Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Posted: 08 Jun 2009 12:27 AM PDT

I wrote about confidence last week and I am going to write about it again this week, because it is so important and it is such a big issue for so many of us.

Firstly, let's define confidence. Confidence is an emotion, it is something we feel. We feel confident when we understand what is going on and when our abilities match or exceed the challenges we face.

If we polarise it we can see two extremes strategies to confidence. One is to stay within our comfort zone - avoiding exposure to unfamiliar or testing situations.

The other strategy is to continually expand the comfort zone to remain comfortable even when exposed to challenge and difference.

As a strategy the first example has it's risks, firstly it is likely to involve living a very sheltered life and secondly there are no guarantees, no matter how carefully we plan, that we will not be exposed to challenge.

It is worth remembering that when we are pushed outside our comfort zone we all react in different ways. Some will hide in their shell or run away, others will become aggressive or defensive.

It is clear that in almost every situation confidence is a prerequisite to achieving our full potential. Self development is what we call the process of learning about who we are and building our confidence.

My own personal development, and the business and personal coaching I offer to others focusses expanding the comfort zone to encompass the broadest imaginable range of possibilities.

Of course part of confidence comes from experiencing lots of different things and becoming used to them. And this is also an effective mode of personal development.

However, I believe the foundation for a really broad self confidence starts within. It is the challenging, unexpected or misunderstood emotion rising from inside us that most often shakes our confidence.

In order to feel confident we need to experience, understand, interpret and learn how to respond to (not suppress) these feelings.

To do this we need to truly know our own emotional foundations. While we will already be well aware of these the more conscious we are of them, the more clearly we understand them the more confident we will be.

We need to know:

Our life purpose - this gives us direction and helps us understand what motivates us.

Our values - What we believe in and what is important to us, this helps us know our boundaries and our decision making criteria.

Our tastes - knowing who and where we prefer to direct our energy towards,

Our talents - knowing what we are good at and where we are better off getting help from others (teamwork).

Our vision - where we are going with our life.

Our strategy - how we are going to put all of this together in our life.

Our personality - how we behave in relation to others and how that affects them.

We can learn these things through a combination of experience, introspection and the wisdom of others through reading, courses and coaching.

What is critical is that we do it, both for our working and business lives and for our personal and love lives.

If you want some help in your authentic journey give me a call.

I am redefining my businesses - getting more clear, more authentic about who I am and what I do. www.neilcrofts.com has become the focus for my authentic business consultancy and coaching business. www.authenticis.com is evolving into a matchmaking website that will help authentic businesses and individuals find each other.

We are looking for associate consultants to join Authenticis and be trained in the authentic transformation tools - for more details visit the authenticis 2.0 page on www.authenticis.com

With love

nx

Neil Crofts
Neil Crofts
authentic business

+44 (0)7775 658534
neil@neilcrofts.com
www.neilcrofts.com
Skype - neilcrofts