Quote
“The actions of confidence come first; the feelings of confidence come later.”— Russ Harris, in The Confidence Gap (2010) · The Confidence Gap →
Why it was said
Russ Harris states this rule early in The Confidence Gap and returns to it in every chapter. It is the answer to the rule most people run on without noticing: first I need to feel confident, then I will act.
What it actually means
The gap in the title is the wait between the feeling and the action, and Harris's claim is that people who wait in it wait forever, because the feeling is a product of having done the thing enough times, not a precondition. The sentence reverses the order and, with it, the whole strategy: act at the smallest size with the fear present, record it as evidence, and let the feeling arrive on its own schedule, if it arrives at all.
How to use it
- 1Pick one thing you have been waiting to feel ready for and do the smallest version today, fear included.
- 2Keep an evidence list of things done before feeling confident; it is what confidence is made of.