Be a Self-Starter – Confidence and the Personal Development Mindset

This post appeared first in the blog at my Wisewolf Personal Development Coaching Website

The third characteristic of a Personal Development Mindset  is to be a self-starter!

WHAT IS BEING A SELF-STARTER

Personal development means taking personal responsibility for your own learning and development and taking the first steps yourself. Usually this is through a process of review/stock-take, exploration/research, and taking action.

BUT HOW DO YOU TAKE THAT FIRST STEP?

One of the best ways to start your self-development is to prioritize your professional and personal goals.  It is impossible to do everything so it is important to make a list and make choices.

What for you are the most important things to do, in terms of your career and your personal life?

Think about;

1. Your private interests and needs in your life outside work; for example spiritual development, parenting skills or relationship building.
2. Your career interests, for example, responding to developments in your professional discipline or specialism or changes in demand in the workplace.
3. But also be prepared to explore possible new interests and new directions.

Always allow some space for 3. above! Never underestimate the power of standing on a box to look over your personal garden fence to find out what others are doing and what new possibilities might exist.

Knowing what is important for you and your goals is the first steps toward achieving those goals. You could write a personal vision and mission statement.

Now you are ready to set out to explore the opportunities for learning.  How do you like to learn? There are lots self-development methods around, and which one works best for you will depend on your own personality, your own strengths and, of course, your personal and professional development goals. But it is up to you to do the research – that is what being a self-starter is all about.

Then, develop a personal development plan that identifies your learning needs to achieve your goals. This can be as simple as a spreadsheet that records you goals, the actions you plan, how will you know when you have achieved them. Include a comments column to record progress. You could commit to keeping a learning log or diary to help you analyze what you are learning and to help you review progress.

Personal Development is a continuous cycle of activity based on:

• Identifying goals
• Defining the actions to be taken
• Taking action and recording progress
• Reflecting on the outcomes and determining whether goals need to be changed and whether new actions need to be taken.

Be a self-starter and begin your self-development today!

I would love to hear about your progress and if you need support from a coach you know where to find me!

 Wendy Mason is a Life and Career Coach.  She helps people have the confidence they need to be successful at work and to change career. You can email her at wendymason@wisewolfcoaching.com or ring ++44(0)2084610114 

 Other Useful Articles

• Confidence and the Passionate Leader
• Leading the Confident Team
• Be Optimistic – Confidence and the Personal Development Mindset
• Be Self-Confident – Confidence and the Personal Development Mindset

Are you a nervous networker?

Do you avoid new social situations

because they make you feel anxious or uncomfortable?

Are you unemployed and need to network
to find work? Remember, they say up to 80% of job opportunities are never
advertised and more than two thirds of candidates get a job through networking. Are you missing out?

Are you in business and know you need to network, but you dread it?

Do you avoid networking?

Or do you leave networking events feeling you missed out on a great possibility?

You can learn to prepare to be a confident networker – how to relax knowing that you
have techniques to make the most of any networking opportunity. 

You can learn the techniques that will make it easy for you to talk to anyone. 

You can learn to follow-up knowing that you have made a good impression.

You can walk away knowing people will want to hear from you again.

Learn to be a confident networker from the comfort of your own armchair!

Join me (Wendy Mason) for my FREE teleseminar; Talk to Anyone - Confident Conversation for Confident Networking

It is on Tuesday 17th April at 7PM London time 

GET FREE ACCESS HERE: http://www.anymeeting.com/PIID=EC59D6838346

You will not have to talk at the telseminar but I know you will find tools to help you hold CONFIDENT CONVERSATIONS

During this live event you will learn;

•  
  How to prepare like an experienced business networker
• ·       
  How to look and sound confident!
• ·       
  How to ask the right questions and how to listen so the conversation flows
• How to follow and make the most of your new contacts

Be quick because places are limited!

Join me and get ready to make networking work for you with confidence!


YOU MUST REGISTER HERE: http://www.anymeeting.com/PIID=EC59D6838346

  

Wendy Mason is a Life and Career Coach.  She helps people have the confidence they need to be successful at work and in their non-work lives. You can email her at wendymason@confidencecoach.me or ring ++44(0)2084610114 

This post appeared first in the blog at our Personal Development Coaching Website

The second characteristic of a Personal Development Mindset  is self-confidence.

What is self confidence?

You are self-confident when you believe in you and your own abilities.

It doesn’t mean that you always get things right. But when you don’t, you still think you are OK, you are not lacking or incomplete.

It is the self-confidence that allows you to have a go at new things – you are OK and so you can try something new!  Self-confidence means you can integrate mind and body and focus on what you want to achieve.  You believe "I have the ability to do this"!

Self-confidence leads to success

Self-confidence is at the root of many other abilities and traits.

If you do not have self-confidence, what you do will never be truly fulfilling. You won’t believe that any success you achieve was really down to you. And you may not have the confidence to try new things and new experiences. 

Self-confidence is the first step to progress, development, achievement and success! With self-confidence, you can venture out into the world and have adventures.

Success builds on success and so strengthens your confidence further.

Others tend to like, respect, believe and trust people who are self-confident and so more opportunities come your way.

What can you do to improve your self-confidence?

To improve your self-confidence, you can learn to;

• Appreciate your own abilities and achievements.
• Start to use a daily affirmation – “I am a strong, confident and decisive person”.
• Spend five minutes every morning imaging your coming day with you strong and confident – make your picture very colorful.
• Each evening spend a few minutes writing down the day’s achievements and the good things you have done – yes, everything, even smiling at that old lady in the supermarket.
• Act and speak as if you are confident (practicing self confidence leads to self confidence).
• Practice confident body language – standing straight and proud, and giving good eye contact
• Practice speaking firmly and decisively
• Help others just for the sake of helping. You will gradually gain more and more confidence as you focus on other people!.
• Be active and enthusiastic. Lose yourself in your enthusiasm – don’t be afraid to be passionate and to show it.

Coaching for self-confidence

Don’t be afraid to work with a coach or counsellor.  Confidence plays such a big part in success in life, that it is really worth making an investment in you with coaching.  There are lots of good coaches around and you can find out more about the confidence program I provide at this link.

I wish you well and I wish you self-confidence.  I would love to hear about your results!

Wendy Mason is a Life and Career Coach with an interest in management, leadership and in change - both personal (career and life out side of work) and within organizations. You can email her at wendymason@confidencecoach.me or ring ++44(0)2084610114

Other Useful Articles

• Confidence and the Passionate Leader
• Leading the Confident Team
• Be Optimistic – Confidence and the Personal Development Mindset

Be Optimistic – Confidence and the Personal Development Mindset

This post appeared first in the blog at our Personal Development Coaching Website

Optimists see Good around them – they focus on the positive!  That means the impact of negative things is very much reduced!

Pessimists – do just the opposite. They concentrate on negative events and so miss out on the full impact of lots of good things.

Research suggests that whether we are optimists or pessimists depends to some extent on our genetic make up – we are born with a tendency that way.

But environment and how we grow up also plays a part.

Think about your own experience – as you were growing up, did those around see life in a negative or a positive way?  What effect do you think that had on you?

But we know that on the whole optimists are happier and research suggests that they are also healthier and live longer. They appear to suffer less from depression and they recover more quickly from illness.

Pessimism drains you and wears you out.  You feel just plain tired of all that negativity!

 But here is the good news!

You can train yourself to be an optimist and it is not that hard to do! If you are prepared to put in some time and effort, it is never too late to become an optimist.

The Optimism Pledge - Three Good Things A Day

Make a commitment that for the next two weeks you will make a list of three good things that have happened each day.

Start a journal today and arrange a date with yourself to sit quietly for 10 minutes each evening reflecting on the day and finding three good things that have happened.  They can be from the most simple to the most grand.

Once you have decided what they are, write a description and why you feel good about them.  Make your description colourful and feel the pleasure as you write!

Now you will understand what thinking positive feels like. Optimists think like this nearly all of the time but they do not realise that this is what they do.

You too can learn how to feel optimism, if you continue this exercise until you can do it without consciously thinking about.   For most people it takes about two weeks.

I wish you well and I wish you optimism.  I would love to hear about your results!

You can find out more about the Personal Development Mindset at this link

Wendy Mason is a Life and Career Coach.  She helps people have the confidence they need to be successful at work and in their non-work lives. You can email her at wendymason@confidencecoach.me or ring ++44(0)2084610114 

Where does my lack of confidence come from?

Most parents want nothing but the very best for their children.  They work hard to look after them and to give them the very best upbringing they can.  

For 18 years or so, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, most parents work to turn their children into adults who can live happy, fulfilling and confident lives.

But think about it! What a challenge – maintaining that love, support, a good home, enough food on the table and everything else, consistently throughout that long time. 

What if you, the parent, are ill, or unemployed, or your relationship breaks down?

What happens when the child needs extra support, for example, if they are chronically ill or disabled? 

What if you are forced to live in less than ideal conditions or the only school available isn’t very good?

Suppose you are not adequately trained yourselves for the task of parenting because your own upbringing didn’t give you a good model?

Or suppose parents are just shy or distant and find it hard to give praise! Believe me, there are still children who are warned consistently by their parents against bragging, when all the children are doing really is asking for a little praise, recognition and a good cuddle!

How about at school, were you popular and praised by kind teachers?  How lucky you are!   But what if you were you picked on at school by other kids because you were poor or because you looked different?

All the challenges above can lead to a child growing up with a lack of confidence and a poor self image.

When you look back, can you remember feeling loved and valued as a child?  Were you happy?  Were you kissed, cuddled, loved and trusted?  You may look back on your childhood and say a special thank you for all the gifts you received! 

Or you may look back and think “Well, those hard things made me the strong person I am today?” 

But it isn’t like that for everyone! 

For some of us, those early experiences make us feel less!  And we can’t get over that feeling.  It means we miss out on lots of good opportunities in life because we lack confidence.

All the events in our lives shape who we are and how confident we feel.  But confidence is learned and it is never too late to do something to help ourselves. We really can become the people we want to be. 

If you would like to share your own experiences, they may be a comfort to others.  But if you suffered as I’ve described, please don’t leave it too long to tackle your own lack of confidence. 

Wendy Mason works as a Coach, Consultant and Blogger. She works with all kinds of people going through many different kinds of personal and career change, particularly those wanting to increase their confidence. If you would like to work on developing your own confidence, Wendy has a Learn to Be Confident Program at this link. You can contact Wendy at wendymason@wisewolfcoaching.com  or ring ++44 (0)2084610114 

Related articles

• Raising Confident Children (socyberty.com)
• Raising Confident Daughters (teens.webmd.com)
• Overcoming Shyness at College (everydayhealth.com)

How Confident Are You? Find Out with the Confidence Coach Confidence Test

In everyday situations, are you confident and full of self-belief? Or are you diffident and self-doubting?  Do you miss out on opportunities at work or in your social life because you lack the confidence you would like to have?

There is so much you can do to change that!

You can achieve your goals and become the kind of person you wish to be.  But first take my test to find out just how truly confident you are! 

Which box applies to you? Count your As, Bs and Cs!

I tend to do what I think is expected of me, rather than what I really want to do!	A Often	B Sometimes	C Never
I care and look after myself the way I do for other people	A Never	B Sometimes	C Often
I handle new situations with relative comfort and ease.	A Never	B Sometimes	C Often
I feel positive and energized about life.	A Never	B Sometimes	C Often
If something looks difficult, I avoid doing it.	A Often	B Sometimes	C Never
I have a balanced view of my qualities and my limitations.	A Never	B Sometimes	C Often
I believe that I have as much right as anyone else to have good things in life.	A Never	B Sometimes	C Often
I’m used to not achieving the goals I set for myself.	A Often	B Sometimes	C Never
I motivate myself through kindness and not through criticism.	A Never	B Sometimes	C Often
People give me positive feedback on my work and achievements.	A Never	B Sometimes	C Often
I feel confident in expressing my views at work.	A Never	B Sometimes	C Often
I don’t really see myself as worthwhile.	A Often	B Sometimes	C Never

The Results

Mainly As You probably wish you had more self-confidence! Take a closer look at all the things you've achieved in your life. You may tend to focus more on what you don't have and this takes time and attention away from recognizing and using your skills and talents. You have a lot to gain from working with a coach to improve your confidence. I believe my  Learn to Be Confident Program can really help you!

Mainly Bs You are probably doing an OK job of recognizing your skills, and believing in your abilities. But perhaps you’re a little too hard on yourself! I believe you could gain from working with a coach to improve your confidence – have a look at my Learn to Be Confident Program – I’d love to work with you! 

Mainly Cs You are a confident person and your life is full of validation and success.   Remember you still need to nurture your self-confidence, give yourself space to reflect on how good life is and share some of that good will around with all those about you!

Wendy Mason works as a Coach, Consultant and Blogger. She works with all kinds of people going through many different kinds of personal and career change, particularly those wanting to increase their confidence
If you would like to work on developing your own confidence, Wendy offers her Learn to Be Confident Program at this link.
You can contact Wendy at wendymason@wisewolfcoaching.com  or ring ++44(0)20846011

Confidence at Assessment Centres

Assessment centres make us nervous but help is available!

My friend Jim has just got through to an assessment centre and I think he has done really well.  It is a job he really wants and I think he will do well in the role.

Clearly the recruiters think so too! Assessment centres cost money and you don’t usually call up candidates unless you think that from what you have seen on paper they could do well.

Now Jim has been to an assessment centre before so he knows the kind of thing to expect.  If you are not sure then there is lots of good advice at Prospects, The UK Government Graduate Career’s Website.  But Jim hasn’t been very successful in the past.

He knows I’ve set up assessment centres and acted as an assessor.  So he has asked me for a few top tips and you can find what I've told him at this link.

I’ve coached a number of people for assessment centres in the past so if you would like my help please get in touch.   

Wendy Mason works as a Coach, Consultant and Blogger. She works with all kinds of people going through many different kinds of personal and career change, particularly those wanting to increase their confidence
If you would like to work on developing your own confidence, Wendy offers the Wisewolf Learn to Be Confident Program at this link
You can contact Wendy at wendymason@wisewolfcoaching.com  or ring ++44 (0)2084610114

Related articles

• 6 Tips for Confident Networking (leavingthepublicsector.net)
• Five Ways to Make a Killer First Impression (socyberty.com)
• Leading the Confident Team (wisewolftalking.com)
• Three ways to get party confident (mirror.co.uk)