“Unicorns are real and watch me do this somersault.” Says my child as she folds herself in half preforming a move vaguely resembling a somersault onto her bed. Yes, this is a normal Tuesday morning in the Reid household, and still, the way she said it was fascinating and grabbed my attention. 

 The first part was said with a conviction that had me believing in unicorns. Thankfully a quick google search corrected that. Secondly, she believed with every atom in her body that she was going to do this somersault AND this was going to be something worth checking out.  

There it was, pure confidence. It struck me because I deal with confidence, or lack thereof, quite frequently as a coach, not only with the athletes I teach, but my own. Additionally, I believe the majority of coaches out there would say that confidence is one of, if not, the most important thing an athlete could have.  

It doesn’t come from experience. I can be confident when doing something the first time because I believe in my ability to figure it out and my determination to see it through. It doesn’t come from being better at something that someone else. Professional athletes battle confidence all the time. It doesn’t come from knowing more about something than someone else. I believe I know more about the sport of volleyball than the guys I coach and I am still learning things about the game, from them, constantly. 

So what is it and how do I get more of it? It is the grounded understanding and radical acceptance of oneself. What if we brought that to our work, sports, life on the daily!? 

Confidence has nothing to do with anyone but yourself. Confidence has everything to do with you understanding and accepting how you work. Not feeling confident? Good, take a look inside yourself and get to know you. Not feeling confident? What external thing is it tied to? Now cut that line to free yourself of the weight of self-judgement. Feels good, doesn’t it?  

After all, unicorns are real and, if you really wanted to, you could totally do a somersault.