Confidence is like the elusive perfect Instagram post that will finally let you feel satisfied enough to stop scrolling, put your phone down, and finally go to sleep. Or is that just me???
Putting together information on CAPTIVATE Vinyasa Training last week made me pause to review my accomplishments as a yoga teacher for the past 11 years. I did, and was blown away.
Here’s a few highlights:
– I have over 11 years teaching experience and I have taught over 13,000 hours of yoga and meditation.
– I’ve enjoyed being a successful sought-after teacher in 2 provinces.
– I have taught tens of thousands of students, have built a following all over western Canada, and been invited to teach at multiple yoga festivals including Prana Yoga Fest in Calgary, Sask Soul Fest in Regina, and Camp Yoga in Canmore.
– My meditations are featured on Insight Timer, the largest meditation app in the world.
– I have inspired hundreds of my students to become teachers themselves, and thousands more to fall in love with the life changing practice of yoga.
There’s something really powerful about looking at your accomplishments and owning them. When we do something for a while (in my case over a decade), it’s easy to forget, or miss how far we’ve come since we began.
Immediately after writing my own list of accomplishments I felt a surge of pride and confidence for my own list of accomplishments.
I worked hard to get here, and it was exciting to see how far I’ve come since I first started as a terrified new teacher. I would stand there shaking hoping no one would notice how green I was and praying they would like me.
Yet, as women, most of us have learned to minimize our accomplishments, if we even acknowledge them at all. We are often taught that women should be humble, and not “get to big for our britches.”
After all, no one likes a bitch. Right?
I hate to break it to you, but it’s wrong.
If you want to crush your self confidence and keep it there, then keep minimizing your achievements or don’t acknowledge them at all.
When we downplay our achievements, we are essentially telling ourselves a damaging story – that we don’t really deserve our accomplishments. It affects not only how we see ourselves, but how others also see us.
But guess what? If you don’t notice how far you’ve come or everything you’ve accomplished, who will?
Your boss? Supervisor? Family? Anyone???
Nope.
If you want people to promote you, praise you, SEE you, you need to get comfortable with owning your achievements.
The bonus is that it’s also scientifically proven to increase your confidence.
You might not want to do it at first, and resist it like me with chocolate covered marshmallows at any time other than Christmas.
You will fight it with clenched fists, cover your eyes to try not to see the glaring truth of it, and deny it’s very existence, because it goes against everything you’ve been taught. I understand.
But push through it. You will feel more confident in yourself and your abilities, and so will everyone else.
Here’s how you do it:
- Make a list of everything you’ve done or contributed to that is significant. If you can’t think of any, imagine what your best friend would say about you. We seem to be kinder when we imagine someone else bragging for us.
- Next, go through it again adding anything else that is brag worthy or you should be proud off that was missed the first time around. Going through this twice often helps trigger more brag worthy accomplishments to add to the list!
- Then, go through it and let it sink in how much you’ve done and how much you’ve accomplished. Allow yourself to feel pride in yourself and your abilities. You deserve it sister! You worked hard, own that shit.
- Lastly, tell someone else about it! It could be a family member, friend, co-worker, doesn’t matter. What’s important is to practice saying your accomplishments out loud. Learning how to share your achievements publicly not only will boost your confidence and reframe your mind, but leads directly to workplace successes. A 2011 Catalyst survey of 3000 MBA graduates, showed that women who made their achievements known to their superiors: advanced further, were more satisfied with their careers, and had greater compensation growth than women who were less focused on calling attention to their successes. Let that sink in.
This is also a great exercise to do together with other women! Set up a time to write them out and share your accomplishments with each other while cheering each other on. This is seriously powerful for all of us to improve on.
Now, tell me in the comments: what are you most proud of?