How confident am I?

"I have confidence in confidence alone.  Besides you can see I have confidence in me."

I was out for a drink with a good friend, SJ, last week and she told me she'd joined "Toastmasters".
I sipped my G&T, nodded pretending I knew what she was talking about and then said,
"No, I'm sorry, what?"

Toastmasters is evidently an internationally organised public speaking club. A quick search on their website finds 6 groups in a 25 mile radius of my back garden (north Cambridge).  The Cambridge Speakers Club meets every other Tuesday at 7.15pm for 7.30pm at the Royal Cambridge Hotel, Trumpington Street.  SJ said the idea is to complete a certain number of prepared speeches (was it 10?) in a year, to the group but there are also impromptu exercises like speaking for (oh dear, perhaps there were too many G&Ts) 2 minutes? 5 minutes? on a random question.  Her question was based on the news story about a lion and the question was "Why do you hunt?".  She managed 30 seconds and felt like a queen afterward.

Now my friend is not university educated, she has advanced her career through distance learning and grabbing opportunities even when she thought she was not qualified (although the people offering her the jobs clearly did).  She now finds herself at a weekly meeting of 20+ people, all of whom she imagines are brighter and more able than her.  She hates it.  "You don't have this problem Jo," she says, "I've seen you," (we used to work together) "you don't mind all those eyes on you."

Well, maybe I did learn how to ignore the voice of doubt in my head.  The one saying "They all think you don't know what you are talking about...you don't know what you are talking about...your face is going red and by the way you look fat."

Mind you, I need to listen to the one saying "Stop playing with your hair and your necklace".

However, I am very out of practice.  I anticipate a planning committee meeting for a project of mine soon and this will be my first as my own boss.  The thought makes me feel a bit sick.

So I look at my friend with absolute admiration because she has identified something that is making her working life difficult and she is doing something about it - something that terrifies her and also costs her a bit of time and money. CamAWiSE  for women in Science, Engineering and Technology are running a Confidence Workshop on 15th September -for members and non-members.
Workshops will be held in the Woodlegh Room at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, 8-10pm
Numbers will be strictly limited. Cost for two workshops is £20 for members, £30 for non-members. You may book for just one workshop (Members £12 / non-members £18) .  Tempted?