The other day, I was reading one of the Seth Godin’s posts, which included this powerful message (paraphrased):

Are you willing to be not very good at something before you’re good at it?

This message deeply resonated with me.

When people talk about self-confidence, the underlying question usually is: Are your skills good enough?

If the answer is no, trying to artificially boost your confidence by convincing yourself that you already have the necessary skills won’t work, because the results (or the lack thereof) will keep deflating your confidence.

Instead, you should be asking a different question: Am I capable of learning the skills?

This question doesn’t imply that you have the skills right now but instead shifts the focus to whether you can get there in the future. It suggests that the current situation might be uncomfortable, sometimes even scary, but that with courage and persistence, little by little, you can move closer to your goal of the desired level of performance. And it puts more emphasis on the process of learning, which highlights the importance of curiosity, flexibility, and open-mindedness, all of which are often neglected, but nevertheless essential.