How to Boost Your Confidence Fast
By Caterina Rando, MA, MCC

On our daily journey through the wide variety of personal and professional experiences life offers, there are periods of time when we feel a strong sense of personal power – like we can do anything – and then there are other times when getting out the door to face the world seems like an insurmountable task.

Women's confidence levels fluctuate, as do our hormones. Like eating soy, fish oil or flax seeds and exercising regularly to boost the right hormones, there are things we can do to boost our confidence. Whether you want an instant boost or a consistent steady boost over time, you can increase your confidence and achieve an overall upgrade.

Follow these ideas, and you will find that you are no longer hesitating to get out from under the covers. You will feel on top of the world, fueled by the personal power and vitality that comes from having taken action to boost and re-boost your confidence.

Take a Risk a Day
The truth is that nothing will boost your confidence faster than your willingness to be uncomfortable while taking positive action to get closer to your goals and desires. Make a list of small and large actions that will propel you in the direction you desire, and then start to chip away at that list a little bit every day. Some risks will go well, while others may not. You will find that most of the time you will be so thrilled you took the risk that the result will be less important.

Focus on What You Want
"Focus on the benefits of succeeding, not the downside or the risks involved. When you concentrate on the benefits, you boost your confidence. And confidence, the belief that you can do it, opens the door to synchronicity-that magical something that brings all the right elements together at the right time," says Pat Haddock, author of twelve books, including Leadership Skills for Women and The Time Management Workshop: A Trainer's Guide.

Get Support
Sometimes we notice a lack of confidence when we are feeling unsupported by our friends and family. While it is the job of the people who love us to be supportive of us, it is your job to get the support you need – and you will often find it is far easier to obtain it from people who do not currently have a strong personal connection with you. Consider finding a mentor, hiring a coach, or finding another person who wants to boost his or her confidence and partnering together. If you look for, seek out, and ask for support, you will find it.

Ask for What You Want
Women do not always ask for what they want. They hint, suggest and infer and then feel bad when they do not get what they want. Be willing to hear "No." You will find that simply asking increased your confidence, and that most of the time the answer will be what you want to hear: "Yes!"

Get Physical
Move your body: dance, prance, walk, run, pump iron. Endorphins do make a difference, and women are best served by exercising in the morning. Exercise in the AM increases serotonin production, according to Dr. John Gray, author of Mars and Venus on a Diet. Know that the more you do a particular physical activity, the better you get at it. Be willing to be uncomfortable when you start, because pretty soon you will find the activity invigorating and a way to instantly boost your confidence. This physical confidence will penetrate other aspects of your life.

Go Inside
"Boost self-confidence by allowing yourself to connect with your inner immensity. Take a deep breath, and let go of whatever is keeping you 'small' inside, like the internal critical voices and pictures, or the external people and situations that say, 'You're not enough.' Close your eyes, look in your heart, visualize all the bad stuff that makes you shrink, and see it flying out of you, never to return. Then focus on opening yourself up to
receive what is always available to you from inside yourself – your true inner strength," says Peggy O'Neill, author of Walking Tall: A Guide to Overcoming Inner Smallness, No Matter What Size You Are.

Keep Score: Count Your Wins – Only Your Wins
You probably do not need a confidence boost everywhere in your life – maybe just in one or two areas. Take some of the attention off your confidence-deficient area, and shine the spotlight on what you are good at, on what is going well, on the successes you have achieved. Every day, write down the small and large wins you experience. If you exercised, that is a win; if you got a new client, finished a project, or had a fun time doing something new, those are wins too. By writing down your wins, you will start to become aware of all the skills and abilities that you do have and usually take for granted.

Build on Past Successes
You have had so many successes throughout your life, many of which you have long forgotten or barely remember. Open those desk drawers – find that certificate file, review past project folders, write down the successes you have had. Review this list every day as you reflect on the strategies, actions and confidence that brought you to accomplish those successes. This will give you ideas and confidence for your current endeavors.

Keep a Success Storehouse
"Your Success Storehouse can be a beautiful box, journal, or notebook. It can be a list of all your achievements to date; a scrapbook of loving cards from friends, and letters from satisfied employers or clients; a place to keep certificates and other awards; or all of the above! What's most important is to have a container you can access easily and refer to often that will remind you of your unique gifts and contributions," says Maggie Oman Shannon, author of four books, including Prayers for Healing and The Way We Pray.

After reading these surefire ways to boost your confidence, pick one or two and make them your daily confidence practices. Doing them consistently will enable you to have a great day today – and will help you to continue to boost your confidence even more for all the days that follow. Confidence is the fuel of your goals, desires and personal fulfillment. Make sure your tank is always full. Watch your gauge go up every day as you follow these ideas.

Caterina Rando, MA, MCC, shows women in direct selling how to book, sell, recruit and lead with ease. She is the creator of the Direct Selling with Ease® and Recruiting with Ease® programs and is a contributing author to Build It Big- 101 Secrets from Top Direct Selling Experts and More Build It Big. To read more articles, listen to business building podcasts and find out about her programs, visit http://www.directsalescoaching.com. Caterina can be reached at by email at cat@directsalescoaching.com or by phone at 415 668-4535.