How to Feel Confident in Your Ideas and Fully Show Up

Written by Julia Amato, Life + Leadership Coach

For a long time, I held myself back at work and let others take credit for my good ideas. During brainstorms or group meetings, I didn’t feel confident sharing my thoughts in the moment or with a larger team.

Instead, I’d wait until I was 1:1 with a colleague and tell him or her directly. 

But here's what kept happening when I did that: those colleagues would share my idea up the ranks or with a wider group, they’d get the credit and they’d get the opportunity to lead the project while I joined on the sidelines.

It never felt good, and it certainly didn’t help my career ambitions to become a leader and creative director. My guess is you’ve had similar experiences and that’s why you’re here. 

So, how did I overcome my lack of confidence and start contributing my ideas? I rediscovered my core values and learned how to live them. 

Let me explain. When I was holding back my ideas, it was because I didn’t feel confident in who I was. I worried more about how the idea would be received by others and saw sharing a half-baked idea as a risk in my credibility. 

But when I rediscovered my core values and learned how to live them, I gained the sense of confidence I needed to speak up.

I worried less about what others thought and more about the contribution I was making to the conversation. I trusted myself and my ability and learned that things didn’t need to be perfect in order to spark innovation. 

The key takeaway here? Knowing your core values builds confidence and allows you to fully show up as your truest, most authentic self. 

Values help you: 

• Make Decisions—when we know what’s most important to us, we don’t question ourselves and our decisions, big or small
• Recognize Your Worth—when we know what we stand for, we know who we are and what we have to offer this world
• Set Boundaries—when we know what we value, we can set boundaries around relationships and behaviors that compromise those values

If you want guidance on discovering your TRUE core values—the ones that make the hairs on your arm stand up and the ground beneath you feel rock solid—I encourage you to check out my course, the Core Values Academy.

You’ll walk away knowing your top 5 core values, how to live them and the confidence you need to share those good ideas and fully show up to this one life.