A confidence-building exercise

Confidence has a different meaning for all of us. Sometimes we can be brimming with it and, at other times, we feel like it has disappeared altogether.

It is very natural to have confidence dips in different areas of your life.

Dictionary definition

Look at the Wheel of Confidence

What are your confidence scores? One is low, and 10 is high.

• Career.
• Finances.
• Personal growth.
• Health.
• Family.
• Relationships.
• Social life.
• Home life.

This helps you gauge which lower-scoring areas might need to be focused on first. You can use the usual wheel of life template to assess these. 

How do you know when you or others are confident?

What do you see, hear and feel?

Imagine you had all the confidence you needed

• What are the benefits of having all the confidence you need?
• What would that look and feel like?
• How would it improve your life?

Negative versus positive thoughts

Write a list of all the negative thoughts you have and then change them into helpful, more empowering ways of thinking.

Example:

“I can’t get the next step on the career ladder.”

Changed to:

“I will focus on what I need to do to achieve the next step on the career ladder.”

Five habits of confident people

1. They talk to themselves in a positive, self-empowering way.
2. They make big, bold, positive images in their mind.
3. They use their body language as if they are confident.
4. They learn to embrace the full range of their emotions.
5. They learn from the success of others.

Visualisation can be a strong tool

• Think of a memory when you were feeling confident.
• Notice everything in that memory: what you see, hear and feel.
• Picture it like it is happening now and notice what happens to you.
• Knowing that you have a choice in how you perceive and respond to things that happen to you in your life can be empowering.

How coaching fits into confidence-building

This kind of self-reflection, habit-stacking and visualisation is exactly what we encourage during coaching sessions. If you're looking for more tools, strategies and methods to grow your self-awareness and ultimately your journey toward confidence, working with a coach may be a great route for you to explore.