There are moments in life when stakes are high. It may be a job interview, a difficult conversation it’s time to have, or the day you pitch the idea you’ve been musing over and refining for the last few weeks. Or the first time you meet a new team or you date someone, and you know there will be a first impression. You think about it, you prepare, but the pressure to be at your best starts turning against you, and you begin self-doubting your moves, words, even self-worth. You care so much about the result, that you feel responsible not only for what you can actually do, but also for the final outcome.
Building confidence is a process that requires continuous nourishment and care, awareness of what triggers us, and a conscious, intentional focus on what we can influence, letting go of what is outside our sphere of control.
Actor and director Bryan Cranston (the famous Walter White of Breaking Bad) uses the expression “actor’s arrogance”: a sense of ownership of who we are, with no attachment to the outcome. A liberating, powerful stance that allows us to experience our “audition times” with an intensity that plays for us, and not against us.
