Dr. Aziz presents a concise method for building confidence: when self-doubt voices say you can't, explicitly reject those voices ('I don't believe you') and then take the feared action anyway. He frames affirmations as supplementary but emphasizes that action following a conscious disbelief of doubt is the essential step, illustrated by his personal anecdote about approaching people socially.
There is only one way to build confidence. You can try to talk yourself up. You can try to do affirmations. Those are all useful tools. But at the end of the day, there's only one thing that you must. When that voice of doubt says you can't, says it's not going to work out, says I'm too scared, says impossible, you say, I don't believe you. And then you take the action. That voice says that you can't. So for me, I was afraid to approach people, women, for dating anyone really. In a group, they're going to reject you. They're going to think you're awkward, you're not enough, you're ugly, whatever. I would tell myself, you turn to that voice, you say, I don't believe you. That's part one. Part two is you have to go do the thing because you say, I don't believe you, but I'm not going to challenge you, sir. Well, you're really showing where you're at there. So instead, I don't believe you. Now watch this. I'm going to go approach the person. I'm going to go speak up in that group. I'm going to go share. And I know it's scary, it's out of control, but being under the control of that voice now, that's not a life of confidence.
