As a leader, whether in a corporate setting or in your own business, you’re constantly making decisions.

You have to decide on the best candidate for your open role, how much to charge for your services, whether to continue with a project or put it on hold.

Not to mention the decisions you make when it comes to your personal life.

(My least favorite is, “what’s for dinner?”)

Society prioritizes rational thinking, pragmatism, and data-driven decisions.

And while I believe there is certainly a place for the “hard” information, this way of thinking leads women to believe we have to make the perfect decision every time.

Have you heard that we think more than 50,000 thoughts per day?

Well, new research shows that number is actually closer to 6,200 thoughts.

Still, that’s a lot to process every day. That’s about 258 thoughts per hour or 4 thoughts per minute!

And how many of those thoughts are negative?

If you’re like most women, negative thoughts are almost part of your DNA.

You may not even notice how often you think negative thoughts about yourself, because they’re so ingrained in your thought process.

Negative thoughts erode your confidence by causing you to lose trust in yourself. And a deep trust is the foundation for building sustainable confidence.

If negative thinking is your default thought process, read on to learn how to reframe your thinking and choose empowering thoughts instead.

Building sustainable confidence doesn’t happen overnight.

You might be saying your affirmations, writing your journal prompts, making a list of your accomplishments, and feeling great.

Then one day, someone calls you “too much” or a presentation doesn’t go as planned or you don’t enroll the new client after a discovery call.

When you don’t have a firm trust in yourself and believe in your capacity for success, one small curve in the path can send you into an impostor spiral.

I get it, because I’ve been there.

In fact, all it took was one feedback session with a former manager where she personally attacked me and my coaching business for me to totally lose all the confidence it took a lifetime to build.

International Women’s Day is celebrated annually on March 8th, and it marks a day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women around the world.

The 2021 theme is #ChooseToChallenge, and as the official IWD website declares:

“A challenged world is an alert world. And from challenge comes change.”

I couldn’t agree more with that statement!

I’ve been challenging workplace norms my entire career. It hasn’t always been easy, and it’s never been comfortable. But change doesn’t happen inside our comfort zones.

And that’s not just change on a global scale or in your workplace or business.

I’m talking about deep internal change.

Impostor Syndrome is a psychological phenomenon involving the belief that you’re inadequate, incompetent, and a complete failure despite evidence that you actually are successful. It’s also the inability to believe that you deserve success or that you achieved success as a result of your own efforts, skills, or expertise.

Impostor Syndrome affects about 70% of the population, and minority groups, including women, people of color, and people being “the first” are disproportionately affected.

I had known since I was little that I would be going to college to get a degree, although the degree of choice changed a little over the years, from marine biology to architecture to engineering. I was fortunate to have parents that told me I could be and do anything that I wanted, and supportive mentors and teachers throughout high school. When I got to college, things changed a little…

“You’re not good enough.”

“No one will pay you for this.”

“Who are you to give people advice on being confident?”

These are just a few of the thoughts that run through my head on a daily basis.

As soon as I became a full-time entrepreneur, I started to question every move, every decision, every program or service I designed.

As a healthcare executive, I rarely questioned myself. I believed in my ability to be successful in my job, and I often heard great feedback on my programs and training from colleagues and supervisors.

But even though I still hear great feedback from my clients and friends, I don’t believe them.