"All you can do each day is your best - you can't do better than your best."
— James McPartland
There is an important difference between confidence and enthusiasm.
Confidence is about ourselves — we develop it by repeatedly orchestrating successful outcomes. By consistently sharing our work with those around us, our confidence grows — even when we discover that our work can be better.
We learn that we have agency and can finish whatever we start. Rather than failure, we begin to see the fortune in all the unique forms of feedback that come our way.
Enthusiasm, on the other hand, is more powerful than confidence. Enthusiasm inspires confidence and energy in others, and its effects hold far more potential value. If you can get ten, or even a hundred other people excited, think of the utility and the vitality that are possible to build around your work. Understand that getting better is the key to unlocking your best.
With enthusiasm and confidence on your side, all that is missing is a bit of courage. Courage is the thing you need to begin. Before confidence is built through repetition, and before enthusiasm is there to inspire you or anyone else. Courage is the ability to do what frightens you. Cultivating your best requires enthusiasm and confidence, yet can only be ignited through courage.
Finally, remember this: Giving your best doesn't guarantee your day will be a success. You can do everything right and still get things wrong.
Confidence is galvanized when you trust that every setback contains an opportunity to experientially learn how getting better can only lead to you being your best. Enthusiasm builds when you respond to a disappointment by asking yourself, "What's good about this?", knowing that courage is fortified when you push past the reality that you could have done better.
To access the courage within yourselves friends, to see today’s setback as an opportunity.
Continue to grow in your work, building the confidence you need to go out and enthusiastically inspire that same confidence and energy in others.
Make this time your “be better” moment. It is the only pathway to discovering your best.
