was feeling particularly confident for a non‐scooter stunt specialist. I figured I could do a bit of a jump while going full speed. Not even a spectacular jump, literally a bit of a jump.
I'm not sure if I hit a stone or crack in the pavement but my scooter stopped immediately. I didn't. I went over the top at what felt like 70 miles per hour and hit the ground at what felt like 100 miles per hour. If there was ever a word to describe how I hit the ground, it's ‘slam’. The kind of fall that if someone had filmed it, I'd be viral, and the world would laugh together, secretly wondering if I lived. Imagine a meteor hitting the road, tearing up the tarmac. I'm the meteor.
I think overconfidence perhaps had something to do with it. I am now very, very sore. The thing is, sometimes our confidence can get us in trouble.
Did you know that 8% of males and 7% of females think they could beat a lion in a fist fight? This is definitely the kind of confidence that's going to get people in trouble.
We're told all through life from a very young age that confidence is key. The way one carries themselves, acts, stands, walks, talks and interacts with others. How you walk into the exam hall, that job interview or the first time you ask someone out, confidence matters. There even comes a day they tell us that confidence is an attractive trait for humans to have.
That explains why I was rubbish with exams and girls!
The thing is, there's believing in yourself and then there's downright delusion. Believing you can make a brilliant ham sandwich is confident, believing you can beat a lion in a fight is hilarious.
We all know someone who we could describe as overconfident. But is overconfidence really a thing, can we actually be too confident? Can confidence actually become a hindrance?
And, perhaps more importantly, what about those of us who lack confidence? Does it mean that unless we are bursting with confidence, we don't stand as good a chance as our peers at achieving greatness?
Are those of us who perhaps struggle with confidence also allowed to aim for greatness or does this now make us overly confident too?
Aaaaannd, do we even need to be aiming for greatness?
I'm confused.
Just as well the experts at the Institute for the Psychology of Elite Performance at Bangor University have extensively examined this very thing.
The reason I'm interested in this stuff is because I lack confidence. I'm more than comfortable sharing this with you. People don't tend to believe this because of my job. They see me on a stage doing what I do, they read my books and they assume my levels of confidence are intact. Truth is, I doubt myself regularly and beat myself up about it daily. I always have and it drives me crazy. So, I'm keen to know what the possible outcomes of this are.
Firstly, what is low confidence? I'm told low confidence is the state of thinking that we are not quite ready to face an upcoming task. Cool, check. That's me all the time, it was me all through school and it's me now, pacing up and down backstage, wondering why I'm doing this, questioning why anyone is going to listen to me!
So, what happens then when we are lacking in confidence? Well, in this case, one of two things happens: either we disengage from the task … not ideal. Or we invest extra effort into preparing for it.
Not all bad then.
In one of the studies, participants were required to skip with a rope continuously for one minute. Participants were then told that they had to repeat the task but using a more difficult rope to skip with (in fact it was the exact same type of rope). Results revealed that confidence actually decreased but performance improved.
Sooooo, what you're telling me is that self‐doubt can be quite beneficial? Exactly. It can, in many ways, make us better. It can, in fact lead to an increase in effort, we try harder.
Now let's consider the role of overconfidence. A high level of confidence is usually helpful for performing tasks because it can lead you to strive for difficult goals. But high confidence can also be detrimental when it causes you to lower the amount of effort you give towards these goals.
Overconfidence often makes people no longer feel the need to invest all of their effort – think of that person you know who studies less for upcoming exams.
Interestingly, research shows that when you believe you are better than you really are, it will have a negative effect on whatever the task is at hand and your performance essentially dips.
Unfortunately, there is another common side effect to overconfidence, it's called dickheadedness. We all know one.
So, this is good news for those of us who lack confidence but still care enough to want to do well and give our all in life … and maybe even dare to be great at something?
Don't Let the World Make You Normal
Let's be honest, the world isn't going to change to accommodate you. If you're waiting for everything to fall into place, for that perfect moment, and only then will you start living your best life – you'll die waiting.
‘Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.’
—Howard Thurman
The modern world is, on the whole, rather amazing. Yes, I know the news is bad, social media gets our back up and parents go on about everything being better back in the day. But I'm not convinced by that argument. I said the modern world was ‘amazing’, not ‘perfect’. Modern life throws up all sorts of obstacles to our wellbeing. We're not built to sit in our bedrooms all day, staring at screens. We're not built to be alone. We're not built to fill our bodies with junk food and energy drinks. We're not built to stay still.
We're built to move, run, jump and even dance. We're built for the outdoors. We're built to learn, to be creative. We're built for communities, togetherness and to be part of a movement. We're built to eat wholesome foodstuffs and drink water. We're built to grow and get better.
What's really cool, is that right now, at your age, you can start to build the world you want for you. Unfortunately, for many years, humans haven't always got this right. We have in so many ways got it very, very wrong.
And the result is a tiredness. An unhealthiness. A mental ill‐health.
But look closely at the world. The opposite is also true. There is an energy about it. A healthiness. A mental wellness. Sometimes we need to search hard to find it, but it's there. And you're allowed to be inspired by it, to learn from it, to absorb it, to contribute to it, to be a part of it, to lead it.
There's always time to chill. There's always time to scroll. There's always time to stop and do nothing, sometimes we need to! But it's too easy to do that all the time.
Sitting in your trackies, basking in the glow of your phone for hours on end won't get you to where you want to be. You've already worked out that the
