CONFIDENCE ISN'T WHAT GETS US STARTED

We talked about confidence in my Masterclass last week and I think we sometimes have the idea that before we do something, we need to feel confident enough to do it.

But I don’t think confidence works that way.

When I was training as a doctor, I could read every medical book I could get my hands on.

None of them made me confident enough to operate.

At some point, I had to walk into that operating theatre and actually do it.

And many years later, when I started riding seriously, I discovered exactly the same thing.

I could watch endless dressage videos.

I could watch beautiful riders and understand exactly what they were doing.

There was just one problem:

Nobody had shown the videos to the horse. 😂

So when I actually got into the saddle, things didn’t necessarily go according to the textbook.

And that’s where the confidence came from.

From doing it.
From getting things wrong.
From trying again.

And eventually realising:

“Actually, I can do this.”

I think that’s something we forget.

We often wait for confidence to give us permission to take the first step.

But perhaps confidence isn’t what gets us started.

Perhaps confidence is what we earn because we started.