What does confidence mean to you?

We probably all have a pretty clear picture of what a confident person looks, sounds, and acts like. And we will have a sense of how we fit into that picture and whether we consider ourselves confident or not.

In this week's episode I speak with Kendra Patterson to introduce this theme of confidence, which is our focus in The Haven throughout February.

We had a chat about our own perception of, and relationship with, confidence. We discussed what it means for us, and the role it plays in our creativity. Specifically in relation to how we share ourselves and our work with the world.

Confidence is such a huge topic, and a word I encounter a lot in my work as a coach. Many of us feel deficient of it, believing that our lack of confidence is what stops us from living with more of what we want.

But as we discuss in our conversation, there is often so much more to confidence than meets the eye.

Kendra and I chat about:

Ways the story we believed about our natural temperament growing up informs and reinforces our relationship with self-confidence (or a lack thereof) - especially when introversion and sensitivity are judged as social deficiencies
The differences between a perception of confidence and genuine deep inner confidence
Different types of confidence and how confidence in people, things, and processes, might be a way towards more self-confidence
How a sign of deep self-confidence is seen in the ability to share insecurities and aspects of life about which you are not confident (a paradox?)
Why self-confidence is not something we possess, but rather something that develops and grows over time (and what we might do to nurture the conditions for this to happen)
Why discomfort with self-promotion is NOT a lack of confidence, but a preference that we can become aware of when engaging with others (why do we recoil?)
The difference between being confident in your creative work and confident in your right to do creative work (and why you only need the latter to get going)
The impact of feedback on confidence when it comes to building a creative practice (and how receiving bad feedback is far more damaging than receiving none at all)
What constitutes good feedback, and how we can develop the confidence to ask for it (and give it to others)
How feedback is a partnership and the ways we receive, process, and mine/release solicited criticism
The importance of "sleeping on it" when it comes to processing feedback with implications
And many other things...

Links:
Notes on Your Notes (The Hannah Episodes)

Join us in The Haven to dive deeper into the theme of Confidence: the-haven.co

The Extended Play on Patreon (including the new series about creative process, From Here to There): patreon.com/andymort
Watch a teaser for the first feature, The Story of Late Again here:
https://youtu.be/wOPn9rSDHdY