I am grateful to Dan Sullivan and Josh Turner for giving me a new way of looking at confidence today.
Here’s what Dan said that was shared by Josh in his newsletter:
“As I’ve spent the better part of my life working with entrepreneurs, I’ve come to realize that, fundamentally, the only obstacle that can keep an entrepreneur from moving forward in any area of life is a lack of courage.
You don’t move forward because you don’t feel confident about achieving the result you’re looking for, but, in fact, the confidence doesn’t come until you’ve earned it by going through courage first.
This is the reality that most entrepreneurs face throughout their careers. In many cases, you have to take action despite not feeling certain, not feeling things are right, and certainly not feeling confident.”
To me, this means I’ve got to re-order my definition of Confidence, because what Dan is saying is that Confidence is a by-product, not a criterion, for success.
To become confident requires the inner work of committing to something worthy, challenging and bigger than me, and the outer work of proving my commitment through my courage in doing the very things I fear and therefore avoid or procrastinate in doing.
Commitment => Courage => Confidence