Have courage - beat imposter syndrome

4 good ways to feel better about yourself

HOW TO BECOME MORE MOTIVATED

Are you nervous about taking on new challenges because you are worried about your ability to stay motivated enough to complete them? If this sounds familiar read on.
 
Simply stated, motivation is what drives you onwards; to get stuff done. Genuine motivation is intrinsic in nature because it is linked to your values and believes. It arises from an enjoyment in the task itself because you know that completing it will improve your situation.
 
The bad news is that most tasks that will make a truly positive difference to your life may not, at a first glance, appear very motivating. They might even look downright boring.
 
The good news is that you can turn even the seemingly least motivating, boring task into a satisfying challenge by discovering how it will positively contribute to the three basic cornerstones of motivation, which are three universal and fundamental human needs we all share.
 
A desire for AUTONOMY: having the right to direct your own life, be independent, make decisions and able to choose your own destiny.
 
A strive for MASTERY: improve your competence and become better at something that truly matters to you; be it social skills, athletic ability, or developing your intellectual faculties.
 
A search for PURPOSE: engaging with something that is worthwhile for you, something greater than yourself; love, family, community, art, religion – whatever it is that is important to you.
 
By identifying how a task will contribute to these three important life-enhancing benefits it becomes possible to access your intrinsically motivated drivers, making completing it much easier.
 
With each small victory of action over inaction you will become increasingly able to maintain motivation and take charge of your life; knowing that successfully finishing even the seemingly most boring task will give you more freedom, more competence and make a meaningful contribution to something you truly care for. 


HOW TO FEEL BETTER ABOUT PAST MISTAKES

We all make bad decisions from time to time. That’s just being human. It’s all too easy however, to allow a sense of failure to linger on indefinitely by continuing to ruminate about what’s happened.
 
To move on from bad decisions and mistakes you need to let go of what has gone before so you can move towards what can be. To this end you need to forgive yourself for what has already passed and cannot be changed.
 
Here’s how.
 
Recall all the mistakes you’d like to move on from. Quickly write them down on a piece of paper. Don’t waste time beating yourself up for being an awful person, just confirm that the mistakes happened. Once on the page reflect on what you have written and acknowledge what you did.
 
Then for each separate mistake say to yourself:
 
I forgive myself – and I’m grateful for what I learned.
 
Do not rush through this part. Take time to really think about your learning and most importantly truly forgive yourself. 
 
By writing down your mistakes, moving them from your head onto the paper, you turn vague feelings of failure into conscious thoughts, which will help you chose to feel differently. Because whilst you cannot change what has already happened, you can change how you feel about what happened
 
This is not about making a confession and seek penance for your sins. Don’t indulge in self-pity and do it as a form of chastisement for past misdemeanours, but as a cathartic cleansing of your mind. It might surprise you how effective this exercise might be.

POWER POSING CAN INSTANTLY IMPROVE YOUR MOOD

Spending a couple of minutes power posing will boost your mood and/or confidence levels. It’s a strategy that has been proven to work and that is based on the theory that how we hold our body influences how we feel and behave.

So what exactly is power posing?

Power posing is a technique in which you adopt poses that are associated with achievement, confidence, and power.

Think Mo Farah doing a lap of honour with his arms stretched out wide after winning an Olympic medal, or Wonder Woman who famously stands with her chest out, legs shoulder-width apart, and hands on her hips.

Amongst many other benefits studies have found that people who adopted a power pose before a test perform better in a mock interview and become more comfortable with risk taking.

Preparing for a meeting by power posing will help you appear more confident, passionate, enthusiastic, authentic and comfortable.

I do this occasionally in the privacy of my bedroom. Initially it made me feel rather silly I must confess. However, it has proved to work so I continue doing it (when no one is watching).

Try it. It really works!

BECOME MORE CONFIDENT


Do you sometimes wish you were more confident, and do you sometimes wonder what you need to do to become more confident?

Gaining in confidence is simple although not easy, because confidence is not a pre-requisite for doing more, it is the PRODUCT of what you do and the actions you take.

A definition of courage is to know the risk, feel the fear, but do it anyway.

To gain in confidence be courageous to do more, stretch yourself a little, regularly perform small acts of courage that in time will make you more confident.

Pushing beyond your comfort zone is the only way to keep growing. So, have courage to take a few risks.

To get ahead in life and business you will need: 

  • COURAGE to have a clear and bold vision of what you want to achieve,
  • COURAGE to have self-belief and be proud of your achievements, and of who you are,
  • COURAGE to be resilient and able to pick yourself up when you fall, and
  • COURAGE to take responsibility for what happens to you—both your successes and your failures.

Do you have COURAGE to take a serious look at what’s next for you, and find out what you need to do to get there?

Fail gracefully, succeed with humility, but don’t get stuck in bland mediocrity