"It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not".

Confidence is a state of mind. If you believe you can do something and approach it with a positive mind-set and a can-do approach, you are very likely to succeed.

Yes, there may be difficulties along the way, but success comes from overcoming these challenges and remaining upbeat and determined. This helps you to improve your confidence and so the cycle continues.

In a work environment, a lack of confidence can seriously hold you back. It can keep you in your 'comfort zone' for years, its can lead to sleepless nights when you are faced with a difficult situation.

It can stop you progressing to a more senior position; it can stop you doing what you really want to do in your working life or if you aren't working it can stop you applying for jobs.

The first step is recognising that lack of confidence might be an issue for you, an invisible barrier that is stopping you becoming the person you want to be in your working life.

Sometimes, it's about asking yourself a thought-provoking question - is my confidence holding me back from doing what I really want to do?

The next step is to figure out what life would be like if you were able to improve your confidence. If you had a magic wand, what would you dare wish for?

What would your dream job be? Which company would you work for? Would you be working for yourself? How would you spend your days? What kind of work would you be doing?

Allow your imagination to run free. What would you really, really like to be doing in your working life to make you feel fulfilled and happy? If someone asked you to give it a rating, what would make it a 10/10?

Then ask yourself, how would you know that you had achieved it? What would be happening, how would I be feeling, what would be going on?

Now look at your current work situation - how would you truly rate it on a scale of 0 to 10, where 10 is exactly as you describe your ideal.

The next step is to work out how to fill the gap between where you are now and where you want to be.

What makes up the good parts of the work that you do now? What are your skills? What are your likes and dislike? What motivates you?

What would increase your rating by just one point? Would it be something straightforward like training on a particular task, or is it something more?

Whatever it is - write it down, date it and invest some time thinking about how you could get there. List as many ways as you can think of, including the sublime and ridiculous - they may spark off other ideas. Roll these over in your mind for a while; chunk them down into bite-sized projects and plan what you will actually do and when you will do it - write these down and commit to making the changes.

When you achieve this, you will notice that your confidence increases and you will want to do even more. Work systematically through this, investing your time and effort to determine what else you can do to close the gap further from where you are now to where you want to be.

In time, you will find that you are improving your confidence at work and feeling more fulfilled by the changes that you are choosing to make.

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