8 Tips to Boost Confidence at Work

Are you working at home or in an office these days? Working for yourself or a boss? No matter what your work environment, now more than ever it can help to have a confidence boost throughout the day. Here are 8 ways for a quick and effective boost to your confidence.

1. Cut out negative self-talk.

A positive mentality will help you learn more easily and ultimately help boost your confidence. When you find yourself speaking negatively or criticizing yourself, immediately switch it to something positive, instead.

● For example, instead of criticizing your lack of knowledge about something, tell yourself: It’s great that I can learn what I need quickly and easily so that tasks like these become a cinch to do!

● Instead of saying, “I can’t,” ask yourself, “How can I?” This takes your focus off of the negative and puts it in the realm of the positive. In this mode, you may come up with the solution you need to enable you to do the thing that you thought you couldn’t.

2. Increase your knowledge.

When you take the time to learn a new skill or piece of knowledge, you can be certain that what you’re doing is correct.

● You may want to look at online courses, or perhaps attend a seminar, designed to enhance your skills.

● Watch what others in your workplace do successfully and try to copy them.

3. Practice makes progress.

Always do your best. Create a final product you can be proud of. Spending some extra time and effort tweaking a project to finish it off with excellence will give your confidence a boost.

● If excellence feels out of reach, a quick well-being break may be just what you need. Take a quick walk around the block or just stand and stretch to get your energy moving.

4. Offer help to someone else.

Reaching out to a member of your team to ask if they need help will not only help the person but it will help your confidence as well. Knowing you did good for someone else and even receiving gratitude is quite effective to give your confidence a bump.

● As Joey from Friends says, there are no selfless acts. =)

5. Increase your skill.

Take a break from work and watch a video, listen to a podcast or read a bit of a book that will help increase your skill, mindset or motivation. This can energize you and make you feel better about yourself and your abilities.

6. Focus on your past successes.

Take a 10 minute break to write an "I Did It" list. Set a timer for 10 minutes and on a blank piece of paper write down a list of every accomplishment you can think of (big and small). Getting out of bed and showing up for work can be the first one on your list if you're having trouble getting started. Challenge yourself to fill the page before the timer goes off.

7. Act confidently.

If you’re approaching a new task, or perhaps an entirely new job, then chances are you won’t know exactly what needs to be done. In these situations, it’s completely normal to feel under-confident. However, if you act confidently and put on a positive frame of mind, you may surprise yourself.

● Using the super hero stance for 2 minutes will help you achieve this.

8. Have fun.

Taking yourself too seriously in the workplace will leave your self-esteem in tatters when you encounter setbacks. Of course, you want to be good at your job, but this does not mean that you need to be serious 100% of the time.

● You are allowed to have fun and doing so will allow you to laugh at yourself and any mistakes you make.

A little extra confidence can go a long way toward helping you reach your career goals. Which of these tips will you try next time your confidence needs a little boost?