Assertiveness: 3 Ways To Give Yours A Quick Boost
“Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.” Samuel Johnson
Everyone struggles with assertiveness at some point.
When that happens you need to find a way to boost yourself confidence fast and get back to your assertive best. Don’t let yourself get into a downward cycle where your lack of confidence impacts your performance and assertiveness which then in turn impacts your confidence further.
This is especially important for freelancers. Freelancers don’t have a support system or colleagues to help them through tough periods. They need to learn to be self-aware, so that they can catch these things early and self-sufficient so that they can solve things on their own.
So what do you do if you feel that you’re flagging and not being as assertive as you need to be with clients and suppliers?
Let’s look at three great ways to give you a rapid lift. If you want to see more take a look at this assertiveness article from Acuity Training).
- Smile
“People seldom notice old clothes if you wear a big smile.”
It’s amazing how much a smile can change your mood. You suddenly feel better and also the world responds better to you.
People will respond far more happily if you are smiling. Suddenly the whole world can seem an easier, happier place to be doing business.
- Take Up Some Space
Just as our mind can impact our body, so our body can impact our mind.
When our confidence is low often we will start showing that in our body language. It becomes closed and we tend to hunch over in a sub-conscious attempt to take up less space.
To change this you just need to consciously move to take up more space and open up our body language. Put your shoulders back. Stretch your arms out. Look up not down.
Again it’s amazing how fast this can impact your mood. Experiments have shown that in both men and women doing this for two minutes will reduce your levels of cortisol (stress hormone) and increase your levels of testosterone (confidence hormone). So this is a physiological change not just a mental change.
One tip to remember is don’t hunch over your mobile phone looking at emails before a meeting. This sets you up to perform poorly in the meeting as that body language will quickly reduce your confidence levels.
- Slow Down
Confident people don’t generally feel hurried. They don’t speak particularly quickly and they don’t move particularly quickly.
This is another body / mind trick you can use. If you’re not feeling confident and assertive intentionally move slowly and speak slowly as a confident person would.
You will quickly start feeling more confident.
Used in conjunction with each other the tips above can give you an amazing boost. In 5 minutes you can transform your mood and the impact that you make on others.
