The 5 Great Myths of Career Change - Myth 5

Myth 5: ‘I need to feel more confident to do what’s important’

We often think that we need to feel confident to succeed. So we make a deal; once we feel confident then we’ll change....

Mistake.

Mythbuster:
Confidence is derived only from knowing you can do something. The only way you know you can do something is to try it out - practice. Real confidence only ever follows action.

Confidence is a feeling derived from external cues. As such, your mind knows better than to allow you to feel confident just by thinking positive thoughts. All our efforts to ‘think positively’ are futile; your mind only bestows real confidence from getting out there and doing something.

The reality is that we don’t need confidence to succeed – this is simply an excuse. Instead, we should focus on taking action in the direction of our values.

What can you do tomorrow to start doing what’s most important to you? What would you be doing at work? This is something you have control over. Your mind, and its obsession with confidence, is not.