I’m not a big “feminist” in the sense that I believe we accept the labels others put on us and then perpetuate that label BUT, I do think women have a serious problem with confidence that affects every aspect of our lives more so than it affects men’s lives because they don’t seem to suffer from this as much as we do. The reason women are picked on, overlooked, and dismissed in life is because of stereotypes and the only way to start breaking this cycle is for us to have confidence starting at our core and emanating it to the world. I was recently chosen to be a part of a women in leadership cohort at my job. At our first meeting we discussed the unfairness to women in our industry and secretly, on the inside, I scoffed just a bit because I thought we were just going to talk about the injustices and that my company was just going to try to force diversity down the corporation’s throat, not to mention all the males in the company’s throats. But I soon learned that the inspiring women leaders in charge of the group were actually going to teach us how to BE more rather than just be sour about how we’ve always been screwed. Do they acknowledge the injustices? Yes. Do they encourage us to play the victim? NO! They taught us that we are in charge of our own destinies. They taught us the tactics men use to be successful so that we can use those tactics, too. What I have figured out is that the root cause of women’s obstacles is our low confidence, even if we’re confident in ourselves, we’re not confident in those around us. Low confidence is a direct contributor to being stuck wherever we are whether it’s at work or at home. Where did this start for us? According to a new campaign by Always, it starts as a pre-teen. They have a commercial out on YouTube that brought me to tears because it shows adult females perpetuating that age old insult “like a girl” but when actual, little girls were asked to do something “like a girl”, they did it with determination and confidence. When does it change? When do we start believinge what they tell us about ourselves and why do we believe it? I wanted to share some videos with everyone, both men and women, to inspire you to live differently and live confidently. If you have confidence in yourself, others will have confidence in you and your life will change! I always considered myself a very confident person but I learned that even I have behaviors at work that have kept me from advancing in my career. Just think about how men do things even as simple as going to a meeting and think about your actions in a meeting. For example, do you ever see the men come in and immediately sit on the outside and not at the table? Do you see men holding back and not expressing their opinions? Do you think they’re scared of looking or sounding dumb? Do you hear men apologizing for every little thing? No, but women do all of those things and why? There’s a campaign by Pantene #shinestrong where they have a couple of really great commercials showing this phenomenon. The last ad I want you to watch is by Under Armour with Misty Copeland, soloist at the American Ballet Theatre. The first video will show you where we are as women today, the Pantene ads will also show you some realities for women and then the Under Armour commercial will inspire you. It all starts with confidence. Think about every negative in your life and think about your confidence; is it holding you back or keeping you from improving your life or reaching your goals? Don’t feel alone, we all struggle with it but you do have the ability to overcome it. Be unique, rare, and fearless and just watch your life change.

Videos:

Always – #likeagirl

Pantene – #shinestrong “Labels Against Women”

Pantene – #shinestrong “Sorry Not Sorry”

Under Armour “Will What I Want”