For most people confidence is something that seems out of control or only shows up momentarily. This was the case for me about a year ago. Now I have things that I do to prepare myself like statements before games reinforcing the belief that I know I can do this and work hard. This leads to confident performances not just time to time.

My biggest takeaway is I’ve been thinking about confidence all wrong. Here are the points that stuck out to me. 1. Defining words makes them easier to learn: - I didn’t know confidence came from math. It makes the word seem less vague and scary, something I can actually learn and apply. 2. Confidence can be separate from ego: - I always thought being confident meant being cocky, and since I didn’t want to be seen as cocky it meant I couldn’t be confident. Going forward, I see myself building real confidence, not the showy stuff that I thought was confidence before. 3. Confidence as a likelihood takes away the pressure of perfection - Before I thought confident players were perfect. Black and white, absolute. Either you’re confident or not. Seeing it as a likelihood or being able to ask ‘how confident are you’ makes it feel like it is a skill to be improved rather than a trait to have or not have. Question for myself: What can I now identify as micro-areas in my life to start improving my confidence? Not my whole game or personality, but just a piece of it to start.