High Achieving Women have many of the same qualities as their male counterparts. They are focused, determined, strong believers in the work they do, and have a clear path to continue succeeding. Here is the major difference: CONFIDENCE.
The same women who sit at the table and voice their opinions, who get accolades for their accomplishments, and who have people who believe in them, are the same ones with self-doubt and low confidence. Low confidence gives the feeling that you are not as intelligent, creative or talented as you believe you need to be in your role.
Here are 3 Empowerment Shifts that will help any High Achieving woman gain more confidence:
What Happens Between You Ears Matters: Negative thoughts are often like runaway trains. Once they start they take over and it is hard to stop. Sometimes, we may not even know where they are stemming from although we know they are rooted in something unpleasant.
Empowerment Shift #1: It is time for you to take inventory of what you are saying to yourself. This is not an overnight process and requires you to untangle from these negative thoughts and ideas. The best way to break away from them is to first keep a journal. Every time they show up (try to note them as close to the event as possible) note what happened, who was there, what was said, and what did you FEEL. This will reveal patterns of negative and unrealistic thinking.
You are Tangled Up and Need to Set Yourself Free: Low confidence thinking takes what is real (you are intelligent, creative, and worthy of that achievement) and skews it. You begin believing that those negative thoughts are the truth.
Empowerment Shift #2: To untangle yourself from your doubt, you must substitute the negative thoughts. You don't even need to dig deep into why you believe what you believe. Neuroscience tells us that the shift can happen just by thinking it. So, instead of letting the thought creep in and linger, attack it immediately! If you hear an inner thought of, "You don't deserve that compliment." then substitute it with, "She is a truthful person, so I believe what she is saying."
Find the Best Version of You and Multiply Her: Spend time remembering when you felt aligned to your accomplishments. Think about how you valued yourself.
Empowerment Shift #3: Closing the gap between your best version of yourself and the version that brings up self-doubt is what needs healing. This is the work of the heart. For some, it may be work around self-forgiveness or forgiving others. For others, it may mean learning self-kindness.
Committing to understanding the backdrop of your low confidence and replacing your negative thoughts with more empowering and productive thoughts, will help you to feel more confident.