A short YouTube talk by Clegg (uploaded Nov 14, 2023) about building confidence by treating promises to oneself as solemn covenants. The speaker explains the ancient covenant ritual (cutting and binding) and encourages forming self-covenants to increase self-trust and prompt decisive action ("dive in the water" and build the ship).
Chapters
So two people come together. They would kill an animal. They would walk in a circle, they would cut their. They would take a knife in their left hand, cut their right hand, put their hands together, bind it together with a rope. The word covenant means to cut. And they would make a promise on their life, saying, if I don't keep my word to you, may what happened to this animal happen to me. What if your word, the things you say, became a covenant that you make with yourself? So now you can trust yourself because you'd rather die in honor keeping your word than live in dishonor and not keep your word. Like the game would change for you forever. Because now you don't go through life sticking your toe in the water that could elevate your ship and take you to a place you've only dreamed of in the past. You don't stick your toe in that water anymore. You dive in the water, and then you start building your ship after you're in the water. You figure it out on the way.