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Helping you to think – 10 tips to help build self-confidence with a download of 10 questions to help you think |
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Here are 10 tips on building self-confidence to help you or for you to pass on to help others. High self-confidence gives a firm base on which to develop personal effectiveness.
1. Decide the things you want to be more confident about
You don't have to be confident in everything! It is important, however, that you know and decide the areas in which you need or want to be confident. These areas may be in business or personal situations. So, make a list of those areas in which it would be useful to have more confidence. This is the first step towards developing a personal development plan.
Define yourself some goals around the levels of confidence you would like to achieve. It can be useful to think about your levels of confidence on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being low and 10 being high). Define the level your confidence is now and the level you want it to be in the future.
For more detail on this qualitative goal defining technique go to our ezine archive and look at Go MAD About… Designing Great Goals.
2. Plan your learning
Develop confidence through learning and doing. Once you know the areas in which you wish to be more confident you can then begin to identify the actions you could take to help you achieve this. Confident people are only confident because they have learned the skills or knowledge that they need or want.
For each area (or goal) make a list of all the possible things you might do to help increase your confidence. This means you will be starting to build some detail into your personal development plan.
3. Feel anxious and nervous
It seems like a strange thing to say but feeling anxious or nervous about something is a good thing. These feelings are completely natural when learning new things or doing things for the first time. The great news is that you've had these feelings in the past and have come through the experience having learned how to improve. Embrace these feelings as positive indicators that you care about your performance. All you have to do is to apply the learning from each experience to the next.
4. Learn from past experiences Ask yourself these three questions on a regular basis following significant experiences to help you to build your confidence:
What went well?
Really exhaust the answers to this question. It's important to understand the positives from any situation.
What did not go so well?
This is very different to just asking ‘What went really badly?' This is about identifying the things that could have gone better. Which is just as important as it's about identifying some good things that could be improved.
What will I do differently next time?
Decide the things that you will change, learn from or improve in the future.
5. Define achievable goals
Break your goals down into smaller goals. Sometimes confidence is knocked because the goal is too big or there are too many goals. You need to believe that your goals are achievable. Break goals down into manageable sub-goals and decide how many goals it is realistic for you to be working on at any one time. Be fair to yourself. There is absolutely no point in working on goals that you know will not be achieved as this only dents confidence.
6. Imagine successful outcomes
Rehearse and practice your future success…regularly! The more often you think about success the better you will feel. Rehearse events or situations in your mind before they happen. Everyone has done this whether it's been before a job interview, a presentation or just imagining a holiday. Imagining a great interview, presentation or holiday has two effects:
• It makes you feel better.
• Part of your brain thinks you've done it... so you're experienced!
7. Really like yourself
Make a list of things that you like about yourself. This can be a mental list but writing them down helps to remember them. Consider your skills, knowledge and personality traits. Consider what has brought you success so far. Think about why people like and respect you. Remind yourself of all the challenges that you have faced and overcome. Look at your whole life experiences and how they have made you who you are. Now remind yourself of how great you are on a regular basis, particularly during times when you feel your confidence needs building.
8. Decide the things you think
Choose what you think. What you think influences your actions. Your actions affect your results. Your results could affect your confidence. In any situation you will know whether your thinking is helping you or hindering you. If it's helping you…great…keep thinking it. If it's hindering…you have a choice to make to either keep thinking that way or change it. If you want to build self-confidence then decide to be more helpful in your thinking.
9. Mix with helpful people
Think about the people you have known throughout your life who have been inspirational or helpful. You probably also know people who are really good at either giving you hindering thoughts or helping you magnify the ones you already have. Some of these people may be close friends, relations or colleagues.
Make a choice. Choose to mix with people who will help you with your thinking when you need it. These are the people who tell you what you are good at, that you can go out and achieve what you want and ask you questions that help you with your thinking.
10. Act like you are confident Look around you and you will see people who look confident. It's in the way they talk, walk, dress, sit, stand and deal with other people. Here's a secret…not all of them are as confident as they look. So, if you want to build confidence then start to act confidently. This is very different to being blasé.
Acting confidently must be backed up with preparation and content. Identify what it is that makes someone look confident – what they say, how they say it, body language and how they interact with others. Start to put in place some of these traits. As you look more confident you will start to feel more confident.
Assess what a confident person might be thinking – or you could even ask them. What goes through their head in the situations where they might feel anxious or nervous that helps them to deal with those feelings? As well as acting confidently, think confidently.
“You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” Michael Jordan
Download 10 questions to help you think about
building self-confidence
If you are interested in exploring Go MAD Thinking for your personal or business development contact the Go MAD Team to find out more about our products and open programme or visit our website at www.gomadthinking.com.
Solution Focused Thinking Open Programme 2006 dates are:
7th - 10th November
5th - 8th December
The initial 4-day training introduces you to an intensive and challenging 6-month programme. This 6-month programme gives you the tools to apply solution focused thinking on a personal level and to achieve business results. If you are interested in participating and being personally trained by Andy Gilbert, developer of the Go MAD Thinking System then let us know. To receive the 6-month programme promotional DVD click here
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Helping others to think – Follow a coaching route way |
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Discover how to use the Go MAD Framework to effectively structure a sequence of coaching questions with this download extract from the book 'Go MAD About Coaching' by Andy Gilbert and Ian Chakravorty.
Download your extract from 'Go MAD About Coaching' now
Visit our online shop to order your copy of 'Go MAD About Coaching'
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Helping teams to think – latest learning and download 'improving internal communication' |
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Recently Go MAD Thinking Engineers Gemma Gibson & Richard Armeson have been helping teams within contact centres with their thinking. Some of the focus has been around communication with teams and specifically communicating at times of change. To discover more about how to ensure communication has the desired impact (in any organisation not just call centres) read an article written by Gemma Gibson based on her recent experiences.
Download Gemma Gibson's article on
improving internal communication now
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Helping organisations to think – MP3 download on leadership |
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Paul Bridle undertook extensive research, not just with leaders, but also with those that follow, to discover the key attributes of a great leader. Listen to this extract from 'The Essential Guide to Making A Difference' audio programme to discover his main findings.
Listen to Paul's interview on Leadership Attributes now
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