If you want to build confidence, you need to get good at vulnerability. 

 

Vulnerability is simply uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure. Here’s why it’s the foundation for confidence. Everyone experiences these three things - uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure. This is especially true in high performance because in competitive environments, the outcome is never controlled. 

 

What do you tend to do when you experience uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure? Do your reactions to being vulnerable move you forwards towards your vision and who you want to be, or do they move you away? 

 

It takes courage to stay in it when you feel uncertain and at risk of falling short, or being emotionally exposed; but by embracing these situations from a place of worthiness, you earn the right to say to yourself “I can do difficult things”. Being able to say this to yourself - and believe it - fuels confidence like nothing else because confidence comes from what you say to yourself. 

 

Knowing that you can do difficult things, that you have the courage to be vulnerable, and that you can stay in it when it’s difficult, creates credible self talk that you can draw on to feel confident when you next experience uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure.