By Ashley Stahl, Originally Published in Forbes
A stranger walks into the room with poise and control. They speak calmly with passion and are able to capture a room with their inspiring intentions.
Confidence and clarity are two powerful skills that many people today struggle with as four out of five women have reported experiencing low self-esteem throughout their life.
This impacts more than your social media posts, it takes a toll on your financial success as people with lower self-esteem and confidence make less money annually and are less willing to take risks that could lead to success.
As a career coach, I have found that most of my clients in search of a new career are also seeking a newfound sense of confidence and clarity. The two go hand in hand. When you know what you want you feel confident and when you feel confident your vision of the future is more visible.
Clarity is something that takes time to find, and sometimes you need a little reference and some inspiration to connect you with your truth. Books are an incredible resource and tool to reference when in need of some outside wisdom.
Here are four books I recommend to my clients and anyone seeking confidence or clarity.
1. The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life To The Next Level by Gay Hendricks
When things are going perfect in every area of your life do you find yourself thinking negative thoughts of what horrors could happen or why you don’t deserve what is coming to you?
This book explains exactly what that is and how to break free from this thought pattern. Hendricks reveals the four main root causes to the limitations we put on ourselves and how to push past them and live in your higher state.
Once you can understand what causes your limiting beliefs and false fears you can more easily move past them. I recommend this book as a foundation for stepping into a life of higher clarity and understanding.
2. Find Your Why: A Practical Guide to Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team by Simon Sinek
Do you know what your guiding purpose is, do you know your “why”?
This book provides a step by step guide to capturing clarity around your ultimate life purpose and what leads you to make life decisions. When you complete this process, you will be on the path to a more fulfilling and intentional life.
If you are part of a team or organization, this guide can also help you and your colleagues find your business why to bring forward a stronger mission and sense of connection.
3. You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero
Do you keep sabotaging your happiness?
When lost in career and life it can be easy to lose sight of the confident and inspired person within. Jen Sincero shares her own personal journey to reclaiming her strong self and finding success within her passion.
This book will help you reconnect with the powerful side of yourself and stop holding yourself back from getting what you want out of life. This book is packed with spunky stories and advice on how to love what you can’t change and also, how to change what you don’t love.
4. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brene Brown
When was the last time you shared something that was really close to your heart?
Brene Brown’s book breaks the old belief that being vulnerable means weakness and shows how it is through vulnerability that strength lies. The more vulnerable and strong you can be the more confident you will become in work, relationships and all areas of life.
No matter how much clarity you have, life will always be filled with scary opportunities and uncertain outcomes. The more you can lean into these, the more confident you will become and the more fully you will be able to live life.
Use these books as a resource for inspiration to connect more fully to your truth, to find clarity and to build confidence that you can take into the workforce and into your life.
I will leave you with this quote that inspired Brene Brown’s book title.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; . . . who at best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.” —Theodore Roosevelt
For a FREE course to land a new job you love, launch your dream business, or find your purpose, visit https://ashleystahl.com/