A Little Self Belief.

Have you ever had that moment when you feel really annoyed at yourself for not trusting your gut? Yep me too!

Self belief is such an odd thing!  Some say if you have unwavering self confidence that you're cocky, others may say you're a girl boss who knows what she wants from life and how she's going to get it but I think what really matters is what we think of ourselves.

Take me for an example, I absolutely love fashion, I've loved it from the age of five when I spotted a bright yellow cross body bag in Trewins toy department.  I begged and pleaded with my mum to get it for me.  The picture of me opening it on my birthday still makes me giggle.  My problem was as I got older I would second guess myself all the time.  I'd see something I loved, picture it styled up and then the niggling doubts would start. "I haven't got the figure to wear that", "that's too unusual for my style", "I should stick to the norm, that will make me stand out too much".  Fast forward a few weeks and on so many occasions I would pick up a magazine or check my Instagram account and a celebrity or fashion blogger would be wearing it and I'd kick myself for not trusting my own sense of style.  On the few occasions that I did manage to silence the voices it usually paid off, I received compliments and even got stopped a couple of times and asked where I'd bought it from.  So why didn't I listen to myself more?

Nowadays so many of us including myself look to celebrities, bloggers and even our peers for fashion inspiration but when does that inspiration turn into straight up copying,  Losing your own identity and taking on someone else's?

It's not just fashion that this happened to me in, it happened at work too. If I was in a meeting or on a course and we were asked to answer questions and make suggestions, I'd know the answer but I wouldn't trust myself and so I'd end up letting a colleague answer and then kick myself as I was right and now they were the one's looking great in front of the boss.

Now I'm not saying that there's one easy trick that changes you from a doubting Doris to super self confident overnight but there comes a time when you have to learn to trust yourself, the payoff is more than worth it. For me it happened when I turned thirty. Everyone said to me when you turn thirty things change, you become more self assured and comfortable in your own skin. This is weirdly true. I stopped worrying so much about what others thought of me and realised that what mattered was what I thought of me and those who are close to me.

I learnt to look at those celebrities or fashion bloggers as strong confident women that have trusted their sense of style, creativity and intelligence to put themselves where they want to be in life. They of course like all of us still experience the odd worry or insecurity but it's how they deal with it that helps to make them so successful.

People will always think things, you can't change that but what you can change is the impact it has on you.  When you come to realise that you have the power to decide what effect other people's words or opinions have on you, that will be the day your confidence starts to grow.  All the stuff on the outside, designer shoes, designer bags and expensive make up are just aesthetics that people notice but only fleetingly. What people really notice and remember are what kind of person you are and how you've made them feel. A bit of self confidence, positivity and a smile go a very long way.

As always, thanks so much for stopping by.

Take care

Kel x