“In every waking moment your brain uses past experience to guide your present sensations.” -Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, book How Emotions Are Made
“Confidence comes from preparation. When the game is on the line, I’m not asking myself to do something I haven’t done a thousand times before.” -Kobe Bryant
“Fake it ’til you make it.”
“Act as if.”
“Just be confident.”
I’m not sure any of this advice is effective. Certainly not in the long run.
What is effective is to just put in the work. Over a long period of time. Because when confidence wanes, you need something to go back to. Some terra firma. Something to tell yourself, “Hey I can be confident here because I’ve earned it. I’ve put in the work. I deserve to be confident.”
Read the below Dwayne Wade story told to Tiger Woods (h/t to Billy Oppenheimer for providing)…
With 1.9 seconds left in overtime of Game 5 of the 2006 NBA Finals, Dwyane Wade went to the free throw line. Wade and the Heat were down by 1. The series was tied 2-2. He told Tiger Woods how he prepared to make those high-pressure free throws: “The night before,” Wade said, “I was in the gym at midnight. And I was like, ‘I know games come down to free throws. No matter what happens, it’s going to come down to free throws.’ So I was in the gym and I had my cousin standing next to me, I had him right in my ear talking shit to me. And so the next night, I get in that same situation where I got to make these free throws. And I just went back to last night in the gym. I just went right back to that. I was like, ‘I just hit 200 of these last night. I got this.’” “That’s so good,” Tiger says. “It’s like,” Wade continues, “your confidence comes from your work.” “Correct,” Tiger replies. “You’ve done it over and over,” Wade says. “You’ve seen yourself do it.” “Correct,” Tiger says, “thousands of times.” Filled with the confidence that came as an epiphenomenon, a byproduct, an indirect reward of his work, Wade hit the two free throws. The Heat won 101-100 to take a 3-2 series lead. In Game 6, he had 36 points to help the Heat win the game and their first championship in franchise history. Wade was named NBA Finals MVP.
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