From Self-Doubt to Self-Confidence

Read time: 3 minutes

Confidence is evidence-based, my friends.

Whatever you do, no matter the result, will always serve you.

As evidence, that is.

Data.

Information that you will use (hopefully) to guide your future decisions & actions.

Therefore, don't ever think that the things you do are wasted.

It's only wasted if you don't use it to guide you moving forward.

It's only wasted if you make the same mistake again.

Which at that point isn't a mistake, but a choice.

One that you made.

Point is — every little action you take in your daily life (from brushing your teeth to choosing a new route on your commute) is all valuable information that will help your future self.

And the more information, evidence, & data you can collect about yourself in specific situations & circumstances, the more confident you'll be at performing those very actions.

Let's use the example of the previous letter (which you can read here).

That little voice inside your head.

Your inner critic.

Your roommate who follows you everywhere with nonstop commentary on everything.

Remember them?

Well, when applying this new logic — the more you can catch that voice & remind yourself that it is not you, the easier it will be not to let it control you, right?

But, easier said than done.

Because when that voice says things like

• "Nobody will read it. Why post it?"

• "Everyone else is doing better than you."

• “You're not good enough for that promotion.”

... it's challenging not to listen.

Even more so, you end up believing it.

And when you believe it internally, you show up as it externally.

This is why the conversations you have in your head (with yourself & that roommate) are so crucial.

Because at the end of the day — you're always listening.

Your mind and brain are picking up & receiving those signals.

And ultimately, they are in charge of re-sending those signals around the rest of your body.

So what can you do?

If you can initially grasp or at least try to understand that the voice of doubt & impossibility is not you, then that's already a great start.

But, at the end of the day — the real magic happens when you continually prove the voice wrong, building evidence around that while simultaneously increasing your confidence too.

Again, how?

Lower the friction.

If this "little voice is not you" concept is hard to comprehend at first, don't worry.

It is for everybody.

It's not talked about enough.

It's confusing. And may not fit into your current mental framework or model.

However, there is a way to make it fit.

And that's by trying this "theory" with other simpler & unrelated tasks.

For example — in my case, I'm slowly getting into social media video creation.

I've been filming more Reels, TikToks & Shorts to spread my messages & my mission.

But, I've never really done or made content like that before.

In other words, I have no evidence to support my ability at doing it "well".

If I understand that my confidence level — that is, my level of certainty that I can perform a certain action "well" — is 100% correlated to the amount of data & evidence I collect...

Then, I'm aware that my next step is just to collect more information.

To put in more repetitions.

To continually show up daily.

Because the more I do so — regardless of the outcome — the more indications I have in my "toolbox" to guide me for tomorrow when I try again.

Apply this to any intention you have in your life.

Whether it's getting in shape, giving speeches in public, or creating content like me.

It works for anything.

You've all heard the saying "Practice makes perfect".

I'm simply taking it a step further & putting forth that perfection is never guaranteed.

And instead of adding that much pressure for it to be "perfect"; seeing every rep and daily action as a valuable source of knowledge — no matter the result — helps a lot.

Not fully.

You're detaching yourself to make the outcome more attainable.

It's just that the expected outcome for Repetition Number 3 isn't the same expected outcome for Repetition Number 93.

The intention you set for that specific repetition will vary depending on how many times you've done it before.

You can't expect yourself to do 50 pull-ups if you haven't even done 10 before.

In the same way that you can't expect a plant to grow overnight if you don't water it daily.

The best outcomes take time.

And not "time" where you sit around passively waiting, but actively working on increasing the evidence and as a result, your confidence.

Therefore, my friends — I invite you to try this out throughout your days.

Whether it's already with catching that little voice inside your head or if it's a completely unrelated task.

Whichever one you do, the more you do it in one situation, the higher your confidence in your ability to do it in other situations.

You did it once, already.

Who says you can't do it again?

Definitely not that roommate of yours, I hope...

Thanks for reading!

Happy Saturday & much love,

Julian