We get it, you have been out of work for a while and now you want to make a major step change in your life. To do it, you will need to build up your confidence and put yourself back out there. You are now thinking about the million things you need to do to make it happen – but – if you overthink it, that horrible feeling of overwhelm starts to take over.
Don’t panic. While it is true that returning to work, changing careers, upskilling, or starting a business can affect all parts of your life, there are proven ways to conquer the overwhelm. If you take the right steps, you will start to build the confidence you need in order to make your dream a reality.
Since 2015, we’ve been helping women do exactly what you want to do. Here’s what we’ve learned: Having a dream is one thing, but turning your dream into a reality is quite another. It is easy to stumble and fail at the first hurdle and decide to give up or settle.
We want to encourage you to not give up, don’t settle. We have seen many dreams become reality over the years and we can tell you first hand, it is worth it. Keep going!
To help, we’ve put together 3 proven steps you should take to overcome overwhelm and replace it with confidence. We’ll release one each week for the next 3 weeks. Here’s your first step…
STEP #1: MINDSET IS EVERYTHING
“You cannot change your circumstances by making the same choices as yesterday. You must start to think greater than your current reality.”
Dr. Joe Dispenza
Whether you like it or not, your mindset determines your outcome. If you believe you can, you will, but if you believe you can’t you really won’t. It really is as simple as that.
Humans are a stubborn bunch and naturally, we are more inclined to think we can’t achieve something than to think we can. It is perfectly normal to feel less than positive and fear all the tasks that need to to be done in order to achieve success.
When a person doesn’t believe they are capable of doing or learning something new, they have what is called a ‘fixed mindset’. They have a hard time trying new things or putting themselves out there because when they fail, that’s it, their confidence gets knocked back and they are less likely to put themselves out there again. Sound familiar? Whether we like it or not, we all have elements of a fixed mindset.
Ok let’s take you to a more positive place. A growth mindset is the opposite of a fixed mindset and the aim of the game!
“The growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts, your strategies, and help from others. Although people may differ in every which way – in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests , or temperaments – everyone can change and grow through application and experience.”
Except from ‘Mindset Changing The Way You think To Fulfill Your Potential’ by Dr Carol Dweck
How about that! We couldn’t agree more and believe having the right mindset is essential to starting the journey of rebuilding your confidence and accomplishing your dreams. It doesn’t matter where you are on your journey, developing a growth mindset is the first step towards success.
Try these two tricks to help you proactively pursue a growth mindset:
- Reframe how you say things and start using the word ‘yet’ The power of ‘yet’ is another key message in Dr Carol Dweck’s book. Try this: Change “I can’t do xxxxx now” to “I can’t do xxxxx YET”. The power of the word ‘yet’ is mindblowing when you put it into practice. This small tweak to the way you say something starts to make the impossible seem possible.
- Analyse your failures instead of dwelling on them – It is so easy to get disheartened when something doesn’t go according to plan. So why not look at a recent failure and instead of thinking about what went wrong, think about what you learned from it. Learning from failure rather than dwelling in failure is a much kinder approach and will help you to get better results in the future.