Pure Confidence Coaching – Live a Life You Love

A perspective for professionals navigating change, leadership, and growth

There are moments in your career that don’t just disappoint you, they wake you up.

• A decision that didn’t go your way.
• A role you were ready for that suddenly wasn’t yours.
• Feedback that landed heavier than expected.
• A leadership path that quietly closed without explanation.
• Organisation changes that leave you with uncertainty over your position

These moments sting and not because you failed, but because you cared. You invested time, energy, identity. You showed up fully. And when something ends or shifts unexpectedly, it can feel deeply personal. I know this feeling well.

I’ve experienced the discomfort of changing career direction. I stepped into bigger roles without a clear roadmap. I navigated workplace uncertainty where outcomes weren’t guaranteed. My confidence was tested daily. Each time, the disappointment wasn’t the end of the story it was the beginning of a deeper one.

Here’s the re-frame that changes everything:

• What hurts often clarifies.
• And what clarifies creates space for growth.

The uncomfortable clarity phase

Professional disappointment has a way of cutting through illusion.

It exposes where you were over-stretching, shrinking, or people-pleasing. It shows if you were over-controlling or holding onto something that no longer aligned with who you are now. It considers who you were five years ago or who you thought you had to be to succeed.

I’ve felt this most clearly during moments of transition. I was in a role that no longer fitted. Letting go felt risky. Certainty was replaced with questions that I couldn’t immediately answer.

This phase is uncomfortable, but it’s also honest. It asks quieter, braver questions:

• Is this role still stretching me, or just draining me?
• Am I leading in a way that feels authentic, or just acceptable?
• Have I been chasing certainty instead of alignment?

These questions don’t signal weakness.
They signal awareness.

Where in your career are you feeling tension and what truth is trying to surface through it?

Awareness is not weakness it’s leadership maturity

One of the biggest myths in professional life is that confident leaders don’t doubt themselves.

The most grounded leaders I know have questioned their direction, reassessed their identity, and re-calibrated their path more than once. I’ve certainly done this especially when moving into senior roles where expectations were loud, but internal alignment felt quieter.

Awareness doesn’t undermine confidence it deepens it. When you become aware of what no longer fits, you stop forcing outcomes. You stop performing certainty. You start leading from truth instead of expectation.

Discomfort here doesn’t mean something has gone wrong. It often means something is realigning.

What if this phase isn’t asking you to be more certain, but to be more honest?

When intuition asks you to go against expectation

This is where things often get uncomfortable in a different way. Because clarity doesn’t just challenge you it challenges the expectations of others.

There are moments in your career when the logical choice doesn’t feel right. When the path others assume you’ll take as the “sensible next step” clashes with a quieter internal knowing.

I’ve been here. Choosing directions that made sense to me, even when they confused others. Trusting my intuition when external validation was absent. Sitting with the discomfort of disappointing expectations of others to stay aligned with myself. This is one of the hardest leadership muscles to build.

• Choosing intuition over approval.
• Alignment over explanation.
• Self-trust over reassurance.

Not everyone will understand your choices and they don’t need to. Your job isn’t to live a career that makes sense to everyone else. It’s to live one that feels right to you.

Where could you be honouring expectations over intuition and what would change if you trusted your inner signal more?

The courageous reset

Once clarity arrives, there’s a choice.

You can replay the moment endlessly analysing every detail and second-guessing yourself. Or you can decide that this experience doesn’t define you it refines you. This is where confident professionals separate themselves.

Not by having all the answers. But, by being willing to move forward anyway.

Every significant step I’ve taken changing direction, stepping into leadership, backing myself in uncertainty required movement before certainty arrived. Growth at this level rarely comes with a neat plan. It comes with:

• Trusting your judgement again
• Backing yourself without external validation
• Taking a step before the whole path is visible

This isn’t recklessness. It’s self-trust in action.

What decision have you been delaying because you’re waiting for certainty, instead of trusting yourself?

What this looks like in real life

In leadership: You redefine your style. Less people-pleasing. Less over-explaining. More boundaries, presence, and values-led decisions.

Ask yourself:  Where could you lead more powerfully by being clearer, not louder?

In career direction: A setback can nudge you toward a role, organisation, or ambition that fits who you’ve become. It may not align with who you once thought you had to be.

Ask yourself:  What version of you is your current role designed for and is that still who you are?

In personal confidence: You stop outsourcing your worth to titles and outcomes. Confidence becomes internal, grounded, and portable.

Ask yourself: What would shift if your confidence came from alignment rather than approval?

Always remember

You don’t need certainty to move forward. You need self-trust.

Discomfort doesn’t mean you’re off track. It often means you’re standing at the edge of growth. You are choosing alignment over expectation and intuition over noise.

If you’re navigating change, stepping into leadership, or wrestling with a decision that feels right to you but uncomfortable to explain – this is exactly the work I can support you with.

Ready to choose your true self?

If you’d like space to think clearly, reconnect with your confidence, and make decisions that genuinely align with who you are. I offer a free 30-minute discovery call.

This is an opportunity for you to explore your goals.

No pressure.
No fixing.
Just clarity, confidence, and next steps that feel true to you.

You don’t have to figure it out alone. But, you do get to choose who you want to live as your true self and that choice changes everything.