How to Get Out of Your Own Way and Live With Confidence

A lot of our success in life comes down to our own confidence and outlook. In many ways, we make our own luck by believing in ourselves and looking at things as opportunities rather than obstacles. But confidence doesn’t come easily to all of us. How can you get out of your own way and stop holding yourself back with self-doubt and pessimism? We spoke with Robin Sacks, a confidence coach, about how we can all be more sure of ourselves and in a better position for career success. She offers tools that will help you become more confident.

Do you want to feel more confident and better position yourself for success? Watch our podcast interview with Robin Sacks below:

Robin Sacks is a confidence/performance coach, professional speaker, author, and motivator. She has facilitated personal and professional development workshops internationally for companies including Microsoft, Panera, and American Greetings. Her professional experience also includes being an on-air talent for NBC and ABC network affiliates. As an award-winning journalist, she has also trained Emmy award nominees and an Emmy award winner. Her coaching clients range from young athletes to Fortune 500 executives. Robin’s book, Get Off My Bus!: How to Get Clarity, Get in the Driver’s Seat, and Get Moving in Your Life!, was nominated for Small Business Trends’ Small Business Book of 2010.

To start off our discussion, we learn about Robin’s incredible career and how she first got into confidence and performance coaching. Robin’s role in leadership began back in high school and college when she was a sports captain. Moving into broadcasting may look like a complete switch on the outside, but Robin began to see commonalities in her position there compared to her role as a team captain.

She developed a sense of how she sees things from a very different perspective from a lot of people. For example, in reporting weather, meteorologists will describe the day as partly cloudy… but that can be reworded as partly sunny. Or consider when they say there’s a 20% chance of rain… that’s also an 80% chance of sunshine! Looking at things from a brighter angle can influence how you interact with your environment and portray yourself.

Many people – especially those who are smart – have a tendency to get in their own way. They often over-think things and can easily become stressed. Why is that? Robin offers her observations of why smart people start to catastrophize and worry about the worst possible outcomes. But the truth is, the worst that could happen probably won’t happen. It’s important to recognize this and gain some control over that negativity spiral.

How can women learn to shift their self-talk, body language, and mental-game to exude more confidence? What kinds of benefits will this lead to in terms of feeling more in control, calm, and confident? This is a major one, and Robin shares some important ideas and actionable tactics here. Think about how other people have defined you and learn to deconstruct that.

For example, our show’s co-host Amanda was often told how quiet and shy she was as a child – by her teachers, by her classmates, and by her own family. She started to truly believe she was too timid to go after certain goals. But eventually she realized that, while she is an introvert, she isn’t that shy. This realization opened up a world of possibilities and grew her confidence. You, too, should try to stop listening to others and listen to yourself instead, because you know you better than anyone else.

Related to all of this is impostor syndrome, something that we at Petite2Queen know a thing or two about! For many people, impostor syndrome can go hand-in-hand with – or lead to – lower confidence. Impostor syndrome is more than just self-doubt, but it can be overcome.

One final question that we haven’t tackled yet: What defines confidence? This may seem like a simple question that any standard dictionary can answer, but it goes deeper than that. What does it mean to you? Confidence is being comfortable with who you are and what you do, but only you can determine when you feel confident and what that means.

Find out how you can get out of your own way and build confidence by listening to our podcast with Robin:

To find out more about Robin Sacks, visit her official website here. You can also connect with her on LinkedIn. And of course, be sure to read Robin’s book, Get Off My Bus!: How to Get Clarity, Get in the Driver’s Seat, and Get Moving in Your Life!