Podcast episode transcript (Brian Johnson) discussing Dr. Nate Zinser’s definition of confidence. Johnson quotes Zinser: "confidence is a sense of certainty about your ability which allows you to bypass conscious thought and execute unconsciously," explains etymology (Latin confidere), and emphasizes cultivating intense trust to silence doubt and perform at one’s best. Ends with a brief call-to-action (pop quiz).
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic plus one. In our last plus one we chatted about one of my new all time favorite mental toughness books, the confident mind by Dr. Nate Zinser. I love the book so much that I immediately encouraged Michael and our executive team to get it. The first three chapters in particular are mind bogglingly good. In his great book, Dr. Z walks us through the science of how to forge a heroic self image through self talk and affirmations and building what he call calls a psychological bank of memories and experiences. It's truly phenomenal. Now in that last plus one, we briefly chatted about the very first quote in the book and the very last quote in the book. As we discussed, Sun Tzu says, victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win. Dr. Z calls that winning the first victory. I promised we'd chat about how to do that. So let's get to work. We'll start by defining confidence. Dr. Z tells us, and I quote him, so, my operating definition of confidence, one that will actually help you perform well, is this. A sense of certainty about your ability which allows you to bypass conscious thought and execute unconsciously. Break it down with me, he says, a sense of certainty, that feeling of having complete faith about your ability, that you can do something or that you know something, which allows you to bypass conscious thought so well you don't have to think about it and execute unconsciously, so you perform it automatically and instinctively. He continues by saying confidence is that feeling you can do something or that you know something so well you don't have to think about how to do it when you're doing it. That skill or knowledge is in you, it's part of you, and it will come out when needed if you let it. End quote. Now that is from the introduction, what confidence is and isn't one Dr. Zinsser's definition of confidence. There it is, I repeat, confidence is a sense of certainty about your ability which allows you to bypass conscious thought and execute unconsciously. Now, as we've discussed many times, etymologically, the word confidence comes from the ancient Latin word confidere, which means to have full or intense trust. In other words, to have certainty. If you look up the word confidence in a thesaurus, you'll find trust as the number one synonym. Look up trust in a thesaurus and you'll see confidence as the number one synonym, followed by, for the record, belief, faith, freedom from suspicion, doubt, sureness, certainty, certitude, assurance, conviction, credence and reliance. Now, Dr. Z's primary point throughout the book is the fact that you will only have a shot at performing at your absolute best, if important qualifier, if you are able to turn off the voice of doubt. You do this by learning how to cultivate the intense trust and certainty that you have what it takes to dominate. Of course, the book is all about helping us do precisely that. We'll talk more about that soon. For today, pop quiz. What's the definition of confidence? And what's one thing you know you can do to boost yours today? Get on that. Here's to your first victory.
