
You can’t “fake it ’til you make it” in combat sports. The way to develop real confidence is through competence AND testing your abilities. Real skill development.
Yesterday I reached a milestone in my martial arts journey by being promoted to purple belt.
⏳Here are some rough estimates on the total time involved:
- 4 1/4 years of consistent training
- ~80 hours of independent study (shout outs to John Danaher and Firas Zahabi)
- ~918 hours of mat time (3 days / week 1.5 hr practice)
- ~2,450 miles biked to / from practice
By my estimates, a TON of time was invested. However, I wasn’t truly confident in my abilities until recently. A blue belt came to my gym who outweighs me by 40 lbs. I later found out he was a former inmate, currently on the juice. A real tough guy. Yet I was able to defeat him in a hard-fought 5 minute round. It wasn’t until I was biking home that it hit me…I’m pretty good at this. BUT I needed that challenge in order to recognize my own competence. It was before I actually received the purple belt that I had the confidence of one.
Challenging competence can take many forms. Let’s assume you are a runner. You might know subconsciously that you are a good runner, but challenging your competence by trying to qualify for a major race would solidify that consciously. Now your self-image is changed. You can confidently tell yourself “I am a runner, I qualified for Boston”.
At work, you might feel like you have the competence that should be recognized – but how can you go out of your way to challenge that? Solidifying that competence into confidence.
The formula
With that in mind, I would like to propose an update to the saying “competence leads to confidence”:
Competence + challenge = confidence
📚Two of the best books I read that hastened my skill development
- With Winning In Mind (summary I wrote here)
- Peak (summary I wrote here)
Subscribe 👇🏻📧
Drop your email in the box below to receive an update when I post my weekly blog. Typically musings on philosophy, fitness, or personal finance. You can also follow on Twitter for daily workouts and other shenanigans.
Congratulations on the new strap, Kevin. That’s a huge milestone for sure.
Thank you!
[…] Competence builds confidence. It is great to learn self-defense, but it is even better to actually get good. This confidence spills into other areas of life. […]