Making more time for confidence and speaking afraid


I used to struggle with making time to develop my confidence. When I prioritised time to grow my confidence, through coaching, training programs, and listening to various podcasts or YouTube channels, I then felt I had no time to put into practice what I learned. Can you relate?

Digging deeper into why I was experiencing this, I learned that the productivity and time management frameworks I was incorporating could only take me so far. What I needed to support it all came as a surprise to me because it was rarely promoted as a solution in my experience. It was rest.

Rest is the thing that gives your mind the space it needs to process and calibrate the new information and experiences you invest in. The consequence of not prioritising rest time includes feeling lost or burnt out. These two things lower your confidence levels.

This is why, after my research and experiencing its benefits, rest is included in the Speak Afraid Method. Want another reason why?

Because it is when you prioritise rest, you allow yourself the space to figure out how to make more time for confidence in a way that suits you and meets you where you are at right now. Not resting means you crowd your mind, energy, and experience and this is a crowd where fear, doubt, and negative self-talk likes to party in.

I don’t like partying with fear, doubt, and negative self-talk. Do you? If your answer is no, I’d like to invite you to listen to my newly published book, Speak Afraid, Redirecting Fear Into Courage to Communicate Through Change. It is released first on audio because if you're like me, you like what you may discover via your favourite podcast app. Also it is a great format to help you make time to listen to the book Speak Afraid.

I included it in the Speak Afraid Audio Pack. This pack also includes the audiobook of Confidence Booster, Affirmations to Reframe Your Mindset and Boost Confidence, and 356 Confidence Shifts to help you back yourself every day. I listen to this combination weekly because it helps me stop fear eroding my confidence and gives me courage to back myself, especially when I am stepping into new territory. The bonus. It helps me discover ways that suit me on how to rest (even when I’m working or doing tasks I don’t enjoy doing), increase my capacity without overloading my system, and even experience more joy in my days full of the demands of adulting.

I invite you to invest in time to listen to this book and the rest of the Speak Afraid Audio Pack, because it takes courage to communicate and show up with fear, but this is how lasting confidence is built in a way that grows with you. You may get at blossomingspeaker.com​

All the best, Susan.

​
​

Blossoming Speaker: Courage to Communicate

Hi, I'm Susan, creator of the Speak Afraid Method, host of the Blossoming Speaker Podcast, author of two books, and someone who has lives through the very thing Blossoming Speaker is built for; to develop a calm and lasting confidence in how you communicate, whether fear shows up or not. I use the Speak Afraid Method because it's a way to communicate with fear still with you in different public settings, so you may achieve meaningful connections and move forward in your journey. Because I've been there, both as the student and the teacher. I enjoy sharing a practical insight each week because lasting communication confidence is built one step at a time. Last few newsletters to read under the Posts tab. This newsletter has been published since 2023. It has been hosted on Kit since 2024.

Read more from Blossoming Speaker: Courage to Communicate

I used to feel so productive doing so many things until I realised that feeling of putting my feet up at the end of the day turned into pure exhaustion, when it once felt like deserved satisfaction. Ever felt this? When I was receiving coaching on this and when listening to one of my favourite productivity podcasts, an idea came to me like an illuminating click. All the things I was doing no longer flowed (or maybe never flowed together well), and it resulted in me feeling burned out. When...

I used to struggle with making time to develop my confidence. When I prioritised time to grow my confidence, through coaching, training programs, and listening to various podcasts or YouTube channels, I then felt I had no time to put into practice what I learned. Can you relate? Digging deeper into why I was experiencing this, I learned that the productivity and time management frameworks I was incorporating could only take me so far. What I needed to support it all came as a surprise to me...

Are you like me and still get nervous meeting new people and when asked to be part of an ice-break activity? Now I'm genuinely very confident but I still feel a little uneasy deciding what to say to contribute to these activities. I’m telling you that this is normal to experience and quite common. You have the power to not let it become a barrier or a big fear. Here is what I practice to help these nerves not become a barrier: Make a comment about something relevant to the event you are in at...