Get to know yourself – building up self-belief.

When I meet new people one of the first questions people ask is “what do you do for a living?” and when I say I am a self-employed Virtual Assistant people automatically seem to assume I must be a confident person to go it alone and leave a regular job.

Well, the truth is I’m not confident and the reason behind starting up Spiral Orange was because I felt like I struggled to fit in within the corporate office world. People always thought I was chatty and bubbly, so, therefore, I was confident in my own skin, but I wasn’t.

I used to cover up my insecurities by being chatty and bubbly and reflecting the attention off myself. When I decided to look at setting up a business it all seemed a bit daunting. I would have to be everything and do all the tasks from marketing, networking …well the list goes on.

Setting up a business takes hard work and the ability to multi-task and continually learn new things and it can be knackering at times, but you don’t have to be naturally confident you just need to learn to believe in your own abilities. This is something that I have had to learn, as I would constantly put myself down and then I hit 30 and decided that I had skills and I got on well with people (overall) and that I needed a new challenge and that challenge included believing in myself, which wasn’t easy.

Over time I have built the business up and I continue to learn new skills, but I still have days when I doubt myself and my abilities. Believe me, building up your self-confidence when in the past it has been dashed time and time again is tough, but once you gain a little self-belief it is amazing what you can achieve. It doesn’t need to be huge goals, start off with small manageable targets to reach and then as your self-belief and confidence builds look at the things that you want to achieve and aim for them. Take it one step at a time but continue to always aim for your dreams. It might be running your own business, travelling or doing good in the world.

Look at writing up a list of what you enjoy, what you are good at and what your ultimate goals and dreams are.

I would love to hear what ends up on your list and how you feel after writing down all the things that you enjoy and are good at. Has it boosted your self-belief and given you the courage to follow your dreams and give things a go? After all, it is always better to try and see where it takes you than to never try at all.