1 Powerful Way to Boost Your Confidence

Use this easy tip to feel more confident in your next presentation or important meeting.

Imagine you are delivering a sales pitch presentation to a very important potential client. Your KPI’s and with it your annual bonus are on the line. Or maybe you have an upcoming annual performance review meeting with your boss.

Would you feel anxious or nervous in any of these two situations? Most likely.

Anxiety depletes working memory and will impact our self-confidence. So what can we do? How can we be more relaxed? Even better, how do you cope in these situations?

Conventional Thinking

Conventional logic or thinking is to tell yourself “remain calm, everything will be ok”. But does that tactic actually work? Not according to science. Let’s have a look at the reason why.

While being calm and being nervous are both high arousal emotions, the problem lies in the fact that these two emotions are at opposite ends of the emotional spectrum.

Research shows it is hard to go from one end (nervous) to the other (calm) in a short amount of time.

Better Solution

Therefore, according to Alison Brooks (Harvard Business School Professor), a much better solution is to “re-appraise” pre-performance anxiety and aim to switch it with more positive self-talk. We can instead look to adopt an “opportunity mindset” and say to ourselves “I am excited to be giving this presentation” or “this is a great opportunity to demonstrate to my boss our team’s value”.

So the next time you feel anxious or nervous try to re-frame your anxiety as excitement. Turn this perceived threat into a perceived opportunity.

Please let us know in the comments section if you have tried this technique and if it is working for you. Or what techniques do you use to cope with pressure? It would be interesting to hear from you.

We hope to continue to grow this community. Kindly forward this article to any friends or colleagues who you believe would find this content useful and helpful.