This article is on the ubiquitous topic of ‘confidence’. Because, well, who couldn’t do with learning how to feel even a little bit more confident in their work life? And yes, confidence is a skill you can learn. People aren’t born confident.
But it is a skill we all need to learn if we’re to find more happiness and success in our work lives. After all, without confidence, your thoughts, ideas, aspirations and dreams won’t ever come to fruition.
Read on for all the hacks, tips and resources to help you feel more confident and working happy… before you can even say ‘imposter syndrome’.
“Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.”
– Henry Ford
Mindset is everything
Mindset is everything and your thoughts are not facts. How many times have you heard those words before?
Our incredible, wonderfully complex brains are wired to keep us safe and cannot tell the difference between a real and a perceived threat.
So if you think something bad might happen (such as not getting that amazing job if you apply for it or no one buying your new offering), your brain will respond as though you are facing a real threat; triggering your autonomic nervous system and flooding your system with stress hormones.
This kick-starts your flight, fright and freeze response; causing you to either panic, run for the hills or stay rooted to the spot. (i.e you don’t even bother applying for that amazing job or launching your business for fear of rejection.)
Thanks for nothing, brain.
This primitive response has served the human race well for millennia. It’s kept us safe from the likes of sabre tooth tigers who used to lurk outside our caves.
But in a world where tigers are less common in the work place (unless perhaps you work in a zoo?), how do we manage this natural response and push through the fear to get what we truly want out of life? In this instagram live from earlier in the year, I shared a few tips on how you can overcome this primitive response, beat the paralysing effects of imposter syndrome and make progress in your work life.
What else affects your mindset?
In short, lots of things!
a) your beliefs
b) your experiences
c) your assumptions
c) your social and personal constructs
The truth is, we all see the world through our own filters which are shaped by so many factors. These filters then influence our thoughts and ultimately our actions.
A handy model to help you deconstruct your own ‘filters’ is the Ladder of Inference where each ‘rung’ of the ladder represents another filter through which your thoughts will have passed before they actually come to fruition as actions.
In this video, I explain how these filters and ‘rungs’ can really get in the way of you taking action if you let them!
Some resources to help you feel more confident…
VIDEO – How to stop imposter syndrome from holding you back
INSTA POST – How to make confidence a habit in 5 steps
VIDEO – The link between your comfort zone and your potential
VIDEO – Confidence & imposter syndrome when applying for jobs
ARTICLE – 7 ways to boost your self-esteem
BOOK – Playing Big – Tara Mohr
BOOK – Ditching Imposter Syndrome – Clare Josa
TED TALK – Your body language may shape who you are – Amy Cuddy
If you've found this helpful...
…and you’d like to find out how I can help you feel more confident in your professional life, I’d love to chat.
I hope this article on confidence has offered some food for thought and that you have a few practical strategies to try out next time your very own version of ‘Snarky Sarah’ rears her ugly head!
What’s come up for you? What baby step could you take to boost your self-belief and confidence when it comes to taking the next step in your work life?
What would you attempt if you knew you couldn’t fail?
If you’d like to chat about how I could help you find the confidence to create your own ‘work happy place’, you can book a free ‘no-strings’ call via the button below.
If you’d prefer to do a little self-directed learning and development, I’ve created a mini-course on this very topic which you can access for only £49.
This mini-course is packed full of tips and strategies on how you can overcome imposter syndrome, comparison-itis, self-limiting beliefs and automatic negative thinking to name but a few confidence crushers. Click here to find out more.
This is an article on the non-insignificant topic of ‘purpose’. And more specifically how to find your purpose. That elusive something that we all seem to be endlessly searching for in life.
I’ll be dispelling the myth that we all have one singular, definitive purpose and showing you how you can make finding your purpose more accessible by simply weaving it into aspects your every day life.
Banish your significant other(s) to the another room, pour yourself something cold, pop in your ear phones, grab a pen and paper.
(You’re going to want to take notes! )
“The stronger your ‘why’, the less the ‘how’ matters”
– Dan Cable
Wondering if you'll ever 'find your thing?'
Are you feeling the pressure to have found ‘your thing’ by now? Whatever ‘your thing’ is meant to be…
If your answer is ‘yes’, then rest assured that you’re not alone.
We put so much pressure on ourselves to have it all worked out by now, have our shit together, finally grow up and ‘adult‘.
Ugh. The overwhelm that this sort of thinking can create is what often sends my clients into a tailspin of panic and stuck-ness.
But what if you were to view purpose in a different way?
Instead of a static, shiny ‘destination’ (full of unicorns and fairy dust), what if you started to view your purpose as a journey filled with ‘purposeful moments’?
I believe that we all have multiple purposes in our lives and that as we grow and evolve, so our purpose evolves and shifts.
My own purpose has changed in the 4 short years I’ve been running my business! When I started out in 2018, I was known as @shinebrightermums and focused solely on helping mums return to work, because that’s what my purpose was then. Now that’s only a very small portion of my work.
It’s well-evidenced that it can be unhelpful – not to mention unhealthy – to spend too much time in the past or indeed in the future; and that being more present and enjoying the ‘here and now’ is where we’d do well to focus our energies.
With this in mind, how could you incorporate more purpose into your day-to-day work life?
The answer is through a process called job-crafting. And you can apply this approach to both your corporate role or in your self-employed business.
In this article, Dan Cable talks about the ‘3 P’s of job-crafting’. And yes, one of those P’s stands for ‘Purpose’. He asks:
How can you find and connect to more meaning in your day-to-day tasks? Ask yourself WHY a specific activity is important to you four times.
What's your Ikigai?
If you’ve never heard of the word IKIGAI before then you might be wondering what on earth I’m talking about. Pronounced ick-ee-guy, it’s a Japanese philosophy around purpose which originates from the island of Okinawa. Okinawa is said to be home to the largest number of centenarians, which begs the question whether it is the secret to longevity! Here is a brief video I did on my instagram feed about Ikigai some time ago.
Coaching prompts to help you find more purpose
Journal around the following questions:
1. What activities do you never need to put on your to do list?
2. What would you do for free if money was no object?
3. What topics get you hot under the collar?
4. What kinds of articles or posts do you share on social media?
5. What non-fiction books do you find yourself drawn to and why?
6. What life lessons have shaped you that could also benefit other people?
Some resources to help you find more purpose…
ARTICLE – What you should follow instead of your passion
PODCAST – Finding your purpose at work
ARTICLE – Turn your boring job into a job you’ll love
INSTA POST – The stronger your why, the less the how matters
INSTA POST – How does your work make you feel?
VIDEO – How great leaders inspire action
BOOK- Ikigai – The Japanese secret to a long and happy life
BOOK – What colour is your parachute?
VIDEO – Start with why, the golden circle
If you've found this helpful...
…and you’d like to find out how I can help you find more purpose in your professional life, I’d love to chat.
I hope this article and resources on finding more purpose in your work life has offered some food for thought and that you now have a few ideas about how you can make work feel more meaningful every day.
If you’d like to find out how I could help you find more purpose and create your own ‘work happy place’, you can book a free ‘no-strings -whatsoever’ call via the pink button below.
My 1:1 coaching programmes start at £1599 or you can sign up for my affordable career and personal development coaching membership, The Shine Collective today if you’d rather take things a little slower and ‘DIY’ your work happiness journey from only £47/ month. There is a whole module dedicated to purpose and finding your next best steps in there.
This career change mistake is the biggest blocker approximately 90% of my clients face when they are standing at a crossroads in their career.
The career change mistake so many of them make is feeling they have to be clear on their destination before they take the first step.
It’s not unusual for prospective clients to send me an email or DM talking about their predicament of feeling stuck and saying things like, “I just need to work out what it is I want to do, then I’ll be ready to talk to a career coach…”
If this sounds familiar, then you’re not alone!
I know just how unsettling it can be to feel like you’re free-falling; no idea where you’ll end up or how you’ll even get there – wherever ‘there‘ may be… But waiting until you get clarity on your destination may well delay your work happiness by months… if not years.
In 2016, I was made redundant from my Head of Talent & Engagement role whilst – unbeknownst to me – in the early stages of pregnancy with my second little girl. Soon after, my husband was also made redundant.
Quite frankly, it was a bit of a sh!t show all round!
“ By far the biggest mistake people make when trying to change careers, is to delay taking the first step until they have settled on a destination. “
– Herminia Ibarra
Tune into your inner compass
It was like my world had been turned upside down overnight. I had zero clue what lay in store for me professionally and my confidence was in tatters.
I didn’t have the luxury of time on my side with a baby on the way, so I just put one foot in front of the other and started. Lucky for me, having worked in personal development for years, I had a good deal of self-awareness and a strong inner compass which I proceeded to follow relentlessly.
I said ‘yes’ to opportunities that ‘felt good’, aligned with who I was, energised me and played to my strengths. I also said yes to a few things that didn’t feel quite right – and then instantly regretted it!
Through this iterative process of self-discovery, lots and LOTS of cock-ups, lots of baby steps (and lots of lovely learning), I finally created my own work happy place a couple of years later.
The point is, you don’t have to know where you’re headed, you just have to take the first step and START. Work out who you are and then start doing it on purpose.
“ Find out who you are and do it on purpose.“
– Dolly Parton
Take the first step
The ‘working out who you are‘ bit is the undoubtedly the hardest part!
Which is where I come in…
Luckily, self-discovery, personal development and personality stuff is kind of my zone of genius. I’ve been helping people understand who they are, what they’re great at and what would make them happy at work for the best part of 2 decades now.
So, if you’d like to give the googling and self-help books a rest, I’d love to help.
Or if you’d like to talk about how we could work together 1:1 so I can help you find more purpose and create your own ‘work happy place’, you can book a free ‘no-strings -whatsoever’ call via the pink button below (prices start at £1599) or you can sign up for my affordable career coaching membership, The Shine Collective today if you’d rather take things a little slower and ‘DIY’ your work happiness journey for only £47/ month.
Have you ever wondered if you could start your own business one day?
… and then promptly talked yourself out of it?
I know I did. 🙋♀️ At least a hundred times before I finally took the plunge and did it. And even then, it was crisis that was actually the catalyst for my decision to start up my own business, Shine Brighter, in the Spring of 2016.
I was in the early stages of pregnancy with my second daughter and I’d just been made redundant from my Head of Talent and Engagement role. At the time, going self-employed seemed like my only option. “Who would employ a pregnant person on a part-time basis for just a few months before the baby arrives?”
But self-employment had always appealed on some level. My dad ran his own successful management consultancy for many years so I knew that it could be done. Plus, as somewhat of a ‘free spirit’ and a square peg in a ’round corporate hole’ for much of my 15 year career, the lure of more autonomy, freedom and flexibility was always a big driver for me in wanting to start my own business one day.
As The Work Happiness Coach™️, I make a living out of helping brilliant people like you find your ‘work happy place’. But what happens if a client struggles to find an opportunity that fits them like a glove? 🤔
So the question is, could you start your own business?
The path to entrepreneurship most definitely isn’t for everyone, but for some – like me – it’s the best decision they ever make in their careers. In this article, I’m dispelling a few myths about what it’s really like to work for yourself. So if you’re even slightly curious, read on..
“ Learning how to monetise your talents in new and innovative ways will be an essential skill to master in future world of work. “
Myth #1
Working for yourself is risky
Myth #2
Your income will be less predictable
Myth #3
Trading time for money is 'worth it'
Myth #4
You need 'a boss' to feel motivated
Myth #5
You need to be a confident person to 'go it alone'
I go into the neuroscience that explains confidence and the various hacks and strategies you can apply to your own work life in my personal development membership, The Shine Collective, if you’d like to dig a little deeper.