Confidence boost

Nick Babington shares six confidence-boosting tips to help you in your business

Confidence is an invisible yet notable force. It enables people to complete tasks with more ease, allows speakers to capture a crowd and enhances your ability to succeed in a work environment.

Confidence is trusting in your abilities, judgements and capabilities. It’s the belief that you can accomplish tasks and you can handle what comes your way.

And while it might seem that this sense of security in yourself is just something you either have, or you don’t, it’s a skill that can be learnt. To help you do this, we’ll dive deeper into some tips below.

1. STAND UP STRAIGHT WITH YOUR SHOULDERS BACK

Studies show that body language governs how we think and feel about ourselves. The findings indicate that certain ‘high power’ poses (e.g. standing up straight with your shoulders back) can increase confidence levels. It’s almost like a trick of the mind. In this state, feelings of stress and anxiety were significantly reduced. By simply carrying yourself in a certain way you increase your ability to take on challenges, and communicate this ability to others, too. Remind yourself to stand up straight with your shoulders back whenever you can.

2. CHALLENGE NEGATIVE SELF-TALK

The inner-critic’s put-downs and comparisons can be one of the greatest barriers to confidence, so it can be helpful to challenge this inner critic by finding evidence of your past achievements. If you find your’re stuck in negative thought cycles that are damaging your confidence, think about things you’re proud of.

3. FIND YOUR MANTRA

Following on from the point above, some people find it helpful to adopt a mantra they can fall back on when they’re feeling low on confidence. If your confidence is low, your thoughts may trail off into a negative cycle. That’s when positive mantras can be so effective. With a little repetition, your thoughts and emotions can begin to change. It could be something as simple as “You’ve got this”.

4. SET ACHIEVABLE GOALS

Setting positive, achievable goals can improve your sense of self and your wellbeing. It reinforces your ability to work towards a goal and your sense of competency in life. The best goals to set are always small and achievable; they play to your strengths. This way you’re more likely to stick to them and reap the rewards that come from achievement.

5. SELF-ACCEPTANCE IS ESSENTIAL

Part and parcel of confidence is feeling calm and trusting yourself. This requires a level of self-acceptance and warmth towards yourself. Self-acceptance involves embracing your weaknesses, learning from your mistakes, and remembering that no-one is perfect. Instead of berating yourself for mistakes and dwelling on the past, see ‘failures’ as a learning curve and a new opportunity. Be kind to yourself where you can, appreciate your unique strengths and who you are as a person. This will help to give your confidence levels a big boost.

6. LEARN A NEW SKILL

Learning a new skill can increase your feelings of self-efficiency, which naturally provides a confidence boost. It could be anything you are interested in. Research shows that learning something new also releases the moodboosting chemical dopamine, which increases your satisfaction levels, too. You’ll gain faith in your ability to handle new and novel situations and face fears along the way.

NICK BABINGTON

Nick Babington is the sales director of Health Assured. He leads the growth of Health Assured’s Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) service through insurer and provider partnerships, insurance brokers, occupational health partners and the direct market. His main objective is to drive workplace wellbeing with industry-leading employee support across organisations of all sizes. Contact him at nick.babington@healthassured.co.uk