A Note on Confidence

Happy Monday! I’m excited to have my friend Emily here on the blog today to speak on the topic of confidence – something we all benefit from not only on Mondays, but every day of the week! Emily is such a thoughtful, kind friend – I’ve known her since middle school, which is so neat. She blogs over at The After Hours Chef, a food blog you’ll have to check out! Take it away, Emily 🙂

Hi, I’m Emily and I blog over at The After Hours Chef, a food blog for EVERYONE who likes food.  We’re lucky to have Hannah contributing to our blog, and I’m excited to be writing for Just Bee today!

Hannah recently blogged about her commitment to being mindful of her word of the year — CONTENT — and to incorporating it into her daily life.  Well, I’m doing something similar this year.  I am working on a “15 for 2015” list of ideas, resolutions, and words to live by this year.

One of the most important concepts on my list is CONFIDENCE.  I’ve noticed lately how often I second-guess my decisions and abilities, especially professionally.  And unfortunately, I’m not the only one — statistically, women are less confident than men (if you’d like to learn more, check out the book The Confidence Code by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman).  But a huge part of having confidence is simply making the decision to have confidence!

I saw this in action recently when I applied for a new job.  Reading through the job qualifications, I felt excited and confident about the position…until I got to the last item on the list.  I spent the next few days leading up to my interview thinking about that piece of the job that I did not feel qualified to perform.  I worried, I agonized, I even lost sleep!  On the day of my interview, it suddenly dawned on me that I had picked out the ONE thing in the ENTIRE job description that I didn’t feel confident about and was letting it get under my skin, diminishing my chances of a good interview and ultimately, getting the job!  I had completely disregarded all of the pieces of the job that I was good at and that made me a good choice for the position.  After going over the job description again, focusing on the things I was good at, I went into the interview with confidence — and it went really well!

The more I am aware of my self-confidence, the more confident I feel.  And as I feel more confident, I become more confident.  It’s an interesting circle that way!  Confidence comes in many forms, from cooking without a recipe to making a tough call at work to daring to be yourself in a world full of pressures to be something else.  So what if things go wrong?  Learn from your failures and start again!

I’d like to challenge you (especially if you are a woman) to BE CONFIDENT!  You are amazing and have the skill — or at least the will — to do whatever you want…and don’t forget it!