Everywhere you look, many life-long career professionals are losing confidence in their ability to stay competitive in our rapidly changing world.

No one in society has a long-term lock on any market niche, and no “body of information” affords a strategic competitive advantage for very long. The reality of our times is that everyone is feeling at least a little unsure of themselves, and in that sense everyone is in the same boat.

Besieged by information and communication overload, it is easy to feel anything but confident. After all, your ability to keep pace is all but impossible. You can remain confident, however, despite the pace of change.

What do confident people do to maintain confidence, independent of the rate of change to which they're exposed? And. how do they maintain a sense of breathing space along the way? Here are variety of approaches:

    * Jump Starting: Initiating a small part of a project or activity in advance (getting a sneak preview) to gain familiarity just before the project or activity actually begins.

    * Total Immersion: Surround yourself with everything you need to fully engage in the project. This could involve assembling resources, people, and equipment, as well as ensuring that you have a quiet, secure environment, free of distractions.

    * Managing the Beforehand: Living with the ever-present realization that change is continually forthcoming and, thus, preparing for activities or events in advance.

    * Leapfrogging: Recognizing that while you can't keep up with every little thing that happens in your industry or profession, periodically you can leapfrog over the developments of the last several months and "catch up," in a manner of speaking.

    * Picking Your Spots: Related to leapfrogging, pick your spots in the future, say six months, whereby you want to have a new product or service introduced, or have some new technology fully integrated into your operations, and so forth.

    * Go Cold Turkey: Simply suspend operations and engage in whatever it takes to incorporate a new way of doing things. This is enhanced by ensuring that you'll have no disturbances, by bringing in outside experts, and by assembling any other resources you need to succeed.

    * Days of Grace: After deciding to tackle a new project or to implement major change, build in "days of grace" and allow yourself to proceed at half to three-quarters speed. Acknowledge that assimilating the new challenges and changes will take time, and will likely involve some disruption. So, don’t expect to achieve your normal productivity... for now.

Finally, and this is vital in all cases: recognize the importance of continually seeking small victories.