In this episode, Cindy Esliger explores the skill known as pivoting. Our careers don’t often unfold exactly as planned. More often than not, a major curveball out of left field flies in to disrupt our plans. It could be a new boss, an imploding project, or shifts in the industry, but whatever it is, we are left reeling and unsure of what to do next. Instead of panicking or withdrawing, pivoting is a skill that encourages us to pause and assess before making a deliberate move forward. Cindy looks at how to pivot and when, and guides us through learning to be adaptable. 

Security and certainty in today’s workplaces are not guaranteed. We don’t want to admit it, but things shift all the time. Rules change, priorities reshuffle, and our world can be turned upside down. Spiraling into panic is an easy temptation. Panic feels productive in the moment. But panic leads to catastrophizing and impulsive moves. Cindy outlines the proactive approach towards flipping the script that pivoting offers. She explains how to acknowledge the chaos, assess the situation, and figure out a strategic next move.

Cindy shares a four-step process on what to do when an unexpected left turn happens. 1) Stop before doing anything, 2) Assess and find out what’s really happening, 3) Strategize, and 4) Act. Pivoting isn’t about perfection but about progress. It’s easier with practice. Cindy advises building a resilience toolkit, embracing flexibility, celebrating progress, and maintaining perspective. This episode is all about learning to face the challenge of upheaval head-on without panicking. It’s a valuable guide on taking rational next steps forward.

Resources discussed in this episode:

• Guide to Creating Your Pivot Plan
• Astronomic Audio
• Confidence Collective

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Contact Cindy Esliger 

Career Confidence Coaching: website | instagram | facebook | linkedin | email

In this episode, Cindy Esliger talks about perspective and how our perspective of our work colors how we feel about it. Our brains love to tell stories about what we’re doing, but if the story being told at work is always “I hate this,” we’ll be in misery. Cindy poses the alternative option: getting our brains to tell a story about enjoyment, which can change our experience at work to one of curiosity or even excitement. So, how do we do that? How do we shift perspective? 

Cindy asks what motivates us more: fear or fun? We’ve been sold the lie that misery equals merit, that being challenged and pushing harder at work, feeling stressed and unhappy, makes us better at our jobs. But being miserable is not the only way to work. If we choose to enjoy what we do, then we can make the same work fun and see it through the lens of curiosity and motivation. 

Cindy shares four strategies to help us turn even the worst tasks into a bit more fun: 1) Gamify our work, 2) Pair it with a reward, 3) Turn it into a challenge, and 4) Add personal touches. Work isn’t always fun. But Cindy encourages us to be proactive about our own motivation. Motivation, rooted in either fear or reward, is the fuel that gets us through work. So Cindy breaks down how to generate our own motivation in a way that makes the task easier and more enjoyable, with advice on overcoming dread with action. 

Resources discussed in this episode:

• Guide to Turning Torture into Triumph
• Astronomic Audio
• Confidence Collective

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Contact Cindy Esliger 

Career Confidence Coaching: website | instagram | facebook | linkedin | email

In this episode, Cindy Esliger addresses the cycle of enabling that keeps us picking up the slack for other people. Sometimes we are too nice, too accommodating, unable to say no, or just fixated on work being done perfectly so we do the work of others as well as our own. And when they come to expect it, we keep doing it. We’re being taken advantage of and we’re the ones allowing it. So how do we identify this cycle and break it? 

We set a precedent when we show ourselves to be the person who will always step up and always shoulder the burden. No matter our intentions when we first took on the extra work, because we continue accepting it, we become the person everyone dumps things on. It has a negative impact on our own workload, our sense of accomplishment, our health, and our careers. We need to protect ourselves and Cindy shows us how. 

Cindy shares five strategies for reclaiming our time and energy: 1) Set clear boundaries, 2) Stop jumping in, 3) Say no, 4) Prioritize our work, and 5) Ask for help. We set up an environment where we are overly helpful and coworkers are exploiting that willingness. But they often don’t even realize they are exploiting us. So it’s to everyone’s benefit that we break the cycle. Boundaries are what create healthy workplaces. Cindy advises us on how to set necessary boundaries, say no, and pick and choose when we offer help.

Resources discussed in this episode:

• Guide to Guarding Your Time
• Astronomic Audio
• Confidence Collective

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Contact Cindy Esliger 

Career Confidence Coaching: website | instagram | facebook | linkedin | email

In this episode, Cindy Esliger explores what happens when our brain’s instinct to keep us safe from threats backfires and becomes a limiting and counterproductive loop. We spend a lot of time unconsciously on high alert, looking for signs that our trust might be betrayed or we’ll be taken advantage of. But always assuming the worst limits what’s possible. Cindy looks into considering a different perspective and shows us how to change our minds.

A cynical mindset keeps us safe from disappointment but also keeps us stuck. And being a cynical or pessimistic person doesn’t just affect us, it affects how others view us. It becomes a cycle where we expect people to be selfish and radiate mistrust so people stop trusting and focus on themselves, thus proving our own belief. Cindy offers insight into how to change our mindset and start believing in the possible instead of expecting the worst.

Cindy advises reframing our thoughts and changing our beliefs through reflecting on our experiences. She shares four questions to ask ourselves to help guide our reflection: 1) What disappointments or regrets did we experience this year? 2) What did we feel should have been acknowledged? 3) What did we accomplish this year? and 4) How do the events of the year, good and bad, work to our advantage? Changing our default expectations changes not only how we think but how we show up and how we are responded to. 

Resources discussed in this episode:

• Guide to Reflecting on Your Experience
• Astronomic Audio
• Confidence Collective

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Contact Cindy Esliger 

Career Confidence Coaching: website | instagram | facebook | linkedin | email

In this episode, Cindy Esliger discusses the cumulative effect of subtle and not-so-subtle micro-aggressions that build up in us over time. It’s the minor incidents like a dismissive glance, an ignored idea, and being overlooked that we shove to the side. But they don’t go away. They build up and can have a negative impact on our career without us even realizing it. Cindy explains how we can identify and take charge of these cumulative slighted feelings moving forward.  

The unresolved baggage of micro-aggressions layered inside us gets carried around and affects how we view ourselves, behave, and even what we expect of our own achievements. So how do we identify and validate them so we can become stronger? Cindy shares five steps: 1) Name the baggage, 2) Reframe our perspective, 3) Set boundaries, 4) Focus on what we can control, and 5) Find our people.

Workplace slights are real and the key isn’t learning how to avoid these difficulties, but how to manage them and learn. Cindy calls this building emotional agility. We learn to resolve the stress-creating baggage so we can be free of the triggers. How do we reframe the triggers? 1) Pause and identify, 2) Challenge the association, and 3) Take action. Cindy guides us through the subtly complex world of microaggressions, cumulative baggage, resolution, and letting go in this key episode. 

Resources discussed in this episode:

• Guide to Unpacking the Emotional Baggage
• Astronomic Audio
• Confidence Collective

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Contact Cindy Esliger 

Career Confidence Coaching: website | instagram | facebook | linkedin | email

In this episode, Cindy Esliger explores the power of challenging cynicism to become a hopeful skeptic instead. She isn’t talking about blind optimism but rather the power to balance realism with possibility. Why does being jaded hold us back? What if we get greater opportunities by shifting how we think about what’s possible? Cindy uncovers how to push our boundaries to allow more hope into our careers.  

The power of a positive attitude is real but it’s not about a fake smile or saying everything’s fine. It’s about allowing positive thinking to change how we interpret setbacks and move forward with optimism. Cynicism may feel protective but in truth it’s a limiting cage. Cindy outlines how we’re held back by a jaded negative mindset and why reframing our thoughts to accommodate possibility and hope is such a vital shift.

When Cindy says to embrace hopeful skepticism, she means refusing to assume the worst without proof. She offers three tips for how make skepticism work positively: 1. Pause and question, 2. Gather evidence, and 3. Stay open-minded. She discusses how to approach each step and then shares three tips on how to cultivate more hope: 1. Look for kindness, 2. Find the good in situations, and 3. Share the positivity. This episode highlights the power of a mindset shift to allow hope to expand our career possibilities.

Resources discussed in this episode:

• Guide to Turning Cultivating Hope
• Astronomic Audio
• Confidence Collective

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Contact Cindy Esliger 

Career Confidence Coaching: website | instagram | facebook | linkedin | email

In this episode, Cindy Esliger talks about overthinking, that tendency to analyze and ponder a decision for so long that we become exhausted. Instead of being thorough, we trap ourselves in a cycle of indecision. Spending more time thinking about a decision doesn’t necessarily lead to a better outcome and Cindy examines why that is. Why wouldn’t extra thought be better? And if it isn’t, how do we stop the spinning wheels and endless analysis of overthinking?  

It’s important to note the difference between thinking and overthinking. Thinking is productive. It’s deliberate, focused, and rational. Overthinking is repetitive and unproductive. It’s often fueled by fear: fear of judgement, failure or not being enough. Cindy highlights five ways to break free from overthinking: 1) Be solution-focused, 2) Organize thoughts, 3) Take a break, 4) Set a time limit, and 5) Accept uncertainty.

Breaking the habit of overthinking requires making a decision and taking action before we’ve locked ourselves in the overthinking cycle. Cindy advises to start small, acting on decisions that aren’t that big a deal in the larger picture. Not every choice requires agonizing hours of our limited time and energy resources. Cindy offers insight into shifting our thinking from ‘what if’ analysis that focuses on what could go wrong to more productive considerations of what is under our control that will go right. Join her to learn how to start breaking the overthinking cycle.

Resources discussed in this episode:

• Guide to Turning Overthinking Into Action
• Astronomic Audio
• Confidence Collective

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Contact Cindy Esliger 

Career Confidence Coaching: website | instagram | facebook | linkedin | email

In this episode, Cindy Esliger addresses the deeply ingrained unwritten rules we’ve been living by, the limiting beliefs we didn’t consciously agree to that have been shaping our careers. Like an outdated operating system running in the background, these limiting beliefs quietly sabotage our potential. What is possible when we uncover them and align our goals with what we really want? Cindy walks us through discovering and changing the beliefs holding us back.  

The first step is identifying all those secret rules we’ve internalized that have been silently dictating what we do. Cindy explains that the limiting beliefs come from well-meaning advice, societal expectations, and passing comments we internalize. She delves into four of the most common: 1) “I don’t deserve better”, 2) “I’m not qualified for anything else”, 3) “I’m lucky to have this job”, and 4) “My work doesn’t count unless I’m miserable”. 

So how do we shake these limiting beliefs and move past them? Cindy’s advice starts with four questions designed to uncover the ones we hold about ourselves. She then explains how to replace them with new, empowering beliefs by breaking down why the old beliefs are limiting. Replacing the limiting beliefs includes choosing a path that is both challenging and believable, paying attention to intuition, and taking a leap past ingrained fear. Cindy guides us into freedom from the unspoken rules that have been shaping our careers and lives with false narratives.  

Resources discussed in this episode:

• Guide to Uncovering and Rewriting Your Limiting Beliefs
• Astronomic Audio
• Confidence Collective

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Contact Cindy Esliger 

Career Confidence Coaching: website | instagram | facebook | linkedin | email

In this episode, Cindy Esliger focuses on making sense of the lived experiences we have, the beginning of realizing when our bad days are stacking up and we see we’re in a toxic cycle. It takes a long time to identify all the small signs for what they are. When we start to see the patterns emerge, we tend to doubt ourselves and we shouldn’t. Cindy explains why it’s vital to make sense of these lived experiences that are warning us that we need something better.  

It takes strength to achieve the clarity we need to see our experiences for what they really are: manipulation, gaslighting, stress, and more. It’s all the little things that add up. The promised promotion is always being kept just out of reach for faults they tell us they see. The sense that we can’t do enough right at work. Being made to feel like the bad guy. And then a few moments of positivity are sprinkled in just often enough to make us doubt ourselves. Is it in our heads? No, it isn’t, and Cindy points out why as she explains how to achieve clarity.

How do we reclaim control? Cindy shares five ways to do it: 1) Set boundaries, 2) Stop trying to change them, 3) Recognize we deserve better, 4) Disengage from their behavior, and 5) Step out of the shadow. Cindy unpacks each of these steps for us. She lays out a roadmap for identifying gaslighting and trusting our lived experience and how to then free ourselves from the cycle. Cindy assures us that we deserve careers that align with our values and goals and we deserve a healthier work environment.    

Resources discussed in this episode:

• Guide to Breaking Free
• Astronomic Audio
• Confidence Collective

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Contact Cindy Esliger 

Career Confidence Coaching: website | instagram | facebook | linkedin | email

In this episode, Cindy Esliger talks about that nagging sensation in the back of our minds that something is wrong at work. Not a big catastrophe, but a subtle persistent feeling that something isn’t right and it’s causing unease. We start to question whether anything actually is off or it’s just us. We wonder if this feeling of discontent is just the way work is meant to be. Cindy is here to assure us that we are not imagining that feeling and talk us through how to identify and deal with those sensations.   

The first challenge with this unease is recognizing it for what it is. We’re not unhappy enough to quit but we’re not happy staying. Cindy calls the feeling ‘psychological silt’ and it’s the residue of a thousand small unsupportive things that build up over time. The negative impacts of this create a lot of stress, self-doubt and low morale. Cindy shares 7 examples of these kinds of microaggressions and pinpoints of unease to help us identify them.  

Cindy points out that the constant questioning and self-shame we subject ourselves to over whether or not we’re imagining this unease is a form of self-gaslighting. It is paralyzing and undermining us. She urges us to break from the loop of doubt and guilt with 6 tips for addressing the issues: 1) Name the problem, 2) Trust our feelings, 3) Seek support, 4) Set boundaries, 5) Push back on normalization, and 6) Stop gaslighting ourselves. She examines how each step works to set us free to reclaim our careers. 

Resources discussed in this episode:

• Guide to Recognizing Your Worth at Work
• Astronomic Audio
• Confidence Collective

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Contact Cindy Esliger 

Career Confidence Coaching: website | instagram | facebook | linkedin | email