Are you not feeling confident and curious how to increase confidence in yourself? If so, know that you are not alone, you are not suffering from imposter syndrome, and you are not in need of fixing. As we start our series on Confidence, we'll work to dismantle the most common — and most damaging — myth about confidence: that confidence is just a feeling and that you need to be confident before you act.

We'll focus on a confidence reframe: Confidence is a willingness to act and a trust in your own effort, not a feeling of certainty or how others perceive you. We'll lean on Dr. Russ Harris's foundational insight throughout our work: the actions of confidence come first; the feelings of confidence come later.

The episode also does important myth-busting work around self-worth, self-esteem, and self-efficacy — three concepts we tend to mash together with confidence, often to our detriment. We'll make the case for unconditional self-acceptance over the self-esteem-building culture many of us grew up in, and approach confidence with a fresh and more empowering lens. This episode will set us up for some confidence-building work that is far more nourishing than the usual methods we've been taught.

About: The Joy Lab Podcast is an Ambie-nominated podcast that blends science and soul to help you cope better with stress, anxiety, and depression. It's hosted by integrative psychiatrist Dr. Henry Emmons and holistic mental health researcher Dr. Aimee Prasek. The podcast is best paired with the Joy Lab Program (get your 7-day free trial!). Bonus: spread some joy and keep this podcast ad-free by donating (Joy Lab is powered by the nonprofit Pathways North and your donations are tax-deductible).

Sources and Notes for our Element of Confidence:

Joy Lab Program: Take the next leap in your wellbeing journey with step-by-step practices to help you build and maintain the elements of joy in your life. Start your 7-day free trial now.

Episodes about imposter phenomenon:
- Imposter Syndrome is a Myth [ep. 175]
- What Imposter Syndrome Really Is [ep. 276]

Book: The Confidence Gap by Russ Harris, PhD
Book: Confidence Culture by Shani Orgad, PhD & Rosalind Gill, PhD
Bandura. Self-efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change. Access here.
Baumeister et al. Does High Self-Esteem Cause Better Performance, Interpersonal Success, Happiness, or Healthier Lifestyles? Access here.
Donnelly et al. Do people know how others view them? Two approaches for identifying the accuracy of metaperceptions. Access here.
Hayes et al. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a Unified Model of Behavior Change. Access here.
More about Victor Frankl's work from VFIA.

Full transcipt here

Common Questions:

Q: Why don't I feel confident even when I know I'm capable of something?

A: Because confidence isn't just a feeling and it's not just about self-efficacy or your belief in your capabilities. This episode explains the neuroscience behind why waiting for the feeling often means waiting forever, and offers a more empowering definition to work with instead.

Q: What's the difference between confidence, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and self-worth?

A: This episode untangles all four: self-worth is your sense of inherent value, self-esteem is a more fragile self-evaluation based on comparison and performance, and self-efficacy is your belief in your ability to do a specific task. Confidence (redefined here as trust and willingness to act) can draw on all three, but is its own concept and understanding the differences can be genuinely freeing.

Key moments:

[00:00] Welcome to the new Element of Confidence — and the central premise: you don't need to feel confident to practice it

[02:00] The cost of waiting for a feeling that wasn't coming — staying small, timid, paralyzed

[03:30] The neuroscience: the amygdala looks for certainty before giving the green light to act

[05:00] The common (and limiting) definition of confidence: a feeling, tied to certainty and how others perceive us

[05:30] How imposter syndrome suffers from the same definitional hijacking

[06:00] The reframe: confidence from Latin "com" (with) + "fidere" (trust) — to trust with

[06:30] A behavioral definition: trust in your effort and a willingness to act — not a feeling

[07:00] Dr. Russ Harris, The Confidence Gap: "The actions of confidence come first; the feelings of confidence come later."

[08:00] The swimming example: you don't feel confident first — you flail, then build confidence through repeated action

[10:30] Fear is not the enemy and not the opposite of confidence — you need your threat detection system

[11:00] How a feelings-only model of confidence puts 100% of the blame on the individual

[11:30] Systemic and community barriers to confidence: healthcare disparities, pay gaps, and their real impact

[12:30] Why "just feel more confident" is where toxic positivity lives — and why it doesn't address real barriers

[13:00] Holding personal and collective responsibility together — confidence as a practiced relationship with uncertainty

[14:00] Henry: confidence as trust and willingness to act becomes relational — built with self, others, and systems

[15:00] Real confidence: acting precisely when you feel fearful, doubtful, and uncertain

[16:00] Untying confidence from self-worth, self-esteem, and self-efficacy

[16:30] Self-worth: how positively or negatively you perceive your value — and Dr. Albert Ellis's argument that it isn't actually up for evaluation

[17:00] Self-esteem: more granular, shaped by frequent self-comparisons and judgments — fragile when tied to external validation

[18:00] Self-efficacy: belief in your ability to do well in a specific situation — changeable, actionable, and domain-specific

[19:00] How comparison and self-judgment can erode self-worth when held too tightly

[19:30] The case for unconditional self-acceptance over self-esteem — Ellis's argument revisited

[21:30] Henry unpacks the distinctions: comparison-based self-esteem (fragile, quicksand) vs. self-efficacy (grounded, built through repeated success) vs. self-worth (solid foundation, not performance-dependent)

[23:00] Real confidence as a combination: building self-efficacy through action, grounding in unconditional self-worth, practicing self-acceptance

[23:30] How early conditional approval ("I love you when you get good grades") shapes where you start — but doesn't have to be where you stay

[24:30] None of these are fixed traits — they are skills that can be developed through practice

[25:30] Preview: building this Element with Dr. Russ Harris's frameworks and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), with a Joy Lab twist

[25:45] Closing wisdom from Seneca: "It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult."

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