The Confident Mind

Insights from The Confident Mind by Dr.
Nate Zinsser
"Confidence is that feeling that you can do something (or that you know something) so well you don’t have to think about how to do it
when you’re doing it. That skill or knowledge is in you, it’s part of you, and it will come out when needed if you let it." ‐ Dr. Nate Zinsser
You win your “First Victory” before an important test, meeting, or competition when you are confident enough in your ability to stop
telling yourself what to do and trust your training to carry you forward. Acquiring such confidence starts by building up your mental bank
account.
Build Up Your Mental Bank Account

Your mind maintains a “bank account” of memories for the sport, craft, or profession you want to excel
in. Your mental bank account balance grows when you make E.S.P. deposits. E.S.Ps are energizing and
encouraging memories of quality effort, success, or progress.
When your mental bank account is loaded with E.S.Ps, you feel confident and walk around with swagger.
But when your mental bank account balance is low, you experience self‐doubt and panic when a
performance is not going well. Luckily, every day we have an opportunity to make E.S.P. deposits into
your mental bank account and become “rich” with confidence.
A confident tennis player deposits E.S.Ps into her mental bank account by closing her eyes at night and
asking herself: “Where did I put forth quality effort today?” She thinks back to when she dug deep to finish that extra bench‐press rep at
the gym. She ponders on it for a while, trying to feel the same exhilaration she felt and make the moment as colorful as possible to sheer
the memory in her mind. Then she thinks, “What success did I have due to my effort?” and remembers completing the five‐set bench‐press
exercise and revisits the pride she felt in that moment. Finally, she thinks, “What progress did I make as a result of my effort?” She considers
how she increased her strength and how her increased strength will improve her tennis serve.
If two competitors put in similar effort, have identical successes, and make the same progress, but one competitor chooses not to
highlight their effort, success, or progress each day, their mental bank account will feel lower, and their performance will be plagued with
self‐doubt.
Build up your mental bank account by getting into bed each night, reflecting on the time you spent in the field you want to excel in, and
asking:
1. “Where did I put forth quality effort today?”

2. “What success did I have due to my effort?”
3. “What progress did I make as a result of my effort?”
Trigger Total Confidence

As you approach a performance with the sense that your mental bank account is loaded with memories
of quality effort, success, and progress, you are ready to deliver a confident performance. Now, you
need the right pre‐performance routine to trigger "complete confidence" and kill any nervous mental
chatter. Dr. Nate Zinsser teaches his elite performers a simple three‐step pre‐performance routine called
C‐B‐A:
 Cue your conviction: Come up with a phrase that helps you to fall in love with your
performance butterflies and convert nervous energy into pure excitement. Answer the
following question: What would you think to yourself in the moments before a competition if
you were eager to show the world how great you were? In the book, a quarterback tells
himself: “Do it like you know it!” A marathon runner tells herself: “Time to cruise!”
 Breathe your body: Work your breathing muscles by pushing down and into your belly as you inhale, and then up and in through
your rib cage as you exhale. As you work your breathing muscles, you’ll feel in control of your mental state. And as Belisa
Vranich writes in her book Breathing for Warriors, “Focusing on my breathing means that I can let my body tap into what it
knows and has practiced without my brain interrupting.”
 Attach your attention: Pick something inside your performance to be deeply curious about – like the pace and rhythm of the
words coming out of your mouth as you give a presentation, how the guitar strings feel on your fingers as you play, or the
movement of a tennis ball as your opponent tosses it in the air before serving to you. When Tiger Woods played his best golf
between 2000‐2003, he told a documentary filmmaker that he often became so “entrenched” and so “engrossed” on a shot
that all background noise and self‐conscious thought disappeared. He said, “It’s almost as if I get out of the way...and my
subconscious takes over."
After attaching your attention to a target inside your performance, let your subconscious drive your performance and accept all results.
Dwelling on mistakes and berating yourself for poor results depletes your mental bank account and erases the confidence you built up
with quality effort, success, and progress reflection. Therefore, thrive for perfection but quickly accept imperfections because you’re an
imperfect human and beating yourself up is counterproductive.
www.ProductivityGame.com

The Confident Mind

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The Confident Mind

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Insights from The Confident Mind by Dr.

Build Up Your Mental Bank Account

1. “Where did I put forth quality effort today?”

Trigger Total Confidence

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