Create Boundaries
How much access do people have to your
time and your life? Are you living the life
you want, or are you living other people’s
lives? Can you say, “No”, without feeling
guilty? Do you feel that you need to detail
reasons for your answer? Do you say “No”
and then change your mind and say “Yes”,
so as not to offend? Do your family,
friends and colleagues feel entitled to you
and your time, unfairly pushing work and
responsibilities to you, or do they respect
your boundaries?
If you answered “Yes” to any of the
questions, it’s time to draw the line and
begin creating boundaries. This may be
daunting at first and meet with anger
and resistance, but your confidence will
grow as people begin respecting your
boundaries.
Identify Key
Improvement
Areas
Of
In addition to the areas identified above,
how else can you boost your confidence?
Do you need to improve your image?
What about your planning and personal
effectiveness? Do you diligently meet
deadlines, or do you struggle? Identify
three to five areas to work on and think
about the impact they will have in your life.
This will help you develop commitment to
follow through on them.
Make A Plan And Take Action
Once you know what you want to work
on, list specific actions you will take. For
instance a simple action towards speaking
up at meetings could be deciding to speak
up at least once at every meeting for the
next 3 months.
To improve your public speaking and
communication skills you could sign up
for a Presentation Skills course or join
a local Toastmasters club. To increase
interaction with your colleagues, you may
offer to organize a team event or work
on a special project. Pick something you
are passionate about or naturally good
at and become an expert in it. Diligently
track your progress on your plan, celebrate
your successes and make plans for further
improvement.
Don’t Give Up
Building your confidence is a process.
Awareness of where you are is the first
step. Don’t get discouraged if your
confidence levels are currently low.
With hope and commitment, work
on your plan persistently, despite any
setbacks. Confident people love and
accept themselves and work to improve
themselves daily. Like and be kind to
yourself. Learn and grow from your
mistakes and failures. Share what you
have learnt with others and support them
in their journeys.
Your confidence will grow. You will
begin soaring, enjoy better relationships
and accomplish more. Then one day you
will look back on how far you’ve come
and realize to your amazement, that you
are indeed confident, and you will love
yourself and others all the more.
Caroline Mwazi is Chief Change Catalyst
at Huru Consult Limited, a Nairobi based
management and training consulting
company focusing on Strategy &
Organizational Development, Financial
Management, Sales & Client Retention,
Leadership & Personal Development. She
can be reached at: CMwazi@huruconsult.
com or Twitter @cmwazi
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