Many new professionals share the same fear that they will not meet the expectations of their boss, colleagues, or clients. They may feel that they do not know enough, have the right experience, or they just simply aren’t enough.

New engineers also worry about job security or career progression. They may not have a job they like or want years from now.

Sometimes people just experience a lull in energy and lose their sense of confidence.

Building confidence in your abilities and within yourself is an elemental skill that will crush these fears, leaving you with a sense value, relief, and a deeper purpose.

Knowing how to boost your confidence is something you can consistently rely on to serve you as you progress throughout your journey, but few seek to deliberately improve it.

Here are eight secrets that I’ve found to build more confidence at work.

 

Know Your Strengths

Always keep a list handy of the skills that you know you are good at and things that have worked for you in the past to achieve success.

These are the skills and habits that you pride yourself in and you have been complimented on in the past.

Keep this list easily accessible and review it often. Modify and update it frequently as needed, make it a living document.

Reviewing this list reminds you what you’re good at, who you are, and what value you can bring. This is the core of your confidence.

In addition, things that are acknowledged tend to grow, so this mindfulness nurtures and strengthens your principal skillset.

 

Seek Mentorship and Feedback

Mentors can be hard to find and connect with. Sometimes mentors are assigned to you and you may not connect with them personally or culturally.

Seek out leaders that excite, inspire, and motivate you and make an effort to connect with them.

Attend their meetings, take notes, listen to their seminars, read their papers, engage in similar interests. Ask if you can work with them or help them.

Once you establish a relationship with a mentor, ask them for feedback. Ask them what kinds of things they see that you’re good at or you can improve on.

If you don’t have a great mentor, ask your best friends or loved ones for compliments and input on what they see in you. It’s really easy to forget our strengths or take them for granted when we’re feeling down.

 

Track Your Praise

This is essential and effective!

Record and document any positive compliments, emails, and conversations that bosses or colleagues have said and review them often.

Be specific, noting the date, what happened, and why you were recognized.

What exactly did they say and in what tone? This will help you remember and relive these positive moments and emotions you experienced at the time.

Reviewing these moments again will boost your mood, I’ve done it recently and was surprised with the results.

 

Positive Emotional Stacking

Ever had a time where something went wrong and then you started to remember all the times that similar things went wrong, leading you to degrade yourself or believe you just aren’t worthy?

We’ve all done it.

The same process happens when you’re having a shit day and there’s that one last thing that pushes you over the edge and you snap.

This is something called “negative stacking,” where we highlight only the negative experiences and value them, leading to a deterioration of our emotional state.

But this process works in reverse.

What about positive wins and achievements? How often do we recall those and stack them up?

Tony Robbins is known for his process of “positive stacking,” in order to get into a peak mental state.

Positive Stacking – Focusing only on positive moments, compliments, and wins and stacking them together, multiplying our sense of well being.

This is a great way to get yourself out of a funk, by remembering and layering the amazing things you’ve done and letting those define you, not the negative.

 

Develop a Growth Mindset

Begin adopting the attitude that all experiences, even if negative, are a progression toward strength, learning, and growth.

This is what’s known as a “growth mindset.”

A growth mindset can sometimes be seen as a belief that we do not have a fixed skillset or an inherent way of behaving that cannot be changed.

New skills and habits will improve with effort over time, even if slow.

Treat every difficult time as an opportunity to learn more, become stronger, or gain experience.

Everyone has times of low confidence and doubt. It’s normal, but they will pass. Don’t dwell on them or negative stack, as discussed above.

Be mindful of the efforts that you’ve put into developing your skills and reflect on them.

Measure your progress: document it.

You’ll see your struggles are not a waste.

 

Eliminate ANTS

Eliminate automatic negative thoughts, or ANT’s.

These are the stupid voices that pop in our head due to fear or doubt and tell us we can’t do something or are not good enough.

When they pop up, practice becoming aware of them and then immediately disregarding and replacing them with empowering thoughts, part of the positive stacking already mentioned.

 

Set Achievable Short Term Goals

Build your confidence from wins, no matter how small. Train your nervous system to seek success by celebrating even the smallest wins.

Setting your sights too high can be counterproductive and squash your motivation to go after them.

Set attainable goals and praise yourself for them.

Taking things one step at a time is a path to building greatness.

 

Hit the Gym and Sleep

If there’s one thing that sucks my energy away and blasts confidence down, it’s lack of physical activity.

Even after one week of being inactive, I can feel my mental energy shifting toward doubt and negative thinking.

Exercise floods the body with endorphins and feel good chemicals that last for prolonged periods of time. Negative emotions have a hard time living in an active body.

You can even start small with exercise by setting attainable goals. Exercising for 5 minutes can make a difference.

Oh, and get a lot of sleep too!

After recently having a new baby and losing lots of sleep, I really noticed a dip in my confidence.

It’s no secret that sleep is vital to all of our brain activity, learning, and development, we just forget that it’s so important!

 

Conclusion

We’ve all experienced the times when we’re overcome, down on ourselves, or just lose our confidence. It could be that you are new in your job or in a place where you are overwhelmed and need a pick me up.

We discussed 8 tips to practice building confidence at work:

• Know Your Strengths
• Seek Mentorship and Feedback
• Keep Track of Praise
• Practice Positive Emotional Stacking
• Develop a Growth Mindset
• Eliminate Automatic Negative Thoughts
• Set Achievable Goals
• Exercise and Sleep

Take the skill of building confidence seriously. It’s something few people concentrate on, but serves you well in your life by eliminating fear, doubt, and ensuring that you are moving forward with the best possible attitude.