5 Ways To Feel Confident Instead Of Just Projecting It During The January Blues By Leighanne Stephens

January Blues aside, embracing confidence at any time of the year is easier said than done. Despite it being one of the most important traits to boost position in both professional and personal lives, it’s one of the things almost all women feel they lack even when others describe them as confident. Doing things that make someone seem confident project that image but ultimately still leave feelings of inadequacy and imposter syndrome lurking beneath.

Leighanne Stephens, the founder of LS Fitness, has been coaching women on their confidence for 5 years taking them from shy and timid to standing tall and believing in themselves often for the first time in their lives. We asked her to share some insights on how to genuinely feel more confident as opposed to putting on the front during the dreaded January Blues.

Affirmations

Affirmations can be labelled a bit “woo-woo” but have been scientifically shown to help alter thought processes in the brain. Just like any skill, it takes repetition and patience to reap the benefits. Sticking with it, though, will enable someone to alter their thought processes on self-worth, and general worthiness. This will allow the door to true self-belief and confidence to open.

Introspection

Finding out the cause of a lack of confidence is going to be the quickest way to tackle the issue. It may be necessary to get some help from a professional to dig deep enough to find out the reasons behind feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness. Once the root cause has been identified, the area needing the most work can be pinpointed and worked on.

Support circle

Different friends react and support differently when informed or seeing a change in someone they care about.  It’s common to be surrounded by friends that are liked but not necessarily friends that will go the extra mile to show support and host a motivational speech when it’s needed. Everyone needs a few “yes men” in their world, so long as they don’t make up the entire circle of friends.

Doing yourself justice

When not completing something to the best of ability or giving it full attention and effort it will inevitably feel like it could have been better. This does nothing to support building internal confidence. Say “no” to more things that won’t get given full effort to so that the things getting a “yes” will receive full dedication. When the best efforts are being produced sharing the product of these efforts will be a breeze.

Practise

A boring but necessary part of the process. Time and patience during practice is the only way to succeed in building confidence. Without doing the previous tips continuously over time all that will happen is a projection of confidence but internally the picture will be quite the opposite.