Courage first, confidence second
Think of a skill that you’re really CONFIDENT in. It might be surfing, riding a bike, reading, cooking your favourite meal, even walking.
Have you got one? Great.
I’m going to bet a million dollars, that the skill you chose is something you have done before. And you’ve probably done it a number of times before. Your confidence is not simply a result of some innate ability but the result of you having practised this skill many times.
Once upon a time, you did that thing for the first time. And back then, you probably weren’t confident. In fact, you may have even been quite fearful. And as you did this thing for the first time, it required you to summon your energy and just do it (despite the voice in your head that was screaming ‘I don’t know how’).
This energy is called COURAGE. The words courage and confidence sometimes get used in an interchangeable way. But as you can see they are not. Courage always precedes confidence. Courage is the cause. Confidence is the result.
We receive calls from parents all the time about how much their child has grown in confidence and we love sharing in the celebration of this result but it is important to remember that this new found confidence is actually the result of many acts of courage by that young person.
And that’s the thing we should really be celebrating.