Confident Than You Feel For When It Counts The Most

Confidence is powerful. It opens opportunities, and it creates trust by compelling people to trust you. It is the critical component that makes monumental moments go well in business. Unfortunately, most people's confidence cracks when it counts the most. When the pressure is on, most people's confidence flails, but it doesn't have to. Whatever next big moment you want to be more prepared for—be it a huge sales pitch, a meeting with your supervisor, an interview for your dream job or a speaking moment on stage—make sure that you prepare your confidence to be strong and ready to help you shine.

Doubt Is Normal

It's important to first note that to be confident, especially when it matters the most, you don't need to be 100% confident. In fact, it's normal for self-doubt to always be hanging around in some capacity, trying to push back on the mental space that your confidence needs and deserves. Just because you feel self-doubt doesn't mean that you're not confident enough or prepared enough—it just means that your brain is being human and offering you different thoughts and emotions.

To be confident, you simply need to have more confidence than you do self-doubt. Even just a majority-share of confidence over self-doubt—that is, to feel 51% confident and 49% unsure—is enough to be confident and to come off confident to others. This coexistence of confidence and doubt helps to normalize the rollercoaster of emotions that sometimes occurs when pushing oneself to achieve new things or to do things differently than ever before.

Confidence In The Controllable

There are so many things that are out of our control in life, it can feel especially overwhelming when you find yourself in a circumstance that really matters to you. It's natural for the brain to alert you to all of the things that bring it concern, especially the things out of your control, but that can make them feel even more overwhelming than they need to be. This creates distraction and derails your ability to stay in a confident state. Instead of risking deflating your confidence, you can create confidence by focusing on what is controllable. These controllable components are your own thoughts and your own actions.