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Develop Confidence

Confidence is critical in building your own success story. It doesn't mean being the loudest in the room or a gorgeous supermodel - its about being capable, at ease and competent. Start by facing your fears and push yourself outside your comfort zone. Remember sitting behind the wheel of a car attempting to drive for the very first time? My guess is you were totally incompetent and had no idea how to drive. Now fast forward to today when you drive automatically without thinking through the process of driving. This is a great example of how your confidence increases as your competence does. It applies to developing confidence in everything from first dates, job interviews, exams, presentations, socialising and at work.

Often we need an extra boost of confidence to reach our aspirations. The most powerful way to make any change in your life is to act as if that change has already occurred. Faking it till you make it is the best tip I've ever heard. If you pretend to be confident for long enough, you will be. Once you start seeing yourself in this way, behaving more confidently will become a lot easier. Use visualization techniques and affirmations to prepare.
Of course, I'm not suggesting that you be dishonest. But if you want to reach a certain goal you will need to express strength and confidence, which are things we all lack at times.

Don't underestimate the power of first impressions, use your body language and personal style to its best advantage. The first 30 seconds give a lasting impression, so consider your personal style and what changes you may like to make to truly reflect your personality. Also look to role models and positive influences for inspiration. If they've done it - so can you!

To further develop your confidence, fine tune your active listening, speaking and networking skills. Most importantly, learn to be assertive, and just think, if you didn't have to live with the consequence of saying 'no', would you have agreed to extra work, dinners, new projects. Again, like self-care in step three, learn to but yourself first and confidently project the real you to the rest of the world.

For more on boosting confidence read:

• Aspirations - 8 easy steps to coach yourself to success - Step 6
• Get a Life - simple strategies for work/life balance - Chapter 5

Choose to work on developing your confidence with an ASPIRATIONS personal coach.

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