Compass No.13
Letting go of limitations, the neuroscience of confidence, and removing yourself from the problem
Thought Provoking Quote
This quote is taken from the writer Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear:
"I spent years pushing back against my mother's unshakable faith in my strength and abilities. Then one day, somewhere in my adolescence, I finally recognized this was a really weird battle for me to be fighting. Defending my weakness? That's seriously the hill I wanted to die on? As the saying goes, 'Argue for your limitations and you get to keep them.' Why would I want to keep my limitations? I didn't, as it turned out. I don't want you keeping yours, either."
Podcast Insights that Stayed With Me
I found Dan Harris’ podcast episode, The Neuroscience of Confidence, with Trinity College Professor Ian Robertson fascinating. Highly recommend listening to the full episode!
Robertson defines confidence as a belief with two components. 1) The belief that you can do something (self efficacy) and 2) the belief that if you do that thing, the outcome you want is more likely to happen (outcome expectation). He argues that confidence’s secret sauce is its link to the action systems in the brain. Confidence is the thing that helps us bridge the inherent uncertainty and anxiety associated with the future.
There are four states of the mind that relate to the “can do” and “can happen” components of confidence:
Can’t do/Won’t happen: This produces a state of apathy in the brain that is marked by lower levels of dopamine receptors, resulting in low mood, high anxiety, low drive, and low initiative.
Can do/Won’t happen: This state produces a lot of frustration. For example, “I can get a college degree, but I won’t get a better job.” This state augments the norepinephrine system (part of the fight or flight system), which interferes with clear thinking and worsens frustration.
Can’t do/Could happen: For example, “I can’t stop smoking, I know that if I could stop I would be healthier and happier, but I can’t do it.” This state also activates the norepinephrine system and tends to produce anxiety and depression.
Can do/Can happen: In this state, your brain actually considers something as if it has already been successfully achieved, which has a number of benefits. First, you get an increase in dopamine activity in the reward network. This lowers anxiety because it raises your mood and makes you more likely to take action. Second, you get increased dopamine in the frontal lobe leading to greater cognitive function. Lastly, this state makes you more persuasive because confidence conveys status and status makes it more likely that people will be persuaded by you.
Question inspired by a recent interview
In last week’s interview, Endorphins Running founder, Tyler Swartz, talked about the internal dialogue he uses during marathons to get through the mentally and physically tough moments that runners call “the pain cave.” He emphasized the importance of removing yourself from the problem.
“Think about the sentence, ‘I’m hurting so bad.’ You’re fully involved in the problem there. Now shift to the second tense with something like, ‘You’re going to be okay.’ It’s emotional but you’re much further removed from the problem. Some athletes take it even further and speak to themselves in the third person. Something like, ‘He’s got it!’”
Think about a regular circumstance or situation where your mental dialogue tends to get trapped “in the problem.” What mental dialogue would you use in the future if you were practicing removing yourself from the problem?