What is confidence in entrepreneurship?
What is confidence, anyways?
Have you ever thought about that? We throw these words around but it’s so interesting to actually stop for a moment and think about what they mean.
For me, I've started defining confidence as "ease with one's self"…or put even more simply, just being yourself.
I suppose it's a bit like freedom.
Where do you feel most comfortable being yourself?
Is it at home with your family? Or when you’re with your friends? Perhaps it's when you're all alone with a good book
For me, it’s when I’m at the cottage with my dearest group of friends.
We have beautiful times together.
Our conversations run the gamut from the absolute ridiculous to the incredibly serious.
One time we hodgepodged a “zip-line” out of gear that my friends Ben (an arborist) and Clint (a lighting technician) happened to have on hand along with a life jacket and A LOT of laughter. (By the way, use quotations on “zip-line” because it was all of about 1.5 metres off the ground and 15 yards long. I also tried to find a picture that captured it so I could really show you this glorious memory but I came up unsuccessful…I digress)
Another time I started a fire using nothing but flint and a striker (I felt like a real badass).
We go for walks. Swim in the lake. Solve the world's problems. Read books (sometimes to each other). Lie in hammocks (preferably with a wee bit of dope in the system...it's divine, let me tell you). Throw frisbees. Make the best family dinners. Sing songs around the campfire. Play. Cry. Laugh. Hug. Skinny dip.
And we take exceptionally good care of one another.
When I found this group – to a large degree – I found my self.
And somehow it helped me start to redefine confidence.
To me, now, confidence is about self acceptance. And trust me, it's not there all the time – I DEFINITELY have moments where I have to check myself – but I love the idea that confidence can just be accepting yourself as enough right where you are.
Confidence. It's just you being you.
I discovered this kind of confidence at the cottage with my pals because it was here that I felt completely and utterly safe to be me.
Once upon a time I thought of confidence as something along the lines of standing up tall, puffing out my chest, being extroverted and performative.
I don’t think that anymore.
Now, I just see confidence as self-security.
Feeling safe in my own body and being.
Resting and relaxing into myself.
Knowing I’m enough.
Being myself.
I’m blessed to have had these experiences with these people.
Once I did, I wanted to learn how to make the rest of my life feel like that. I didn’t want this kind of freedom to be relegated to one week at a cottage.
It drove me to quit my job and become an entrepreneur. To design my own path of earning income.
Learning confidence as a skill and then applying it to entrepreneurship has been quite the journey.
But I am amazed at the results I’m seeing as I gain more mastery in letting myself be myself.
The puzzle pieces fall into place.
My life flows.
I create things with my own heart and mind. Ideas. Concepts. Solutions.
I allow myself to be ok…in whatever state I’m in.
I’m not saying it’s easy or that I don’t experience discomfort.
Quite the opposite.
The difference is, I trust myself with the discomfort I feel. I don’t try to avoid it. And I’m able to comfort myself through it.
This skill allows me to show up to myself. It allows me to design a life that works for ME. It allows me to step out of my comfort zone with more ease. It allows me to see myself as enough…and when I do, I am much more able to allow others to be themselves too.
What I know is that we are overly focused on the DOING in life.
And are under-focused on the BEING.
Especially as entrepreneurs.
If you are finding that you have things you need to DO but you can’t seem to get yourself to do them?
I can tell you exactly why that is…
You don’t feel safe. On the inside.
That’s the place you want to focus.
When you feel safe in yourself, you will do the things that are necessary.
If this thought entry resonated with you, you might be interested in my Heartwork program where I teach heart-centered entrepreneurs the skillset of creating confidence so that they can create a business they love and earn income in a meaningful way.
Check out all the details here.
And if you’d like to see an Instagram post I did on this topic, click here.
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