. And it makes sense that you might be experiencing some fear and anxiety. There's a lot of “what-if” scenarios that could be going through your mind. 

If you let it this can really diminish confidence. It’s important to be aware of that because as you move into the life of your dreams, into a new level in your business. or new responsibilities of leadership you're going to be faced with that feeling of, “I don't know what I'm doing?” 

Well, if truth be told, maybe you don't--you've never done this before. This is the next level for you.  You're growing, right? It's an opportunity to learn and grow and so it's normal to feel that way. 

But confidence is everything. And when you see yourself as less confident, you're going to diminish who you are, you're not going to show up as powerfully. And ultimately, you're not going to have the full influence you could have on the results for yourself and your business. 

And so, what is confidence? Let's just look at that. What is confidence? Well, confidence is simply your own belief in your ability to succeed in different types of situations. 

Confidence is whether or not you believe you have what it takes to “figure it out” and be successful. That's confidence. 

And when you put it that way, I bet most of you are like, “you know what, yeah! I can figure it out, I figured out 18 other things up to this point, I can figure this out too!”

It's very empowering when you start looking at confidence that way, right? 

Another area where you might be diminishing your confidence is when you compare yourself to others. Or we place judgment on how others might perceive us. 

All of that will diminish our confidence because how we see ourselves or how we believe others see us will affect how we show up. 

If you believe that your peers are thinking that you’re less experienced or that you’re not as experienced as a leader or you’re unqualified in some way, your confidence goes down.

What proof do you have that that's even there? We oftentimes conjure up all kinds of stories. 

And that's really what confidence is. It's the story you're telling yourself. Confidence is purely what you're saying to yourself. And when you can change that narrative, you can instantly elevate your level of confidence. 

So let's explore how you can do that because confidence is everything right? 

How do you shift your confidence? 

You do that by asking different questions. 

Questions like: “well, what's wrong?”, “what's wrong with me?”, or “how can I be better?” are all questions that are focused on areas you’re lacking in right now. 

I'm not saying we shouldn't focus on how improving ourselves. But when it comes to confidence and you’re about ready to step into the arena, that's not the time to be worrying about whether you’re “enough”. 

No!  It’s time to go play full out. 

It’s time to go play full out with full confidence. It's not a time to step into the arena, second-guessing yourself. 

And so when you change your questions you change your level of confidence, almost instantly.

Here are a few:

• “What significant challenge have I overcome, how did I do it?”
• “What have I done to prepare for this moment?”
• “What true things could I be saying to myself right now that would empower me to be at my best?

Look for the reasons why you are ready, not for the reasons you're not. You have plenty of them. And you can figure this out. You can do this and it's okay.

If you feel a little anxiety, stress, or even a little fear this doesn't mean you can't still enter your situation with confidence and play full out. 

Confidence...really boils down to what it is you believe about yourself and your own abilities. 

And the ability that you should cherish the most is your ability to figure things out because I believe you are extremely resourceful and you can figure this out. You’ve already “figured out” so much in your life. 

So what makes you believe that this situation you’re about to step into is any different? 

To your success.