Keeping Your Confidence Up- A Key Factor for Success

byLori3030

593 followers

8 years ago

ne of the things I hear a lot from people is that they just do not have the confidence to keep their momentum up. This is especially true on a site like this one where there are many modules and a wide variety of tasks to be done. My blog on Getting Started set out some information on how to keep yourself organized and that will have a large effect on how confident you are.

When you work in an office and have a boss, you have the ability to be recommended and acknowledged for a job well done. Not so much for entrepreneurs and the self employed who largely work from home or in an office but alone most of the time or with support staff. If you do not find a way to manage your own self confidence that comes from inside you, meaning you are letting others decide how confident you are, you will never be able to achieve real success.

Think about it like this: you see client Jane in the morning who just LOVES your report- you're feeling pretty good now. An hour later the school calls and says that you did not send a lunch for your daughter, you feel really low now like a bad Mother- you come home and find your son has made you an amazing card in his after-class program- wow, he loves you- you are a good Mom! Do you see how your confidence goes up and down like a roller-coaster in the same day. It's because you are relying on what others think to make a determination of how good you are. It's exhausting. As entrepreneurs we have to learn to create and protect our own confidence.

You know all those voices you hear in your head, the angel and devil?? Well, they are not actually your thoughts. They are an aggregate of what you have been taught all your life, especially what you learned as a child from your parents. They are called "Limiting Beliefs" (and are not the subject of this post). Suffice it to say, you may have learned from your parents that rich people are greedy. If so, then you will have a hard time making money until you get past that belief and acknowledge that you do not believe that. Recognition of the fact then allows you to ignore those voices and listen only to your own, which is a major life transformation that sets you free to design your own life. Make your own choices about what makes you feel confident in yourself- not what others think. You cannot control what others think or say, nor do you want to. If you have a persistent negative thought- try this-when you get it, say to it" you do not apply to me" then imagine putting the thought in a little boat and send it away. Do this as many times as you need to and for as many beliefs that you want. Getting rid of negative beliefs is a sure fire way to increase your confidence as you start to realize that you do have control over it. most people do not even know they have negative beliefs because they are in our subconscious but there are great ways to release them, using meditation or really easy hypnosis.

Here is a daily confidence building exercise that I love: it is called the Positive Focus: at the end of each day, or during it, as you wish, make note of 3 things that happened that day that you are grateful for, or that are positive in a meaningful way, then say why. For example, (1) finished all 3 things on my to do list - why is this important - bc I am 3 steps closer to my goal. (2) attended the WordPress seminar-why? because I tend to sign up for seminars but do not attend- woo-hoo to me! It's a start! and (3) had a great cup of coffee with Evan. Evan is my son and he works so we don't get to see each other very often. It can even be simple like "felt the sunshine on my face", if you do not get out regularly. By doing this daily- it will keep you positive about how you are accomplishing so many things. Make sure though to compare yourself to where you left off last time and to where you need to go and NEVER from where you started. This way you are looking only at what you have accomplished and not how far you still have to go.

You can also try my fav from the Strategic Coach Program for Entrepreneurs and it is called WinStreak. It is similar to the Positive Focus and is an app for your phone. Just go to an app store and look for Winstreak and download it. With this app, you simply enter what your 3 "wins" are for the day and then set your 3 "wins" for tomorrow. It a shortcut that works for techies, but I prefer the Positive Focus ( I write it in my agenda) because (1) Winstreak does not focus on the why, and the process of writing by hand serves a purpose in and of itself- to get it out of your head. However Winstreak does boost your confidence and takes only a minute to do.

And one more trick: if you read my blog on Getting Started- Overcoming Overwhelm , then you already know I believe in breaking projects down into bite-sized tasks and then doing them in small baby steps. Let's say your goal as a WA affiliate is to get 100 referrals. Try this:

Break up the 100 into 10 sets of 10. When you reach the 10, (or even 5), treat yourself to something- it does not have to cost money, it could be an afternoon off, or a movie on TV you have been dying to see. If you reward yourself along the way, at every ten you become much more motivated bc your self confidence goes up and you start to look forward to your next "treat". Set up 10 treats in advance that get slightly bigger each time and can cost money as you go up. You will see those blocks of 10 become 20, 30 and more....because you will be internally motivated to get the next gift. Make sense?
One other thing, every time you get 1, get out of your chair and do a jig- really, get up, jump up and down screaming joyfully "I did it, I did it"..... you will be amazed at how good just that feels! I do it and still love the increase in energy I get, though my dog thinks I am crazy! :)

And let's not forget that at WA there are over 400,000 people here who want you to be successful at your business and will happily increase your confidence and provide the support you need to keep moving. You are not alone in how you feel so reach out and learn from other's experience with the same battle.

Best of Success to you All

Lori

Want to work with me as your private coach? Please contact me for more information at lori@lorikarpman.com. Special WA rates.