How does one develop self-confidence in a way that is not connected to one's professional life?

The situation that you’re in right now is the perfect spiritual classroom for you to develop a health sense of self that exists no matter what your career does. In fact, the only way you could develop a resilient sense of self is by being put in the exact situation that you find yourself in right now. If your consulting practice had new clients streaming in all of the time, yes, you’d feel confident but you’d never really know if your confidence could withstand a professional downfall. You’ll never know how true and how powerful your sense of self is if it never gets tested. Right now, your sense of self is being tested.The question remains: how do you pass this test?By creating your own definition of self that is eternal, by memorizing that definition of self, and by saying it to yourself (out loud and preferably looking in your own eyes in a mirror) every single day until you literally begin to think those words all of the time. That’s just the first step.So step 1 is creating your own definition of self and getting to know that definition intimately.Step 2 is finding a group of successful people to hang out with who don’t define their success or their self worth by what they do for a living. Preferably, you’d want to find people who have succeeded beyond where you are right now, who’ve been through some tough stuff, and who have a very strong sense of self. Even hanging around them will be like osmosis for you. If you hang around insecure, career centered people who live and die by outward signs of success, you’ll think that this is “how life goes” and you’ll get sucked into that mindset trap. Find a tribe who embodies how you’d like to feel about yourself and hang out with them as much as possible… especially if they are entrepreneurs or consultants like you.Step 3 is love yourself more. Sounds so cliche, right? Part of the reasons that overachievers overachieve and perfectionists fight to attain perfection is this: somewhere, somehow along the life path, they were taught that they had to earn love, that being “good” wasn’t their natural state, that in order to be accepted, they had to be extraordinary. Many children grow up with this and have all the outward signs of accomplishment but, on the inside, they are battling a lack of self love that drives them to perform just to be feel barely acceptable. Loving yourself more means accepting yourself exactly as you are. It means valuing your failures and saying to yourself (when you fail): “That was good. It taught me something. That’s not who I am but I can use that to master what I need to master. No matter how many times I fail, I’m still worthy. I’m still good. I love myself.” Self talk is critical to increasing your level of self love. Spend one day listening to how you internally talk to yourself and you’ll quickly see that most of us don’t speak to ourselves the way we’d want to speak to those we love. Start to change your inner talk about failure, about setbacks, about not being good enough. Begin to say to yourself things like “I love you exactly as you are. No, you’re not perfect but you’re great. Yes, I’m here for you and it doesn’t matter what happens next. I’ve got your back.” Those affirmative words go so far with us as individuals. It settles our inner children. It gives us a sense of security. It provides this feeling of confidence and relief at the same time.Start with those three steps and practice them EVERY day. Give yourself at least 90 days and then see what happens next. You’ll be amazed…