UpSkill Bites offer an opportunity for you to develop your soft skills one bite at a time. In this UpSkill Bites I present the CIA confidence formula I developed this formula as an easy way for you to remember what it takes to build your confidence/ “C” for courage “I” for intention and “A” for action Confidence is the result of courage + intention + action Confidence defines the things you know that you know, the things you trust, the things you are sure of. It’s certainty and so then self-confidence is a result. It’s a result of the actions and it is primarily the result of intentional actions. Since the actions that help us to build our confidence happen outside of the comfort zone, then courage is required for you to sort of shift from what is comfortable to what is uncomfortable. To shift from and to learn to live with discomfort, to take actions in discomfort even when you’re shaking inside, even when you’re scared to death. That courage is the critical component of confidence. Our emotions travel with us wherever we go and on our path to developing confidence these emotions come with us and can sabotage us. The role of courage is to ensure that your emotions are not in the driver’s seat, that you are driving and that you are intentionally driving these actions, and that you try to manage the emotions to allow for the courage to come through. The fearlessness, the determination, the resolve, the audacity, the guts, the grit that it takes to operate in discomfort, to live with uncomfortable things, to get up every day and go after what you need to build your comfort, your comfort and your confidence as a matter of fact. If confidence building was easy we’d all be confident in every aspect of our lives and so the reason why we have to work on it is because it’s difficult, and that’s why we’re here. So courage though, is not just something we talk about, courage is not just a talk ,it’s actually a walk – it’s an action. Courage is what you do about the things you know that you do not know, the things you are uncertain of, the things you can’t quite trust yet. It’s what you do when those things show up. Courage is something that Brene Brown spends a lot of time talking about – she takes a deep dive into that. So if you want to learn more about courage, check out the work of Brene Brown. But how do you know if you have enough courage to build your confidence? Think of the areas that you’ve identified that you want to build your courage and your confidence in. Where do you want to build your confidence? Do you even know? Think of that and then think about what are the actions that you’re taking. Notice your own actions, notice the ways in which you are tracking towards the goals that you’ve set, the areas in which you want to become more confident, what are you doing about it? Think about that and think also about how are you tracking it, how are you measuring it, how are you gauging it. What system do you have in place to ensure that you get to it? If you use the confidence formula: CIA – bring your courage, bring your intentionality, and bring actions to bear, the outcome is confidence. Use this formula as you continue to build your confidence and what you will find out is that perhaps you need to start at building your courage before you could even build your confidence. Either way, let’s start taking those tiny steps right now. That’s your UpSkill Bite for today Thank you for listening I’m Michel Shah Remember to share your ideas and tips so we can UpSkill together. Confidence is a big deal. We all want it. Let’s share ideas about how we can go get it together.