Five Steps To Regain

Your Confidence

When It’s Been Shattered

Build a Success Mindset

Build a Success Mindset

Having a success mindset is about believing, deep in your core, that you are a successful

person, and that you can achieve anything you set your heart and mind to. A success mindset

enables you to see opportunities and make the most of them in a positive way. To make a major

career change, having a success mindset is almost as important as working through the

strategies that you need to take to achieve that change.

You know the old saying that a definition of madness is to keep doing the same thing over and

over again and expect to get different results. The reason we usually keep doing things the

same way is habit rather than conscious behaviour. To be successful in anything, including

career change, usually requires you to break out of your comfort zone and eliminate the limiting

barriers surrounding you. You need to develop a success-oriented mindset.

Roger Bannister, who broke the four-minute mile record in 1954, presents a wonderful example

of the power of mindset. Until then people believed that humans could not run 4 miles in under

four minutes. After Roger Bannister achieved this people realized that it was humanly possible.

Within weeks an Australian had broken that magical four-minute mark, and by the end

of the year hundreds of athletes had run 4 miles in less than four minutes. Nothing had

changed in the function of the human body. What had changed was the belief of the athletes,

the belief that a human being could run that fast. Once they stopped putting up the barrier that

said that it was impossible they realized that they could do it.

Our brain is constantly changing

New brain cells are always making changes in the brain, forming new synaptic connections with

other neurons. Thus, as a result, we create new learning, new skills, and new memories. This

means that we are not tied to being the person that we always were with the same thinking

patterns that we've always had. We are constantly capable of change, and that change means

that we are responsible for our emotions, the way we behave and how we present ourselves to

the world.

Through Boomers Next Step blog posts we've been

looking at how you can prepare yourself to take the

actions that are needed to make a successful career

change. Many of our posts consider the choices that you

have to make, the changes that are required, the

challenges you face, and the need for confidence to make

it all happen. If change is constantly happening to us and

around us it makes sense that our brain is also constantly

adapting. By recognizing this it is clear that we, too, can

change and learn new ways of behaving and feeling.

Commit yourself to developing positive self-esteem

Self-esteem determines your confidence and determines how well you're going to present

yourself as a good candidate for a career change.

Self-confidence can sometimes be faked, in fact I have suggested this is a good starting point if

your confidence has been eroded. Someone can have a great résumé, be well prepared for an

interview, and seem to be brimming with self-confidence, but if their underlying self-esteem is

not strong it is quite likely that they will sabotage their own efforts.

Self-esteem is about knowing deep down that you are a worthy person. Self-esteem isn’t a

constant in our lives. It is sometimes stronger than at other times, dependent on hormones, life

problems, even your state of health. So what can you do about your self-esteem if you

know that it isn't as strong as it should be? You certainly don't want self-esteem concerns to

create barriers to your success. Depending on your issues, a counsellor or a well-trained

professional hypnotherapist may be able to help you to recognize and deal with your self-esteem

issues.

Poor self-image or self-esteem can be the result of experiences as a child, but it doesn't

necessarily have anything to do with poor parenting or even something traumatic happening in

your life. The messages that were accepted by our brain as fact as a child are not necessarily

what the reality was that the time. If you observe a young child over-reacting to some situation

you'll often see that their interpretation of what was meant, or indeed what actually happened, is

not necessarily accurate. Unfortunately our feelings are based on what we remember rather

than the facts. Therefore, if we had been in a situation where we felt that our self-esteem was

seriously undermined, such as if a child is told that they are stupid, or they are bullied by others,

it is the emotions of that incident that they will remember subconsciously.

So, fast forward to now: a great résumé, interview preparation, a new suit, a new hairdo, and all

the ingredients seem right for a successful interview and career change. However, inside that

successful looking person is a small child whose self-esteem was undermined. When

we are stressed we tend to revert to the patterns of thinking that we've always had. And so while

that smartly dressed person waits to go into the interview the little voices in their head are

telling them that they are stupid or fat or incapable, or that nobody likes them. That’s not a great

start to a successful interview!

Can you see why it is so important to deal with your self-esteem issues? Be very conscious that

you don't want past hurts and past patterns to sabotage this great opportunity that you have.