Do you want to strut your stuff?  Do you want to be the best you can be?  Do you want to live your beautiful life fully expressed?

What exactly is a life fully expressed anyway?

As women, we want our true character to be seen:  our personality, our emotions and our opinions, for example.

For some of us, this can be through our outward appearance such as blue hair, our clothing style, a distinctive glasses frame or a tattoo.  We may talk about a “signature” style.

Sometimes our self-expression is through the way we speak such as the distinct voices of Maya Angelou and Eleanor Roosevelt, for example.

Other times it’s through various creative art forms such as the works of Margaret Bourke-White, Georgia O’Keefe, Meryl Streep, Taylor Swift or Vera Wang.

Perhaps living fully expressed is a time when a woman has learned to integrate sound judgment, her intuition, her emotions and her capabilities.  Maybe it’s a time when a woman says, “I know who I am.”

Or, it might be a time when a woman recognizes, for example, that she doesn’t have to live up to being a super overachiever.  It may be when she’s comfortable with her outer image as well as her inner feelings and wants to embrace all aspects of her being.

Women are on a quest to grow their potential, to find their purpose or achieve bliss, to live the life of their dreams and to do the things that matter to them.

Will we ever get there, and what about the time until then?

The “quest” to live fully expressed is a process.  It’s a time of self-discovery.  Who knows how long it may take?  Maybe a lifetime.

We may not be able to achieve the “perfect” life of which we dream.  Therefore, it’s important to make the most of every day and enjoy and take pleasure from each one.

“Good enough” may be the rallying phrase round which we find comfort and satisfaction.  It doesn’t mean we have to give up on our dreams or settle for less.  Just keep in mind that pressing hard to lead the ultimate, best, perfect and beautiful life can be daunting and challenging in ways that detract from a happy, fulfilling life now.

So how do we achieve it?

Let’s focus on one essential quality.  Living life fully expressed requires:  confidence.

Here then are 5 things to do on a regular basis to build a confident, fully expressed life:

Continually gather self-knowledge.   What are your values?  What are your skills, talents and pleasures?  What is your history?  What are your strengths and weaknesses?  You must honestly assess information, feedback, attitudes, habits, desires, experience, beliefs and so forth.

Building self-awareness will help to make life less complicated for you because you’re better able to adapt to change, to motivate yourself more effectively, to manage stress, to be more accepting of yourself and to make intuitive decisions.

Develop a mindset for growth.   Instead of holding onto false beliefs or thoughts that hold you back, keep an open mind to new ideas and beliefs about yourself.  Just because someone (or your own inner critic) says something is true about you doesn’t mean you have to give it credence.

Do you accept negative beliefs instead of questioning them?  What would happen if you accept your shortcomings and move on?  What would happen if you chose to believe otherwise, to believe something different or to focus on or to open yourself to growing your skills, your talents or your ways of being rather than listening to comments or thoughts that diminish you?

Learn to love and express all of you.   The person you want others to see and get to know is the aggregate of your good and not-so-good traits.  Who wants or enjoys keeping up the demands of perfection?  We must get comfortable with what we project on the outside along with what we feel on the inside.   You don’t have to put up a false front or pretend to be something or somebody you’re not.

Be bold.   We must let go of the ledge.  Once we do so, we can explore or try new ideas, strategies, activities, thoughts or experiences.  Venture into the void because outside our comfort zone is where possibilities and opportunities lie.  These are the very ones we seek and desire in order to lead our fully expressed lives.  Wendy and the Darling brothers would never have known they could fight pirates had they not had the courage to step into the unknown and fly off with Peter Pan.

Be an advocate for yourself.   It’s important to surround ourselves with positive people and situations that will best promote and support our values and vision of ourselves.  We must speak up and make decisions based on our self-worth and articulate what we mean to say without apology or fear of rejection.

The confidence and trust we place in ourselves affects how we show up in life, allows us to speak our own truth and to live fully expressed.

Now, I’d like to know what you consider “living a life fully expressed” to mean?  Do you work on building your confidence?  Are you comfortable with your outer image as well as with your inner feelings about who you are?  And which part of your true character (personality, emotions, opinions, for example) do you struggle living fully expressed?  If you’d like to contribute your thoughts to the conversation, please comment below.  We love to hear from you.