This is just out: my conversation with Professor Ian Robertson, clinical psychologist and neuroscientist at Trinity College Dublin, on confidence:
Not an episode to be missed!
Plenty of take-aways on:
- Why confidence matters (and why competence is not enough)
- How confidence works as anti-depressant, and mood & performance enhancer
- How to build confidence (I'm sharing the highlights below π)
- Why there is a gender gap in confidence
- How to build collective confidence without being a populist
In a nutshell, here are the 5 levers for building confidence:
- Define the specific domain in which you want to be more confident β
- Set goals that are at the sweet spot: not too large ("I want to become MEP"), not too small ("I want to say hi to my cat") π―
- Mentally rehearse the specific steps of your action. This focuses your attention and meandering thoughts to what is needed. Top athletes are known to do this π¨
- Reframe anxiety as excitement. They have the same symptoms, but you can actively change the emotion by repeating to yourself "I feel excited". And excitement feels better + allows you to perform better. Sounds like unfounded positive-talk? Yes, sounds like it, but plenty of studies replicate this effect π₯³
- Take action. Small steps that are out of your comfort zone. A bias for action increases likelihood of valuable experiences, chance encounters, sense of accomplishment or familiarity with failure. π¬
Hope you like this episode - as always, I appreciate your feedback below (π or π?) or simply reply and let me know your thoughts.
ποΈ My latest podcast
π What I read & listen to
ποΈ My favourite quote
βThe road appears with the first step" - Rumi (from Ian Robertson's 'How Confidence Works')
"It is easier to act yourself into a new way of feeling than to feel yourself into a new way of acting." - Harry Stack Sullivan (from Ian Robertson's 'How Confidence Works')