Day 11: Confidence

As part of Finding My Way, I was reminded of my lack of confidence. A colleague of mine responded to the One Word, What I am known for request and here was her response:

One Word – Spirited
What I am known for – Self-doubt…I think people are waiting for you to consistently walk strong and speak confidently.

And she is right. There are times that there is no doubt I have confidence. O

ther times, it seems as though I don’t have any! For me, it does have a lot to do with how I feel for that day…what kind of emotional state I am in.

But if I take a step back…it should not matter how I feel that day as to how confident I should be. As it relates to work, I know I am good. I am knowledgeable of the sales process and the products, I am a better sales reps than some of them on my field team. And there isn’t any sales rep on my field team that knows my product set better than I do.

So why do I allow confidence to dwindle sometimes? Because in my professional world, I am too hard on myself. When I do something wrong or not up to my best, I internalize it, over-analyze it and allow it to affect me.

The truth of the matter is…most people probably wouldn’t know that I made a mistake or didn’t do my best if I wouldn’t allow them to see that. If they do notice, they probably don’t think twice about it because we all make mistakes or are not always 150% on top of it.

In my personal world, I am still hard on myself but it usually has nothing to do with failure (or so I think) to do my best. It is usually something much different. Its usually how I feel about myself such as skin, weight, that I am not a stay at home mom like my other friends, etc.

But like my professional world, I over-analyze. Most people don’t notice the things that bother me so much about myself. And additionally, I choose to work rather than be a stay at home mom. And everyone’s financial situation is different. We all have different priorities, responsibilities, lifestyles, etc.

So what can I do to over come this? Its not just enough to write this down here and move on. Its not enough to say that I know these things to be true and think that I automatically will remember these every day!

I think, before I start my day, every day, I need to remind myself of the positive and good things about me. I need to remind myself of the things that make me a good person, friend, sales rep, blogger, etc.

So if I could take 5 minutes in the mornings to do this, it should help.

I am going to test this out during this 31 Days to Find My Way Challenge. I am going to see if it makes a difference. Starting tomorrow (since I did accomplish this morning with this post).

I am kinda excited now!

Game on!

Until tomorrow!