That moment when you’re only halfway thru the workout and realize your legs don’t work anymore 😩 But don’t worry, I survived it. I promise no athletes were permanently physically or mentally harmed in the creation of this post.
It might look like what I do is some cruel form of punishment. And sometimes it certainly feels that way, especially when I collapse onto the floor after assault bike intervals.
But inevitably, as I lay there trying to catch my breath & try not to toss my cookies, there’s something else that rises up from deep within me … confidence.
Confidence, at its core, is the belief that you can do hard things. People often think it’s either something you have or you don’t. I disagree (more on that later)
But here’s the hitch: you can’t summon what you don’t already possess. We’ve all tried to pump ourselves up with false confidence and it’s BS and we know it.
So for #favethingsfriday, I’m sharing my secret weapon confidence-creator/builder … DO HARD THINGS.
Here’s the equation: If you want to be more confident, you have to practice doing hard things. In other words, competence begets confidence.
Of course if you always take the easy way out to avoid struggle and discomfort, you will start to feel less than capable of tackling tough stuff. You have no track record of competence.
Fitness is the best tool that I’ve personally found for this. I was never confident in myself before I started training for stuff – now I’m consistently and progressively asked to do something that terrifies me or otherwise believe might be outside my current capabilities.
You don’t have to be born with confidence — you can totally create it. But to do so, you have to actually do things that create confidence.
It doesn’t even have to be something insane, like bench pressing a car or climbing Everest. You can get the same effects by taking the stairs instead of the elevator, keeping your cool when your kids are bonkers, or getting up early to go to yoga when you REALLY don’t want to.
Try it for 10 days. Once every day when faced with a decision in your life, intentionally choose the harder option. Stop avoiding the hard stuff & you’ll start to feel like you can handle it when it does happen.
But most importantly, you’ll find that the opportunities to build confidence are all around you all the time.