These 7 Hacks will guarantee you a quick turnaround …
Being confident is not something which we are born with but this is a strong trait which can be developed and strengthened over the years. Latest research has more than proved that people who are confident are the ones who are getting the promotion and moving up the success ladder diligently than the ones who are low in confidence.
I keep telling this all the time in my Coaching Sessions/Interventions. Each one of us can develop our confidence just like any other muscle in our body. The problem is that there is a specific exercise to develop each muscle group in our body. But, when it comes to developing and strengthening our most important muscle called the “Confidence Muscle” there is no manual for the same.
However, working with hundreds of people who had suddenly lost their confidence in themselves due to a situation or someone who had grown up being low in confidence has given me some amazing insights and key to unlock the confidence muscle in no time.
I was never the confident guy around during my growing up days. I do remember an incident during my early schooling days when I was asked to speak up in front of my class. I could hardly mumble any words. Thankfully, I could muster a meek smile which did save my day.
However, it is a different story altogether now. My own confidence is a byproduct of how I live and prepare myself every day. What I did observe over the years while working on my own confidence is that one can exponentially increase their confidence over time if one begins to do the right things to enhance its power.
It can take you places you never imagined and help you reach your pinnacle of success. However, there is no magic pill which can be taken to become super confident. What I am going to share with you are few strategies which has worked wonderfully for me and also most of my clients.
End of the day it depends on how much hard work you put in this area to become super confident. See what works for you and in no time you will be a confident person which you always desired to be.
Preparation is the key:
One of the most important steps I would always recommend to my clients is to prepare for anything which is yet to happen. We all know how important it is to be prepared for something which is very important but when it does come to our confidence level, most hardly work on the same.
By preparing well you are already halfway through and there is momentum in the direction which you would like to go. Some of the areas which do come to my mind where I do spend considerable amount of time in preparing is
- When I have an important phone call. I do spend some time in going through what is the important outcome and how I want it to end.
- Before any Coaching Session, I always refer my previous notes and any additional material to be absolutely prepared. This directly influences my confidence level.
- Before I begin to tee off for my golf game over the weekend, I prepare myself as to how I would play the difficult terrain. This one habit has drastically improved my own game of golf substantially over the last few months.
- Before any Strategic Intervention, I prepare myself absolutely on aligning my intervention along the lines of the company goals.
Regular exercise plays a critical role:
Feeling good about yourself is one of the most important aspects in influencing your confidence level. One of the key benefits of regular exercise is that it helps in releasing endorphins in our brains which makes us feel more complete both physically and emotionally.
I personally work out 4-5 times a week and there are days when I do skip regular workouts 2 days in a row and I do notice a remarkable difference in how I feel about myself and it does begin to affect my own confidence level to a certain extent.
You can refer my most read Blog “My All Time 25 Fitness Tips” which will give each one of you a deep insight on to work on your own health.
Look at scheduling a workout even for 20-25 minutes a day which is more than enough to keep you healthy and fuel your confidence muscle to move in the right direction.
Spend more time with confident people:
More and more research has proven that one tends to become more like the 5 types of people who one spends time with. It is imperative that you pick the kind of people who you would like to spend most of your time with. I always keep a lookout for people who believe, encourage and support me unconditionally in own journey.
You also need to put in some extra effort in identifying people who can compliment you rather than put you down. However, with negative people around us you have to be ruthless like me and just let them go.
I learnt a long time ago to spend time with people who uplift me and are also more fun to be with. This has done wonders to my own confidence over the last couple of decades and I do not see any reason as to why it should not do the same to you.
Develop your own confident posture:
Are you aware that by just focusing on your body posture, you can increase/decrease your confidence level?
Holding one’s body in “high-power” poses for short time periods can summon an extra surge of power and sense of well-being when it’s needed, according to a research from Harvard Business School.
Working on your own posture is one of the most effective habits to build to develop your own confidence. There is a huge connection between how we stand, walk, talk and our thought process.
Don’t take my word for it. Just leave everything you are doing right now and stand straight , keep your chest upright and keep your shoulder straight . Add a big smile to this and immediately, you will notice that you are feeling more confident and stronger from the inside.
For me, this one pose does work like magic and this is one of the reasons that you will find me standing and doing most of my things like this Blog I am typing at this moment. However, this action is not the only one which does work .Pick what works for you and build on it to make it your own go-to Confident posture to switch on when required.
Build on your wins:
How do you compliment yourself when something good happens or you do something great? If you do not take time out to celebrate small wins, how will you build on confidence to do bigger things in life? For me, every small win during the day or week is the time to pat myself on the back and I always use this to nudge myself forward.
Positive reinforcement is one of the most effective confidence builders. We humans are creatures of habits and we need to develop our own ritual to reinforce our belief system. I, for one do take this very seriously and always pick on a couple of small wins during the week to reinforce my own belief system. This video by Dr Sharon Melnick from Harvard Medical School will give you more insights about the same.
However, the small wins need not necessarily be in your professional life. It can also be something in your personal life like having a healthy breakfast, waking up early to reach work on time etc.… However small it is to you, go ahead and pat yourself on the back. Over a period of time you will thank me for this 🙂
Eat healthy:
Yes, Gut – mind connect is very real and what you eat every day is bound to affect your thoughts and behaviors. This in turn will begin to play with your confidence. There is more than enough research on how a diet rich in processed food and sugary drinks is effecting people’s thoughts and crippling productivity.
You do not need to completely overhaul your food habits. However, stick to these time-tested rules which has worked wonders to most of my clients who do lead a very hectic life.
- Always begin your day with a healthy breakfast within 2 hours of waking up
- Include 2-3 servings of fruits and vegetables a day
- Drink 2-3 Lts of water everyday
- Switch to 3-4 cups of green tea a day
- Eat small meals every 2-3 hours a day which will keep your metabolism humming
Visualize your way to be confident:
Are you aware that your mind cannot make out what is being visualized and what is happening in real? I am sure most of you are hearing this for the first time. This is one of the reasons why most of the top athletes in the world do incorporate a habit of visualization in their daily training.
Now, what is stopping you from using this habit to become more confident? You can see yourself very vividly in the mind how you want a situation to pan out. The more you make it real by adding the sense of smell, touch & feel, the more your mind begins to process this data.
This does help to develop strong neural pathways in your brain which in turn helps you to follow in reality. I practice visualizing every day and can’t tell you how much of a difference it has made in my own life both at the professional and personal level. You can know more about visualization by going through my recently published Blog. Begin small and in no time you will be reaping the rich harvest of it.
Eventually, confidence needs to be earned just like any other empowering habit. However, these 7 Hacks I have outlined above is more than certain to lead you in the right direction only if you make time for it and make it a part of your lifestyle. Just like how we feed on our fears, we can turn things around and begin to feed on our confidence to creating a fire deep inside which will lead us to live the life of absolute confidence and accomplishment.
However, if you still feel that you do need someone to walk with you in this journey of developing more confidence and help you accomplish more in life, I will be more than happy to walk with you.
Click on the below link to fix up a strategy call with me. Here, I will personally spend some time with you in discussing your area of challenge and how we both can team up together to get to your goals in double quick time.
Yes, I Want To Develop More Confidence & Accomplish More In Life
If you are an executive in an organization and are looking at “Employee Transformation” then you will be glad to hear that I do “Strategic Intervention” personally for your core team. By the end of this intervention your team will be able to
1.Work on their Stretched Goals with absolute clarity and focus
2.Double or even triple their productivity, by developing laser-like focus
3.Create an absolutely clear road-map in their own Personal Transformation Journey.
You can see how our Strategic Interventions can help your core team to perform at their best by clicking on High Performance Alchemy. You can also reach out to my team by sending out a mail to the following email id enquiry@satishrao.in
One of my team members will be happy to reach out to you and discuss about these “Strategic Interventions”.
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