Creating confident communication

I hope that you have made some steps to move out of your comfort zone over the last few weeks. It can often be hard to make steps towards something you fear or something which is out of the ordinary. There are also situations where you might have to fake it to succeed. So what do I mean?

Sometimes when you enter a new experience, you need to pretend to be more confident than you really feel, so I want to give you some tips to enable you to create confident communication.

1. Your body language can show how you feel, so stand up tall, use open body language, make eye contact with people and most importantly smile! Think about someone who is confident that you admire, and walk, act and talk like them - if it works for them, it should work for you.

2. When you go into a new situation, such as a meeting where you don't know anyone, approach someone who looks like they are in a similar situation and make small talk. Yes, you could talk about the weather, but you could also ask open questions to the other person. People love to talk about themselves, so as long as your listening skills are good, this is a great way to get to know other people.

3. Also, prepare for the new situation. This might include doing research before a meeting or getting ready for a job interview. Be prepared to meet any challenge that might arise, and this will boost your confidence.

4. And lastly for now, don't forget to learn from things that have not worked for you and most importantly, celebrate successes. Remember how you felt when you were that cool, confident person, and take this forward to the next new and challenging experience!

Moving beyond your comfort zone

In my August newsletter I wrote an article to help people to move out of their comfort zone. But as a life coach, it is important to note that I walk my talk and I too have gone out of my comfort zone over the last couple of weeks!

My brother in law has a pilots licence and a couple of weeks ago he asked me if I would like to go flying with him. I didn't give it a second thought and said yes. So when we got into the tiny two seater plane, I suddenly remembered how much I didn't like heights! Leaving from near Woking, we followed the seemingly vacant airspace south towards Portsmouth.

On such an amazingly beautiful day, it was worth stepping beyond my own comfort zone and doing something new. Flying over my house in Portsmouth, the Spinaker tower and the dockyard was a fantastic experience. We flew over the Solent towards the Isle of Wight and could even (just) see the white cliffs of Dover in the far distance. It felt like we had the sky to ourselves. And what would have happened if I had said no - I wouldn't have had this awesome experience and would have never contemplated doing something different.

So take a risk today and try new and unusual experiences! For other interesting articles, hints and tips, sign up to my newsletter today.