Confidence is a crucial part of a successful career journey. If you’re striving to feel like a confident, successful business woman, this guide will help you tackle common mental roadblocks, build self-belief, and increase self-esteem in any area of your career.
It’s easy to feel inadequate or let self-doubt creep in when navigating new or demanding career avenues, while also trying to manage your personal life and wellbeing.
Below we offer eight ways to achieve the mindset and habits that help you feel like a confident, successful business woman every day.
1. Stop Thinking “Not Good Enough”
Thinking you’re not enough, or never doing enough, stems from negative mental patterns that undermine your confidence.
Feeling “not good enough” can be an exhausting thing to deal with as an ambitious career woman. Luckily, there are things you can do to move past it.
Here’s how to break free:
A. Ditch All-or-Nothing Thinking
This type of thinking often involves the use of absolutes or extremes. You see something as good or bad, without any nuances or shades of gray in between.
This can be problematic because it makes it difficult to find alternative solutions or ways of coping.
Life is not black and white. Perfection isn’t the goal.
Instead of thinking, “If I can’t do it perfectly, it’s not good enough,” aim for progress over perfection.
And celebrate small wins because they add up to big successes.
B. Overcome Negativity Bias
If you put too much focus on the negative aspects of a situation and don’t consider the positives, even if you experience something positive, you may discount it and find some way to view it negatively.
Our brains naturally focus on negatives as primitive wiring for survival.
However, you can retrain your brain by consciously looking for what is right and by practicing gratitude daily.
Write down three things you’re grateful for, even on tough days.
C. Silence Your Inner Critic
If you make a mistake, don’t be overly critical of yourself and attack your own character (“e.g., “I’m a failure who will never succeed at this”).
Sometimes it can be hard to forgive yourself, even if others have already done so.
When you notice self-criticism, ask: Would I say this to a friend?
Replace harsh judgments with kind, supportive thoughts. Be your biggest cheerleader and encourager.
2. Know Your Worth
Knowing your worth and believing that you are indeed worthy of what you desire is absolutely essential for your life happiness and career success.
What Stops Us from Feeling Worthy?
Many of us let our self-worth be contingent upon external events. But when your self-worth depends on external situations, it’s unstable.
As a result, your feelings about yourself can end up being at the whim of other people and the world.
For example, if your self-worth is contingent upon being highly successful in your career, you might only choose paths that you know with certainty you’ll succeed at.
When your self-worth in your career is tied to “winning”, this leaves you with little control over actually living up to your fullest potential and having massive success.
This is because you’re constantly striving to avoid feeling bad about yourself instead of playing full-out to meet your goals. Essentially, you end up striving to avoid failure, rather than to win.
If you do fail, you might abandon your goals, lose motivation, or make excuses to help yourself feel better instead of taking it as the perfect opportunity to learn and grow toward even greater success.
Fully knowing your worth is a cornerstone of becoming a truly confident, successful business woman.
Here’s how to cultivate high self-worth:
A. Prioritize Learning Over Performance
Shift your focus from proving yourself to improving yourself. Learning from challenges is more valuable than striving for perfection.
When you focus on learning and growing, you can take failures or lack of approval as an opportunity to improve.
By doing this, you can recover more quickly from emotional upsets or not achieving goals.
B. Reduce Needs for External Validation
Your worth isn’t defined by external validation like praise, promotions, or awards. Recognize that your value exists independently of outside factors.
Research shows that external contingencies—self-worth based on things like approval, appearance, or achievement—are the worst for your self-esteem.
So focus on decreasing any reliance you have on external sources to feel good about yourself, and build your self-worth based on your internal qualities or personal standards, which you have control over.
C. Focus on Your Strengths
Take stock of what you’re good at and lean into those strengths. Whether it’s leadership, creativity, or problem-solving, let your unique skills shine.
Ask yourself:
- What makes me special or unique?
- What do I do that no one else does?
- What are my positive qualities?
Regularly answering these questions around your career will help you feel like a confident, successful business woman every day.
3. Release Feelings of Inadequacy
Do you ever question whether you’re competent enough? These feelings generally have nothing to do with your actual performance or abilities.
In fact, these feelings may have a lot more to do with self-esteem or self-confidence than any objective measure of your ability or competence.
If you ever feel inadequate in your work, there are a number of strategies that research shows can help you to feel better.
Here are practical steps to counter feeling of inadequacy:
A. Modify Your Expectations and Ideals
If you’re constantly falling short of your expectations and ideals, it may be that you have unrealistic expectations of yourself and what you can reasonably accomplish.
Be realistic about what you can achieve in a day, a month, or a year. Unrealistic expectations will lead to burnout, not success.
B. Seek Help from Others
Another way to resolve feelings of inadequacy is to get help on things you struggle with.
If you don’t feel capable in some area, find someone who can teach you what you need to know.
Confident women know when to delegate or ask for support. Surround yourself with people who can uplift you, offer guidance, and help out.
C. Build Skills and Expertise
If you’re feeling inadequate around a particular task, take the time to build your skills.
No one is good at everything right away, so try not to get down on yourself for being a beginner.
Confidence grows as you know your stuff. Keep learning and mastering your craft to feel secure in your abilities.
D. Cultivate Emotion Regulation Skills
Feelings of inadequacy increase in difficult situations.
However, if you learn effective ways to regulate your emotions, these situations are easier to manage and you’ll reduce negative emotions.
Negative emotions impair your ability to make decisions and think clearly, which fuels inadequacy and directly impacts work performance. Therefore, to be a confident, successful business woman you must expand your emotional intelligence.
E. Practice Self-Compassion
Regardless of how competent or incompetent you are at something, you have value and are worthy of self-kindness. Show yourself self-compassion.
When things don’t go as planned, remind yourself: I’m human, and that’s okay.
Treat yourself with the same kindness you’d offer a friend.
4. Believe in Yourself
When you believe in yourself, it helps you to achieve your goals, manifest your dreams, and increase your wellbeing.
But the flip side is also true. Lack of belief in yourself means you’re less likely to act, to change, or move to make things better.
In fact, when you expect you will fail, you’re actually more likely to fail. Believing in yourself is like the key that starts the car—it’s essential to get moving. Without it, you can’t make progress.
You might try to push yourself forward, but if your thoughts, attitudes, and actions aren’t in alignment with your goals, you don’t get far.
To truly believe in yourself, reflect on these key questions:
- Self-Worth: Do you value yourself as a person? Do you agree that you’re no worse than anyone else?
- Self-Confidence: Do you feel good about your abilities, qualities, and decision-making?
- Self-Trust: Can you rely on yourself to follow through on commitments to yourself and others?
- Autonomy: Do you feel free to pursue your dreams without fear?
- Environmental Mastery: When you take action, do you believe it will lead to the results you desire? Do you believe you’re able to get the things you want?
If you’re leaning toward “no” for any of these, focus on those areas to strengthen your belief in yourself.
Change Your Self-Talk
Once you’ve identified your unsupportive self-beliefs, question these beliefs by dialoguing back to your inner voice.
For example, if you don’t feel confident, talk to yourself about your good qualities and skills: “I am a smart person who is great at research and organization.”
Positive self-talk is shown to improve performance, and by saying positive things to yourself, you start to rewrite your internal scripts. This helps you shift your beliefs.
Build self-trust
Many of us can have self-trust issues in certain areas.
For example, if you’ve told yourself a hundred times that you’re going to start exercising, but never do it.
Then, how likely is it that you’ll trust yourself to start a new exercise program? Not very likely.
(If this example rings true for you, read our article “How to Start a Fitness Journey That Lasts.”)
Here are some tips to start building trust within yourself:
- Do what you say you’re going to do. This could mean reducing your number of commitments, learning to say “no”, or sticking to a schedule. Experiment to see what you need to do so that you stick to your word.
- Be honest with yourself. Engage in self-reflection to get to the truth of what you really think, feel, and need in life. Try not to focus so much on what other people want you to do, but rather on what aligns with your personal truth and values.
- Do what you believe is right. Live your values and follow your inner compass. If you’re on a path that is true to you, then it’s easier to believe in your ability to walk that path.
- Be clear. Get clear about who you are and what you want. Know the things you are willing to do and the things you are not. That way you can trust yourself to make good decisions and communicate them effectively.
5. Overcome Self-Doubt
If you’re someone who has a lot of self-doubts, you may vacillate back and forth when judging your own abilities.
Sometimes you may expect poor performance from yourself and at other times you may expect excellent performance.
How People Generally Deal With Self-Doubt
- Self-handicapping
Self-handicapping is a defensive strategy used to hide the true reasons for your failures.
Actions such as procrastination, perfectionism, lack of preparation, or overcommitting provide excuses to avoid blaming your abilities.
However, these behaviors often increase self-doubt over time.
- Overachievement
Overachievement is a strategy aimed at avoiding mistakes and failures.
If you struggle with self-doubt, you might feel that your usual efforts or skills aren’t enough to succeed, so you push yourself to go above and beyond.
However, this can perpetuate self-doubt, as it becomes unclear whether your success is due to your abilities or the extra effort you put in.
- Imposter Syndrome
Imposter syndrome is the feeling that your success doesn’t truly reflect your abilities.
Despite your achievements, you may fear you can’t maintain your performance or compete with others at your level.
Instead of attributing your success to your skills, you might credit it to luck, timing, or circumstances.
Self-doubt can be challenging, but you can combat it with these strategies:
A. Embrace Unconditional Self-Worth
Cultivate a sense of self-worth that is neither increased nor decreased by external factors like the way people treat you, your decisions, accomplishments, or the amount of money that you make.
B. Unconditional Self-Love
Have permanent love for yourself, flaws and all. Acknowledge that your imperfections make you human, not unworthy.
C. Cultivate Growth
Focus on developing desirable personal qualities, building strengths, and becoming the best version of yourself (not a perfect version of yourself).
D. Use Positive Self-Talk and Affirmations
Replace negative thoughts with affirmations like:
- “I am strong and capable.”
- “I am doing my best, and that is enough.”
- “I am capable of achieving my dreams.”
6. Boost Your Self-Esteem
Self-esteem represents the foundation that supports the relationship you have with yourself, which greatly affects how you approach your life. Building self-esteem takes consistent effort.
Incorporate these self-esteem practices into your life to be a confident, successful business woman:
- Live Consciously: Focus on what is happening in the current moment, without ruminating on the past or overthinking the future.
- Practice Self-Acceptance: Embrace yourself fully, without judgment. Accept yourself unconditionally and show yourself compassion across different situations (e.g., when you make a mistake).
- Practice Self-Responsibility: Own your decisions and their outcomes. Recognize that you are in charge of your choices and behaviors. Because of this, you can’t blame others for your choices and can’t expect others to make choices for you. Autonomy equates to increased self-confidence.
- Practice Assertiveness: Honor your needs in an appropriate way by practicing self-assertiveness. It’s okay to put yourself first and let this be known to the people in your life.
- Live Purposefully: Having a sense of purpose is an antidote to feeling not good enough or “less” than others. When you live purposefully, you set meaningful goals that you feel intrinsically committed to and you pursue them intentionally until you achieve them.
- Act with Integrity: When you lead a life with personal integrity, you act according to your values and live authentically, which is the most satisfying and fulfilling way to live.
7. Overcome Self-Consciousness
Do you find yourself thinking about how others see you?
Do you often worry about offending or upsetting others?
Do you get stressed out about having to perform in front of others?
Then, you’re likely self-conscious.
Self-consciousness can hinder your ability to shine.
You can tackle it by:
- Building Self-Trust: Start building self-trust by being honest with yourself. It can be hard to trust yourself if you’re making decisions that aren’t in your own best interest. Work on being honest with yourself about who you really are and what you really want. (see above #4 Believe In Yourself for more on building self-trust).
- Practicing Mindfulness: Stay present in the moment versus getting stuck in your head and overthinking. Accept and observe situations and emotions as they are, versus worrying about them or trying to control them.
8. Conquer Imposter Syndrome
Research on imposter syndrome shows that some people are convinced that they do not deserve the success they have, even though they have ample evidence of their personal accomplishments.
Therefore, even high-achieving, successful women can still feel like frauds.
Overcome this by:
- Acknowledging Your Emotions: Accept your emotional experiences and remind yourself that feelings are not always an accurate representation of reality. If it helps, you can reflect on your feelings by writing them down and try to identify the thoughts that make you feel like an imposter. Then, counter those thoughts with statements that support your deservingness of success.
- Being Realistic About Your Strengths and Weaknesses: Understand your skills and reflect on your strengths and weaknesses. No one is perfect, and that’s okay.
- Letting Go of Perfectionism: You may have perfectionist habits that you need to slowly break. Remember that mistakes are a natural and inevitable part of life. Strive for excellence, but not perfection.
Final Thoughts on Being a Confident Successful Business Woman
For high-achieving women, there is always something new to go after, which means feeling like a confident, successful business woman is an ongoing journey for you.
However, by staying aware of your mental roadblocks, building self-belief, and nurturing your self-worth often, you can embody confidence every single day.
Remember, success starts from within. Invest in your inner wellbeing and the results radiate outward.
Let us know in the comments below, which of these strategies will you start implementing today?
For more support on how to feel like a confident, successful business woman, read our article “7 Essential Healthy Habits for Career-Driven Women.”
To learn how to experience a life that feels serene, productive, and fuels confidence and success, download our complementary guide, Savoring: The Secret Art of Feeling Luxuriously Nourished in Life.
