9 Ways to Be More Confident at Work (And in Life) - Walrath Recruiting, Inc.

9 Ways to Be More Confident at Work (And in Life) - Walrath Recruiting, Inc. Confidence is a skill that can be developed, practiced and something we have to work on daily. Being confident effects your mood, your overall work performance, and your ability to grow. Check out how to be more confident at work, and in life, below! 1. Acknowledge The Lack Recognizing where you lack confidence, is the best place to start. Before you can make changes to the way you think and perceive yourself, you must first be able to recognize it. If you’re naïve to it, or blind to it â€" you can’t change it. Find out what you doubt within yourself. Is it your abilities to accomplish a task? Making the decisions? Lack of knowledge? Start by answering these questions and figure out where it stems from. 2. Be A Yes Person (But not with Everything) People who have a hard time setting boundaries with themselves and what people expect of them â€" tend to build up tension, stress, and expectations that are impossible to reach due to overload. If you can never say no to things, your ability to accomplish them all will decrease â€" and simultaneously decrease your confidence. Take on only things you know you have time for- and things that serve you. If they are tasks at work that you have to take on, keep open communication. Express that you have a lot to tackle for the week and ask for a later date, or address that the task may take longer than expected due to other pressing projects. But either way, keeping communication open prevents assumptions and disappointments. 3. Celebrate the Small Wins Often, people who struggle with confidence struggle to give themselves credit for all of the other things they do accomplish. Regardless of how small of a task â€" address and acknowledge the small wins. Celebrate the little things that you get right, the baby steps, or the steppingstone that you accomplish to get to one giant accomplishment or project. This will give you the confidence to continue to tackle more opportunities and tackle more challenges. 4. Challenges Build Confidence Tying into the previous point, one of the most efficient ways to build confidence is to take on new challenges. When you try new things, you step out of your comfort zone which then builds your confidence muscle, even regardless of the outcome. 5. Practice Making Decisions Start with quick easy decisions and give yourself a 5-second count down. When you quickly make decisions on small feats â€" you build that muscle. Like anything â€" practice makes perfect. Once you get yourself to making small decisions move onto bigger ones. You’ll notice as the decisions become more important your confidence increases â€" indecisiveness is the death of all evil. If you need to evaluate before a decision â€" decide to do your research. But don’t second guess yourself. Second guessing yourself breeds self-doubt. And that is a place we don’t want to go backward to. 6. Change Your Circle Sometimes all you need is a change in scenery. If you’re surrounding yourself with people who are not lifting you up, supporting you, or being positive (the majority of the time) â€" that could be contributing to your lack of confidence. Find out where and who you spend most of your time with and see if you need some decluttering. 7. Practice Self- Care People who exercise, get good sleep and eat healthily typically have more confidence than those who dont. Simply by knowing you’re contributing to your overall well-being and is enough of a confidence boost, but the physical effects of these things combined release endorphins, energy, and create progress. As humans, we thrive for progress â€" and taking care of yourself is just another piece of the puzzle. 8. Dress the Part If you find that some of these things haven’t done the trick yet â€" sometimes you just have to dress up. Put on clothes that make you feel confident, do your hair or your nails or some self-grooming in a way that makes you feel confident about yourself. When you look good, you feel good. 9. Get out of Your Head We can be our own worst critic. The next time you want to criticize yourself remember to give yourself grace. Youll notice a spike in your confidence when you start being kinder to yourself. Whats something you do to boost your confidence? Comment below!