Building Confidence by Staying in a Positive State of Mind

Any sales professional will tell you that their numbers will significantly decline or raise with their expectations. Much of this has to stem from the fact that individuals who expect negative outcomes will become less resilient, utilize a mere fraction of their creative mindset and will appear less confident in front of a potential buyer.

Interviewing, recruitment and job search is no different. In today’s business environment, it is imperative to remain in a state of mind that will allow you to continue driving toward your job search goals and see them through to completion.

For that reason, our recruiters have listed 5 tips on how to prevent thoughts that fix your attention to low career expectations and poor job search and career performance:

5 Key Tips to Remain Positive and Reap the Rewards for Doing So 

1. Begin to understand that if you do not believe in your own abilities, you are inevitably going to content with something less than you are capable of.

Because the blows of life, the accumulation of difficulties, the multiplication of problems, sap energy and leave you discouraged, your true potential is never released.

For any profession, successful interview approach or job search, self-confidence is crucial. Without a firm grasp in your abilities, your negative core beliefs will be formed and continually reinforced, thus affecting the way we interpret the world.

2. Learn to stop yourself from buying into negative thoughts.  When you find the destructive thoughts circling back and forth in your head, you can say to yourself, “Stop, I’ll think this over later.”

By putting them off, you can fully focus on the task at hand and, eventually allow you to have successes which will build your confidence and, ultimately wear down the validity of unproductive feelings.

3. Begin to write down your negative feelings.  The process of writing them down will dilute their power and allow you to set a time to confront the problems rather than ruminating on them.

4. Start to effectively dispute harmful beliefs. By doing so, you can change your customary reaction from dejection and giving up to activity and good cheer.

To do so, start with the content you have from writing down your negative thoughts.  Then, build upon that by writing down the consequences of buying into these beliefs.

For instance, if you feel that you are not qualified to ask for a certain salary, the end result will be that you will remain underpaid and satisfied accepting a job that is below your abilities and not in-line with your interest level.

5. Realize that your beliefs are just beliefs. Most of the time, they are not fact. For example, simply because an employer  or recruiter didn’t respond to your application does not mean that you are not a viable candidate.

By referring to #4, it is possible to effectively dispute these thoughts by telling yourself that maybe the job was filled, the hiring manager never opened your email, the job may have been made obsolete or the HR manager may have gone to a recruiter to fill the position.

By doing so, your resiliency levels will increase and your job search will resume with a heightened sense of energy and conviction.

Business is too competitive these days and staying in a positive frame of mind is nothing short of crucial. Many individuals come to accept a negative view of themselves, even if that perception is distorted and, therefore act according to a false premise which hinders their career and personal relationships.

Regardless of profession, the hurdles your negative beliefs will put on your performance can be described through the experiences of sales professionals.

Picture of Ken Sundheim

Ken Sundheim

Ken Sundheim is the CEO of KAS Placement Sales and Marketing Recruiters, a sales and marketing recruiting firm specializing in staffing business development and marketing professionals around the U.S. Ken has been published in Forbes, Chicago Tribune, AOL, Business Insider, Ere.net, Recruiter.com, Huffington Post and many others. He has also appeared on MTV, Fox Business News and spoken at some of the country's leading business schools on HR, job search and recruitment.

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