Top 7 Best Exercises to Build Self-Confidence at Work

Self-confidence is fundamental to our success in work, relationships and overall happiness. When we feel confident, we don’t waste time and energy doubting ourselves or others’ intentions. We are more likely to take positive actions in our lives and have more drive and motivation. From morning until evening, there are many easy opportunities to build your self-confidence. For those of you who are morning people – catch my blog post Top 8 Best Exercises to Build Self-Confidence for Morning People to give your confidence a jump start! Human Being (not Human Doing) During Your Commute On the way to work use the time to JUST BE. Your day will get hectic enough later. Avoid opening a book, making a phone call or engaging with your smart phone. Give yourself a chance to just drive, enjoy the scenery or perhaps do some people watching. This will help your brain effortlessly get your thoughts together for the day so that when you get to work, you will be calm and have your priorities straight. Breathe Properly At the office: practice taking deep breaths or at least breathing fully from your abdomen in stressful meetings and teleconferences. This will help lower the levels of cortisol (a stress hormone) in your blood. Shoulders Back! Our body is an important channel of confidence. The way we hold it projects our level of confidence to the world, but also tells our brain how confident we should feel. A simple trick is to make sure your shoulders are back as you walk and sit. It makes you feel and look more confident (and attractive, too!) Every time you get up to go to the printer or the bathroom, practice walking with your shoulders back with your glance straight ahead (not down at the ground) Manage your Saboteur Voice All day long: Practice noticing your inner-critic. Adjust your self-talk to be as kind to yourself as you would be to your best friend. Adjust How Much You Speak Up If you typically wait to speak your opinion until you are sure that it won’t be shot down, practice being the first to speak up in those meetings. On the other hand, if you are the kind of person constantly needing to get a word in edgewise, you may have a hidden concern that others don’t value your opinion. Practice waiting to speak up; telling yourself – ‘My opinion is valuable. I will know when the time is right to share it.’ Go home on time! Give yourself a chance to enjoy your evening with family, friends or cherish your alone time. This is respecting yourself and choosing to ‘work to live not live to work’. This builds self-confidence because you are underscoring to yourself the fact that you (and your relationships!) are important. Actually Wind Down in the Evening Remember, watching TV is an illusion of pleasure. Watching TV and movies occasionally is great, but when it becomes an automatic habit, chances are you are sacrificing precious time that could be used to connect with loved ones and rest. When we are rested and feel connected with those we love, it helps us be at our best and naturally builds confidence. For more tips like these, sign up for Coaching Without Borders newsletter. Which of these tips works for you? Or do you have other tips to share? Leave a comment below… And of course, if you haven’t already read my book about confidence, The Four Channels, your copy is waiting for you on amazon; either as kindle version or print version.