What do you do if your confidence as a healthcare professional is wavering?

1. Self-Reflection: Take a moment to reflect on past successes and what led to them. 2. Seek Support: Talk to colleagues, mentors, or friends for encouragement and advice. 3. Continued Learning: Attend workshops or courses to boost skills and knowledge. 4. Small Wins: Set achievable goals and celebrate even small accomplishments. 5. Mindfulness: Practice mindfulness or meditation to calm nerves and refocus. 6. Remember Purpose: Recall why you chose healthcare and the positive impact you make on patients' lives.

Reflect on what's causing the dip in confidence. Was it a specific patient interaction, a challenging case, or general work-related stress?

Through writing and creative process, I seek to identify the aspects of myself that are in need of support and attention. As professionals, when in stressful situations, we can revert to "Imposter syndrome," despite our accomplishments and qualifications, we may wrestle with feelings of inadequacy, doubting our abilities and fearing exposure as frauds in our respective fields. Often these aspects are old limiting beliefs, fragments of old unconscious material. Once identified, we can begin to replace these negative thoughts, with the truth of who we are in the world! With clarity comes healing and empowerment.

Make a list of your skills, experiences, and past successes. Reminding yourself of your capabilities can boost your confidence.

As a cardiologist who has tackled insecurity, anxiety, and imposter syndrome, I've learned the importance of building self-trust to regain confidence. Recognizing the impact and distorted beliefs that stemmed from imposter syndrome helped me move forward. I started documenting my successes and positive feedback, which helped me see my true capabilities. Appreciating my success with challenging cases further bolstered my confidence, and reframing setbacks as learning opportunities helped me realize that perfection isn't necessary (or realistic) for excellence. These strategies helped me navigate my career with renewed confidence (and joy.)

Wavering confidence is often based on one interaction (a session that did not go well), a recent situation (a client ghosting or terminating therapy), or what we may see as a pattern (feeling ineffective this week, more than one client quits therapy, or we are not getting any new referrals). These are all recency and do not necessarily reflect the big picture. Remember to zoom out and look at the bigger picture. Chances are these are recent events and in past days or weeks things were different. If you can, look at past weeks and you will see clients not quitting, you may recount sessions when you felt good or great, or you will see there were plenty of new referrals.

Challenge your negative thoughts. Don't believe everything your inner critic whispers. Reframe your thoughts and think positive. Be confident and patient and gentle with yourself.

It is in fear and self-doubt that we grow professionally the most. It is not about avoiding the feeling; it is about recognizing it and immediately correcting it through learning or asking someone with the answers. Medicine cannot be practiced in a vacuum. It requires TEAM

Mistakes are opportunities to learn and grow. Use fail fast learn faster approach. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Reflect on them learn and keep going forward.

It happens. We lose the spark, we forget why we're doing what we're doing. It's ok and it's normal. 4 things will help you with this: A vacation. A friend. A hobby. A training. Vacation - take a few hours doing something you enjoy (I recommend doing it outside). A friend - get the nourishment that only interpersonal connection can provide. A hobby - a fun/engaging activity that is not work related will remind you that work is not everything. A training - in something work related; it will give you fresh eyes. Hit me up here on LI and tell me how implementing these things helped you.