2506: The Value of Confidence by Steve Pavlina on Overcoming Self-Doubt & Achieving Success

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[00:00:59] confidence by Steve Pavlina of stevepavlina.com and I'm your host and narrator Dr. Neal. Hey there

[00:01:06] happy middle of the week Wednesday and welcome back to Optimal Health Daily. Rye read some of

[00:01:11] the best health and fitness blogs to you and always with a bit of my commentary at the end. And on

[00:01:16] Wednesdays I always like to share a little bit of inspiration with you. So with that here's today's

[00:01:22] inspiration. Quote, it is not joy that makes us grateful, it is gratitude that makes us joyful.

[00:01:30] David Stendell rest. All right and now that we're in the right frame of mind let's get right to it

[00:01:37] and start optimizing your life. The value of confidence by Steve Pavlina of stevepavlina.com

[00:01:49] Last night I gave a speech called the value of confidence which was about how to mentally put

[00:01:54] yourself into a state of confidence feeling certain of success even when your knowledge suggests

[00:02:00] you should expect to fail. Delivering a speech like this puts an extra burden on the speaker since

[00:02:06] it must be done with absolute confidence and certainty otherwise the audience will easily detect

[00:02:11] the incongruency even if you're extremely skilled and talented a lack of self confidence can prevent

[00:02:18] you from performing at your best in pressure situations for example if you work in sales

[00:02:23] it's one thing to read a book and learn and understand some new sales techniques but it's a very

[00:02:28] different challenge to actually go out and apply those techniques when face-to-face with a prospect.

[00:02:35] The major limiting factor often is in a lack of knowledge or practice but rather the limiting

[00:02:41] belief that you can't expect to perform well the first few times which would be a self-fulfilling

[00:02:46] prophecy. Public speaking is a great example many people have the knowledge and skill to write a

[00:02:52] speech that an audience would enjoy and when practiced in private they may even do a decent job

[00:02:59] but put them in front of an audience or even suggest the idea and they quickly succumb to feelings

[00:03:04] of self doubt and worry. However if you take such people to a stage hypnosis show and they're hypnotized

[00:03:12] they'll get up on stage and perform wonderfully with no fear at all even with no rehearsal or prepared

[00:03:17] material. Being under hypnosis doesn't magically bestow any new skills but it can put people into

[00:03:24] a state where they have full and unrestricted access to their best internal resources.

[00:03:30] What new endeavors might you be able to take on if you're hypnotized to believe with absolute

[00:03:35] certainty that you would succeed at them? You may currently believe that confidence is the

[00:03:40] result of a history of success while a history of success can certainly increase your confidence

[00:03:46] you don't actually need that history to feel confident. Confidence is a feeling of certainty

[00:03:52] a natural inner resource that can be summoned whenever you want it. The key to feeling confident

[00:03:59] lies in a quote from Albert Einstein quote, imagination is more powerful than knowledge

[00:04:06] end quote even when your knowledge tells you to expect failure you have the ability to consciously

[00:04:12] direct your imagination to override that impulse and feel certain of success anyway. Most people

[00:04:19] let their imaginations run on autopilot so they sometimes see themselves succeeding but they also

[00:04:24] worry about failure. This is like trying to drive a car by pushing the accelerator and the break

[00:04:29] at the same time. To feel confident you must focus your mind to see only one outcome, the one of

[00:04:36] you performing at your very best. If you catch yourself worrying meaning mentally rehearsing failure

[00:04:43] you need to immediately take your foot off that break and focus on the accelerator. No matter how

[00:04:49] many times you catch yourself worrying or contemplating failure just keep refocusing your mind

[00:04:55] on the image of success. In order to avoid the problem of overconfidence let your decision to

[00:05:01] condition a state of confidence be subservient to your logic reason and common sense. If you feel

[00:05:08] confident that you will perform well on a big new project and use this as an excuse to under

[00:05:13] prepare that's a mistaken application of confidence. But there are times when you've done all you can

[00:05:20] intellectually and now you need to get yourself into the most emotionally resourceful state possible

[00:05:25] whenever you have to perform under pressure is a good time to put yourself into a state of confidence

[00:05:31] a speech a sales call an audition an interview an exam and so on. So on the one hand be careful not

[00:05:38] to over rely on confidence to save you by using it as an excuse to procrastinate on preparation.

[00:05:44] But on the other hand it's amazing just how far confidence alone can get you. When I was going

[00:05:49] through college I often didn't have as much time to prepare for exams as I would have liked

[00:05:54] but I was really good at putting myself into a state of certainty of success right before the

[00:05:59] exam regardless of how well prepared I felt intellectually and this state of confidence was often

[00:06:05] enough to allow me to perform well even when I had barely studied the material because I expected

[00:06:11] to do well via my imagination not my knowledge my subconscious mind found a way to fulfill that vision

[00:06:18] often this came in the form of creative solutions. For example if I took a math test and didn't

[00:06:24] remember the formula that was intended to be used to solve a particular problem my subconscious

[00:06:30] mind would find an alternate way to solve the problem using what I did know because I was in a

[00:06:36] state of total certainty of success I had the fullest possible access to all my internal resources

[00:06:42] including the ability to solve problems and ways I wasn't consciously aware of.

[00:06:47] Confidence is not a panacea but being able to make yourself feel certain of success

[00:06:52] can give you a massive edge in many endeavors confidence is often the deciding factor in making a

[00:06:58] sale closing a deal, async a test, nailing an audition, getting a date being hired or promoted

[00:07:05] or making the team and a lack of confidence can put you into the decrepit state where even though

[00:07:11] you have the intellectual resources to succeed you don't even make the attempt you fail to ask for

[00:07:17] the sale the raise the date and so on sometimes just summoning the confidence to ask is all it takes

[00:07:24] to achieve a successful result. What more could you accomplish if you added the tool of confidence

[00:07:30] to your arsenal of skills consciously directing your imagination away from visualizing negative

[00:07:36] outcomes and 100% on creating a feeling of certainty of success?

[00:07:45] You just listen to the post titled The Value of Confidence by Steve Pavlina of

[00:07:50] StevePavlina.com and I'll be right back with my commentary. When you're hiring it feels amazing

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[00:09:30] ollly.com. Dr. Neil here from my commentary. Many of us before a big event will feel nervous

[00:09:40] and sometimes we interpret that nervousness as lacking confidence but feeling nervous does not

[00:09:47] mean you lack confidence. It actually just means you care, you care about the result. Your body

[00:09:54] when you're nervous is trying to optimize your performance. Researchers like Dr. Kelly McGonigal

[00:10:00] have found that when we interpret feelings of stress and anxiety before say an exam or important

[00:10:07] presentation and think of them not as a lack of confidence but instead as the body trying to help

[00:10:15] us perform better it actually works for us that way. So the next time we feel nervous instead of

[00:10:22] feeling like we don't have confidence just remind yourself that this nervousness just means you

[00:10:28] care and all of the symptoms you're experiencing like an increased heart rate, increased blood pressure

[00:10:34] your pupils dilating these are all things designed to help you perform better at whatever task is

[00:10:42] coming up. Alright that'll do it for today I hope you have a great rest of your day and I'll

[00:10:47] see you back here on tomorrow's show where your optimal life awaits.