Is your wellbeing suffering because you feel anxious or stressed?

Is your wellbeing suffering because you feel anxious or stressed? 

You aren’t alone - we are all aware of the increase in the number of people feeling anxious or stressed in today’s world, in fact in 2021 more than 8,000 children in the UK picked 'anxiety' as the top choice when asked for the words they would use to discuss health and wellbeing

What’s more… we also know these feelings of stress and anxiety not only detract from our overall sense of wellbeing, they are also not helping our productivity and performance - at work, at home in our whole life

In fact, they are harmful to our bodies as well as our minds, to say nothing of the impact we have when we appear anxious and stressed on our friends and loved ones and frankly, also our credibility at work. But what can we actually do about it? Especially because some of the factors which are making us feel this way, may appear to be so far out of our control?

The good news is, that honestly (and surprisingly for some of us), there is actually a lot we can do about it 

Some of these things we may be vaguely aware of. For example, the importance of being active. We are not necessarily talking about some crazy intense fitness routine here, but we are talking about getting off our sofas and moving our bodies more, ideally outside

Together with looking after our physical health, being active, eating and drinking healthily, and avoiding unhealthy habits, like drinking or smoking too much, some of the keys to good stress management, according to Professor Cary Cooper, an occupational health expert at the University of Lancaster, are these 4 things. Firstly, building emotional strength, secondly, being in control of our situation, thirdly, having a good social network, and fourthly, adopting a positive outlook. When we look at these four elements, some of these can be summarised as building and strengthening a feeling of confidence

When we are confident, we have a feeling of trust in our own abilities, qualities and judgement - we have good morale, are self-assured, believe in ourselves, are positive, composed and feel capable

When we are confident, not only do we increase our belief in ourselves and our ability to cope with any given situation, we also increase other people’s belief in us - in our home, work and whole life. Confidence is attractive, it brings success, helps us to connect better with others and we generally feel happier. As Michelle Obama said,

“Whether you come from a council estate or a country estate, your success will be determined by your own confidence and fortitude”

So, when we realise that Choosing Confidence is the opposite of feeling overwhelmed and appearing anxious or stressed, and we also realise that our success and ability to unlock our unique potential is determined by our confidence - how do we start choosing to be confident?  

The journey starts with first becoming aware that we can, in fact, take control and choose to be confident

Seems simple, yet this may well be the biggest mind-set shift which can take us from feeling anxious and stressed, to taking control and achieving our unique potential - confidence is a choice

Second, is the incredibly powerful realisation that we can move forwards from feelings of anxiety and worry to feelings of capability and confidence, by swapping perfection for progress

Swapping perfection for progress means we aim for progress, not perfection

Even the smallest steps of progress move us forwards. And progress is addictive - these steps of progress give us an addictive dopamine hit of achievement and momentum. Whenever we recognise our progress, our brain releases a load of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is responsible for generating feelings of accomplishment, satisfaction and happiness. This inspires us to take the next small step forwards

Small steps of progress, sparking confidence with each new step

This is what we call Being Progressfull - by swapping perfection for progress we start to let go of feelings of anxiety and stress so we can focus our time and energy in the best small steps forwards, spending our lives doing the things which make us truly happy and achieving our potential

Being Progressfull helps us to step by step, Choose Confidence - to start trusting our abilities, our qualities, and our judgement. When we Choose Confidence we become self-reliant, positive and purposeful. We allow ourselves to be poised, self-assured and assertive. Living our own, unique best lives, making our own, unique best contributions at home, at work, in our whole life

To help people learn how to Choose Confidence we have created an Upskill, (our name for a course/masterclass), which can help you Choose Confidence. Choosing Confidence includes online videos, 121 Mentoring, bespoke Journals, private podcasts and purposeful self-reflection exercises designed to help you unlock your ability to Choose Confidence, even when the going gets tough - you can learn more about it here

We share sparky deep insights, simple practical frameworks and handy transformational tools, including tools for purposeful self-reflection, usually only accessible for high performance executives. Making these available for everybody to use in the real world

Choosing Confidence is not easy, but it is worth it. You have just one life, so gain self-assurance, poise and confidence, trust yourself and know you are enough - be a first-rate version of yourself

Discover more about Choosing Confidence here