The thing about confidence is that it’s always situational. This means that you can train yourself to be more assertive in new situations over time.
It’s a skill you can practice.
As a confidence coach, you can help people realize their self-worth and have more trust in their abilities. Let’s explore how this important coaching specialty can create an impact on your clients.
What Is Confidence?
Confidence is our belief in ourselves, our abilities, and our worth. Maintaining healthy self-esteem is key to tackling challenges, pursuing goals, and handling setbacks with resilience and positivity.
It is, as the co-founder of Mindvalley Coach Ajit Nawalkha explains, “trust in our own abilities to be able to do a particular task at hand, to deliver to a particular requirement that we have committed to.”
However, confidence is not an innate trait or ability but a skill that we can develop. It’s a learned behavior that needs consistent patience.
Confidence can be developed over time in any situation that we choose to. — @ajitna Share on XConfidence also has to do with our ability to connect with others. The more we’re wrapped up in our digital bubble, the less we seem to initiate new conversations with others.
This negatively affects both community building and mental health, the two important factors in becoming more confident and well-rounded individuals.
Why Do We Lack Confidence?
In a study, 85% of people reported that they struggled with self-confidence issues at some point in their lives. When we feel we lack confidence, we are usually:
- Hypercritical of ourselves. We judge our response to life instead of taking our experiences as lessons to learn.
- Procrastinating. When we avoid doing things, we are encouraging the self-dialogue of not being ready enough and thus losing our confidence in the process.
However, as Ajit explains, confidence is “not so much of a feeling.” You don’t “feel” confident. “You know you’re confident”—and that’s why it’s more of a skill or a learned behavior.
What Is a Confidence Coach?
Self-esteem coach, self-worth coach, self-confidence coach—they’re all essentially the same name for confidence coach. Regardless of the title, it all boils down to this: a confidence coach is someone who helps clients develop and strengthen their self-belief, overcome self-doubt, and cultivate a positive mindset. They empower others to pursue their goals with courage and resilience.
As one in this niche, it is your role to bring awareness to the limiting beliefs your clients may be subjecting themselves to. Using various coaching techniques, you work with them to reassess situations in which they don’t feel successful as opportunities for learning and growth.
What Do Confidence Coaches Do?
Obviously, confidence coaches help their clients with, well, confidence. But there are several other things that they do:
- Identify and address limiting beliefs and self-doubt.
- Develop a positive mindset.
- Provide tools and techniques for cultivating self-esteem.
- Encourage clients to step out of their comfort zones and take bold actions.
- Foster a supportive and empowering coaching relationship.
- Help clients recognize and leverage their strengths.
- Provide feedback and accountability to track progress and celebrate successes.
- Empower clients to navigate social situations and assert themselves effectively.
Additionally, when it comes to women or minorities, confidence coaches may also address systemic issues affecting self-esteem.
Ajit Nawalkha’s Top 3 Tips On How to Build Confidence as a Confidence Coach
Here’s the thing with confidence: You always have it.
But it’s something you have to nurture, to work on, to grow. “You have been talked out of it through the course of life because of things that may have happened,” says Ajit. “And now you’re relearning the skill to be confident.”
So whether it’s self-coaching to be more poised or to help your clients regain trust in themselves, here’s where you can start:
1. Trust yourself
“One builds confidence by trusting themselves,” says Ajit. “So any activity that will help you trust yourself more will be something that will add on to your confidence.”
Make promises you can keep, even if it’s just showing up for a workout or learning a new word. Following through builds trust in yourself and, eventually, the confidence you seek.
It’s what Ajit calls “the confidence competence loop,” which essentially states that the more you’re competent at doing something, the more confident you are.
“Because you have gotten more confident, you get more competent, and the loop keeps increasing,” he adds. Soon enough, you’ll trust yourself to tackle bigger goals.
2. Take imperfect action
No one goes from couch potato to marathon runner overnight. So, pick something you want to be confident in, like public speaking.
Start by talking to a friend, then a small group, then maybe a class. Each success, even if wobbly, will boost your confidence for bigger challenges.
“When you start taking imperfect action towards things that will give you more competence in that area,” Ajit explains, “slowly but surely, you will get some competence and, hence, some confidence.”
They do call it “baby steps” for a reason, after all.
3. Focus on progress, not perfection
We all stumble. Instead of getting hung up on mistakes, focus on how far you’ve come.
Did you give a presentation without fainting? Celebrate that. Did you finish your report? Celebrate that.
For Ajit, his book, The Book of Coaching, was filled with mistakes. But he took that imperfect action and “cleaned up, and I cleaned up, and I cleaned up until I got it.”
The thing is, every imperfect action is going to propel you forward until you’re competent in the thing you do. And once you feel like you’re mastering that thing, it gives you the confidence to propel you to something further.
So, Ajit advises asking yourself this question: What is it that you can do today to be able to take that imperfect action?
Then take it. And in between, celebrate every step, big or small, and your confidence will soar.
Build the Confidence You Need to Change Lives
“Confidence is not static,” Ajit says. “It’s not this place that you get to; it’s a place that you’re already at.” And with the right tools at hand, you can confidently coach anyone—even if you’re a beginner.
If you want to learn more, join the free Become a Mindvalley Certified Life Coach masterclass. With Ajit and other Mindvalley coaches as your guides, you’ll learn the proven four-pillar framework to facilitate massive breakthroughs and transformations, not only for your client but for yourself.
—
Images generated on Midjourney.
