What is confidence?

What is confidence?

Confidence, for me, is that absolute sense of knowing, a sense of sureness. That complete certainty in your own abilities, your own thoughts, your own beliefs.

That feeling that you know what you’re doing, that trust that you will know what to say or do in any given situation.

We can’t always predict all outcomes but confidence is knowing that we’ve done the right thing for ourselves regardless of the outcome, and that we are capable of dealing with whatever comes up along the way to that outcome.

All we can do is manage what’s in front of us in any given moment and, in the veterinary world, that is particularly powerful because animals can be unpredictable, colleagues can be unpredictable, workplaces can be unpredictable.

Of course, it might be that you feel supremely confident in one type of situation and not at all confident in another. So having that sense of knowing, of sureness and self belief that you can cope whatever comes your way is vitally important.

But the thing I love most about confidence is that it is not directly correlated to knowledge or ability. There are vets out there who have done all the qualifications, been practicing for twenty years and are still struggling with confidence.

There is a gap between knowing something and feeling ABLE to do something. Lots of people know lots of stuff but they don’t all feel confident about doing it.

I think it’s a common misconception that people make, as human beings we tend to equate knowledge & ability with confidence and they are not the same thing at all. There are plenty of people out there who have the knowledge and ability but zero confidence in themselves. And there are plenty of people who are literally winging it every day and have the confidence to do that.

So, from this edition of Jo Blogs we would really love you to take that new piece of knowledge away with you. Your level of confidence does not denote your ability. You can be completely able but simply not believe that you are.

And that's the confidence piece. That's the difference. 

In our next post we will be talking about avoidance and the downward confidence spiral. If you have ever avoided a case, procedure or surgery, this one is for you!