Rebuilding Self-Confidence, the PM Way

Lyubka Stoykova is Executive Director of CPE Le Joyeux Carrousel in Montreal.

  Career Development  

Project management is not a job. It's a state of mind.

I have now been voyaging through many facets of this universe for just over 10 years. I started out as a project control officer (PCO) in IT. Moving onward, I became a project coordinator in financial services. Like a Swiss army knife, I branched out to work as a project management consultant, this time in construction in the public sector.

In recent years, I entered the field of consulting in the fascinating world of healthcare. Looking back on this journey, I was very proud of my achievements. But that’s not to say there weren’t hurdles and hard times.

We tend to forget that rewarding careers aren’t smooth sailing at every turn. When you scroll down LinkedIn, what you see are successes and promotions. No one is overtly saying: "I was in a toxic environment. I had to get out of there and fast to preserve my mental health!”

And what’s worse, we sometimes find ourselves in situations that are simply...uninspiring. We might find ourselves working for organizations that won't utilize our full potential, places where there simply won’t be opportunities for us to shine.

And little by little—so slowly you don’t even notice—your self-confidence dwindles. You lose part of yourself to doubt.

That's exactly what happened to me. I woke up one …

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