063 | Gaining Confidence in Your Own Abilities - Part 3: Professional Development

We’re in the middle of a series, gaining confidence in your own abilities. In the previous 2 episodes, we discussed spiritual growth and personal development and how this can help you gain confidence.

This episode will discuss how professional development can help you gain confidence.

It’s no secret that when you want to learn a new skill, you’re highly likely to Google the ‘how to’ or if it’s a skill you need for work, you’ll attend a course or training program to learn that new skill. YouTube is a common one for us as well.

But does it really have merit?

Can you really gain confidence by attending professional training or development?

I think this one is debatable and depends how you want to look at it.

If you don’t have confidence in your own abilities because you lack a certain skill set, then yes, you can absolutely go and gain the book knowledge for it. Hence the reason why some companies/careers also require certain qualifications. They hold merit for sure.

However, if you lack confidence, because of a lack of experience, then I say embrace it! Find ways to gain experience, seek them out. Don’t wait for them to just miraculously happen. Seek them out. Ask your line manager to keep you in mind for the next project or volunteer somewhere during your time off. The only way to gain experience, is to do the thing that you want to gain experience in.

An example of this for me was project management.

I was leading a department and I had to run multiple projects. I knew absolutely nothing about successful project management.

I had 2 options:

• Go and study about it - get the book knowledge (which would have helped a lot! Now that I’ve done project management my MBA, I see the real value in in)
• Learn from others and gain the experience.

I chose the latter. I asked my line manager to include me in any future projects, or at least to keep me abreast so that I can learn from the best.

Professional development doesn’t always have to be a course or a training or something that you can prove on paper you did. This is how we have been made to believe it is.

Professional development can happen by learning from your peers, your line managers, other departments.

The most important thing is that you continue developing, professionally.

As soon as you become stagnant and think “I’ve made it”. Then be worried, be very worried.

So, continue your learning, continue your professional development and continue gaining confidence in your own abilities.

You are amazing because our one true God made you, formed you in your mother’s womb, he knows you by name, he knows how many hairs there are on your head.

He loves you.

I hope you are blessed by this.

I will chat with you all again next week.

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