No matter who you are, where you live, or what you’ve chosen as your business, creating content can be stressful. Life can be stressful at times. Even the most successful people in the world have gone through tough situations. But they made the conscious decision to take control of their lives, take advantage of every opportunity given to them, and change their sob stories into success stories. Building up the confidence to tackle challenges and grasp opportunities is a skill. A skill means it can be learned. A skill means in time you can be more confident in your content creation.
If you’re feeling like content is getting the best of you, incorporate some of these tips into your daily life so you can feel a surge of confidence. These confidence accelerators will ease your emotional load so you can focus on the positives in life and spend less time on the negatives. Negatives should never be ignored (this makes them louder) but they should be acknowledged. Confidence brings a brighter outlook on life which naturally leads to less stress and the ability to recognise opportunities when they appear.
Before the excuses start, remember… low confidence is not genetic. You’re not destined to always suffer from low self-confidence but you may have to work harder to overcome it in some areas of your life. If I can do it, so can you.
Here are some easy ways to elevate your self-confidence so you feel good when you create your content.
- Take care of you. Simple things like basic hygiene can disappear when you lack confidence. If you're working from home you might think that no one will notice. But you notice. The real you that's deep within notices. When you stop with the basics of caring for yourself, your confidence almost evaporates. Good, simple hygiene is a symbolic way to wash away the negative mojo from yesterday. Start the day fresh with a shower and finish with a gentle wash before you go to bed. If this seems like a huge effort, go and have a chat with your doctor. You may have depression or something else that's impacting on you in a harmful way.
- Dress your best. While it may sound cozy to work from your sofa in your pjs, and I LOVE creating content in my pjs, many experts agree that productivity and self-confidence improve when you dress for the day. One friend told me she did her best work when she wore high heel shoes! Others feel fantastic with a slick of lipstick (there's nothing like red lippy to lift your spirits and your focus). One of my aunts used to spritz herself with Chanel no5 whenever she had to do something important. There's a myriad of little things you can do to feel more confident. You don’t need a full-on business suit, a body-con dress or a ballgown to be productive but choose something more business-spirited as opposed to gym clothes or pjs after your shower. i wear a lot of red and royal blue as their brightness lifts my spirits. I'm sitting here typing this in a bright red t-shirt and blue denim jeans. I look smart and I'm comfortable.
- Be aware of your self-talk. How is your inner ego treating your outer self? If you overeat at lunchtime or devour an entire bar of Galaxy Caramel, does your inner demon give you a stern talking to all afternoon? Take notice of how you treat yourself when you “fall off the wagon” and turn that negative self-talk into positive self-talk. Instead of berating yourself for unwelcome behaviour, take it as an opportunity to flip the script and do something different. Or take a moment and actually TALK to yourself out loud with reassuring words. If this happens to you frequently then keep a habit tracker for a week and see where your trigger areas are. Mine is the end of school days. I get fretful if I have late afternoon calls, and overeat. Knowing this means I'm not so hard on myself. It also means I can adjust the times of the calls before they're booked so I don't feel anxious at this time.
- Take action every day. Nothing occurs in life without action. Students can’t get an A on a paper or test without studying hard. You can’t balance your bank account without analysing your expenses. You can’t earn a promotion without a strong work ethic. You can’t find new clients without marketing your business. Go one step further and think positively, which will then carry over into your actions. Instead of believing you can’t do something, change that into a can-do attitude. I've taught my daughters that everything is a skill and therefore learnable. Just repeating this a few times before you start a task will make things easier for you to take action every day.
- Set a small goal and celebrate your win. Whether you need to record a video, email your subscribers, or take time to watch training videos, set that goal as a priority for the day and celebrate when it’s complete. Enjoy the accomplishment and that lovely feeling it brings! Go one step further and schedule that goal task for early morning so your accomplished feeling lasts throughout your day. I find playing a specific piece of music when you win helps keep you motivated. I love this song for celebrating wins. When I hear it on the radio it always gives me a surge of confidence.
- Incorporate small habits into your daily life. What could you do with an extra 10 minutes in your day? Tiny habits are all about taking small, minute chunks of time and using it differently. So if you woke up 10 minutes earlier tomorrow, would you meditate, journal, or simply start your daily routine without feeling rushed? Small habits could be absolutely anything but that sense of accomplishment will motivate you to do more throughout the day. So this tip really goes hand-in-hand with number 5 above. You don’t need to solve the world’s problems but pick something small and dedicate a small amount of time to it. Soon you’ll link multiple tiny habits together and have a fully-fledged productive routine!
- Focus on solutions instead of problems. Focusing on problems alone leads to complaining and I’m certain you’ve seen your fair share of complaining on social media! I've done my fair share of venting, but don't be someone who makes a habit of this. Don’t become a perpetual complainer. When something goes wrong, focus on how to resolve it. Find alternatives instead of finding someone to blame. Sure, disappointment or anger over a problem are natural reactions but the key is not to dwell on this negative reaction. Acknowledge it and move on. Do what you can to fix the problem and you’ll feel an immediate confidence boost when the problem is resolved (whether you get any credit for being the problem solver or not). Nothing feels as good as “rescuing” yourself. You'll feel good for days after.
- Be grateful. Gratitude is so easy to forget about in the course of a busy day. While gratitude journaling is popular these days, practicing gratitude can be as simple as saying, “Thank you for another beautiful day” when you awaken. Or “thank you for preventing my getting into an accident” if you have to slam on your brakes. You can also profess gratitude with a simple phone call or email to special friends, simply thanking them for all the good they bring into your life. Recalling all that is good in your life can fill your heart with warmth and will also boost your confidence when you realize all your good choices have led you to this place. Practicing gratitude is something that can become part of your family life. Over dinner, each of us finds 3 things we're grateful for that day. Some days it's tough, and other days it's easier. Once you start practicing gratitude on a regular basis you'll find you feel a lot more confident in situations.
- Conquer self-limiting beliefs. One of my favourite quotes from Henry Ford goes; “Whether you say you can or can’t, you’re right.” As we grow older, we start to lose confidence in our abilities and those self-limiting beliefs take root in our brains. To rebuild confidence, tackle each of those beliefs by stepping out of your comfort zone. More often than not you’ll come away from the experience thinking it wasn’t as bad as you thought it would be. Then you’ll be ready to move on to the next belief!
- Gain inspiration from the backstories of people you admire. We can all use a dose of inspiration nowadays but if you have a celebrity, business person, or author you admire, learn about their lives and how they overcame adversity. This is not to draw comparisons or to make you feel like you should be further ahead in reaching your goals; to the contrary, this is to inspire you that ANYONE can overcome challenges and still come out with confidence and success. Looking at their challenges, maybe you’ll realize that YOUR challenges aren’t nearly as bad as you once thought.
Take joy in knowing that your confidence will be regained! Give yourself a confidence accelerator every day as needed. You'll soon find out that your content creation problems evaporate.
