Do You Believe in You?
Curt Skene’s In2Win! Career Coaching Supplement.
It doesn’t matter what level of executive position you held, when you are in transition you are likely to find yourself with a twinge of doubt and you may start to question your abilities. Doubt is that needless energy that leaves you feeling vulnerable and can create invisible obstacles that stand in your way. In order to energize yourself and face your search with gusto and bravado, it’s important to rebuild your quiet self-confidence.
Remind yourself of your past successes and that they can be replicated and enhanced in your future endeavors. By using facts that relate to your successes instead of feelings of doubt you can quickly chip away at those ineffective and limiting beliefs. Take time to make a list of your highlights and analyze the common thread that has given you success.
You should also make a list of all compliments you receive and in the times when your confidence lags pull it out and read all of the great things others have said about you. Make sure you set aside time each day to recite positive affirmations that reinforce and strengthen your own belief system. Know yourself well and take action to move closer to the authentic “you”.
Being authentic makes it easier to be yourself and enables you to choose opportunities that have you leveraging your values and living your dreams.
Either stand confidently behind the person you are presenting or do the work needed to become that person.
Why I Wrote This Page
Because generic positive self-talk doesn’t actually build confidence, no matter how often people repeat it to themselves. What builds real confidence is specific evidence, and most people in transition stop collecting it right when they need it most.
Confidence isn’t a feeling you manufacture by deciding to feel it. It’s a conclusion you reach once you’ve stacked up enough proof. “I am confident” said in a mirror rarely moves the needle. A written list of ten times you solved a hard problem does, because your brain trusts evidence far more than it trusts a slogan.
This is why doubt creeps in so easily during a search: the evidence goes quiet. No one’s handing you wins to point to right now, which means you have to go collect the old ones yourself and keep them close.
Action Steps
- Build an actual written list of past wins, specific, detailed, not vague. Add to it weekly, even small ones.
- Before anything that shakes your confidence, an interview, a rejection, read the list first.
- Stop relying on affirmations alone. Replace “I am confident” with a specific memory that proves it.
In2Win! Afterthought
Curt’s current observations and updated guidance will be added here.
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