I don’t think anyone would ever claim this is a saying of any great profundity or depth but yesterday someone said it and the truth of it really stopped me in my tracks. There really is no time like the present. In fact – you could say that the present is the only time there is.

The commonly held belief is that confidence is something that can be gained or lost, built or crushed – more often than not, by circumstances ‘out there’. A boss at work who continually puts you down, the fact that you haven’t worked for 5 years, a role that doesn’t play to your strengths. The list goes on.

I’m going to make a sweeping assumption for the purposes of this article. I’m going to assume you have a lot on your plate right now. Adding Christmas into the already heady mix of parenthood and work can often lead to us, well, shall we say….losing it?

Today I did a talk on “How to reignite your confidence after a career break” for the Really Helpful Club. One of the points of discussion was the inner critic – the voice in our head that stops us from taking risks, putting ourselves forward or moving out of our comfort zone.

So here goes. A blog post from me. It may not seem like much for many of you, but for me this majorly counts as PUTTING MYSELF OUT THERE and is deeply uncomfortable. You see, I have avoided putting myself out there at all costs for most of my life.