Brian Johnson explains why action builds confidence, not the other way around. He draws from Russ Harris's The Confidence Gap to show that waiting to feel ready keeps you stuck. Do the thing first, confidence follows.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another micro class. This one's on the number one rule of confidence. It's inspired by the Confidence gap by Russ Harris. Fantastic book. He has 10 rules that we talk about in the note. The 10 rules of confidence. Right. The number one rule is what? How do you navigate the confidence gap? The confidence gap is basically, look, I want to do this awesome thing, right? But in order to do that, I've got to feel confident. And right now I only feel like this. I'm not confident enough. I got to be here in order to actually take this action. There's a gap and I need to get more confident before I can do this. Basically we're saying that we need to feel a certain way before we take action. The number one rule of confidence is that's wrong and this is right. Action precedes the feelings. Basically, you need to do what needs to get done, then you're gonna feel confident, not the other way around. So check in and see how often you tell yourself, oh, I'll do what I really wanna do when I feel really confident, when I feel ready, et cetera. And remember the number one rule of confidence, action drives feelings, not the other way around. We're gonna talk about some ways to cultivate that, but keep that in mind. Isn't it a bit odd that we went from math to science to history, but somehow missed the class on how to live? For some wacky reason, optimal living 101 never made the schedule. Of course it's too late to go back and change that and you're too busy to read full time to catch up. Yet if you're like thus, you're all about optimizing your life and actualizing your potential. So imagine this. Imagine having someone read the best books on optimal living and pulling out the big ideas that can truly change your life. You know those sections you asterisk and underline and mark all up. Then imagine that guy me, connecting those ideas to other great books and helping you apply them to your life today. That's what I do with something we call Philosopher's Notes, where I break down each great book into a simple 6 page PDF, 20 minute MP3 and 10 minute Philosopher's Notes TV episode. Then imagine me taking the absolute best big ideas from those great books and sharing them with you in fun, inspiring, super practical optimal living 101 classes on stuff like purpose 101, confidence 101, business 101, meditation 101 sort of thing. You've got a personal trainer. I'm kind of like your personal philosopher. Ancient wisdom plus modern science plus common sense plus virtue plus mastery plus fun. That's what our optimized membership program is all about. We'd love to have you join us. Check us out at BrianJohnson. Me join Sam?
