Episode 27: Borrowed Confidence vs Earned Confidence: Why Trusting Yourself Comes From Reps

Confidence is something a lot of runners think they’re missing. Especially in trail running. Especially when things feel hard, messy, or inconsistent.

In this episode, we’re talking about the difference between borrowed confidence and earned confidence. Borrowed confidence is the kind that shows up after a good run, a PR, or external validation. It feels great… but it’s fragile. Earned confidence is quieter. It’s built through repetition, adjustment, and showing up even when things don’t go perfectly.

This episode is for you if you’ve ever said “I just don’t feel confident yet” while still doing the work anyway. We’ll talk about why confidence usually lags behind effort, why that’s normal, and how trusting yourself is built long before it feels obvious.

No hype. No motivation speeches. Just an honest conversation about what actually builds confidence in trail running and in real life.

In This Episode, We Talk About:

• The difference between borrowed confidence and earned confidence
• Why confidence that depends on things going well doesn’t last
• How earned confidence is built through repetition, not motivation
• What confidence actually looks like on hard, unsexy days
• Why feeling uncertain doesn’t mean you’re behind
• How runners are often more confident than they realize
• Why you don’t need to feel ready to keep going

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey y'all, welcome back to Dirt Nap Diaries. I'm your host, Brittany Olson, Trailrunner, Women's Trailrunning Coach, Hype Woman, and Professional Overpacker of the Mid Run Snacks. This show is for the everyday trailrunner, the ones training on real life legs and real life time. You've got work, relationships, laundry pets, a group text that never shuts up, shout out to my softball team, and maybe a big goal sitting quietly in the back of your head that you're not totally sure you're allowed to want. You're not out here chasing podium spots, you're chasing finish lines, sunrises, and maybe a little sanity. This podcast is about trail running, but it's also about navigating life. The hard seasons, the joyful ones, and the ones where everything feels like too much. So let's get into it. Okay, personal updates. Uh well, I mean, Cocodona is coming up quick for me. If y'all don't know, I am in the Kokodona 250 race. So 257 miles is what the current course map looks like. We'll see if there's any changes. Sometimes that happens. So training is starting to uh go up. That volume's gonna keep steadily going up. I'm gonna have some back-to-back-to-back long runs in March and April, I'm sure. Um, so yeah, but things are feeling good. I've lost about 11 pounds, which the goal was 10 to 15 pounds. That was what my brain told me. Uh, before I started getting more volume, because once volume, once we get those like ups, we'll call them those volume ups, it's better to focus on performance rather than that losing any weight. Um, so I am going to be uh eating all the carbs probably during this, but no, I've already been eating enough to keep up with that. But the whole point is more, uh, the volume is going up, so it's gonna get it even busier, but it's gonna be a whole lot of fun. Um, super excited to see this uh 200 miler and feel that and just see, am I going to like it or am I gonna finish and be like never again? Um, so yeah. Outside of that, what else? I ran my hill running clinic on Sunday, and that was so much fun. Had 14 or 15 uh women show up for that. Uh some of them are my current athletes, um, some of them were friends of friends, and it was just awesome to see him out there. So we worked on running uphill and downhill, and it gave me a whole lot of energy for that Sunday. So I would like to do something again. So if you have any uh thoughts on things you'd like to learn um on the trail, uh I know this podcast does it, but if I can do something that's on the trail, I'd love that. Uh and then uh, or even like do a zoom call for everybody because it's uh pretty nice because sometimes when you get live questions, um, people really learn even more from that. So outside of that though, SAMO, SAMO, uh coaching. Uh, I've got lots of athletes who are training for different races. Um, so yeah, but let's actually get into this what this episode's really about. Um, and this is about um confidence. And there's a couple of different kind of confidences, con confidences, but like this is not some huge, big, elaborate episode, but it did, it's something that I realized. Like, I talk with my athletes a lot about, I talk with my friends a lot about it. Um, and a lot of times people uh are missing confidence or they're leaning on the wrong type of confidence, like that external validation sort of that internal piece of it. So, and a lot of times it does show up in the trails because trail running, y'all, is hard. I'm not saying road running isn't hard, but trail running is just a different kind of beast. There's rocks and there's animals, and there's like different uphills and downhills and all of that. Um and a lot of times we and we, especially as women, tend to compare ourselves to others out there, like what we look like uh compared to other people. So, like that's just something that probably a lot of us can work on, but we do go out there and compare too. Um, so that's the whole point of this is really breaking down the difference between um borrowed confidence versus earned confidence, is what we're gonna call that. So I think a lot of us are chasing that confidence in a way that actually keeps us stuck. Uh, and we want to get unstuck because nobody wants to be in that cycle. So let's first talk about that borrowed confidence. Like, and then a lot of times that comes from external validation, really. So let's think about it in this way. You know, you've had an awesome run, you crushed it, you all of a sudden you're getting these strava kudos right away, your garment or coros is saying these things to you. Um, you're getting a DM or a text, it's like, hey, you crushed that, you did so great. Um, you know, everything feels like it's clicking and like um it just feels good. But why does it feel good? Because it's instant, it's validating, and it makes you feel like, okay, I can do that. But then what is what does that happen when you have a bad run? Um, things don't feel right, or you feel heavier, or life stress shows up, or you scroll to Insta through Instagram too long, or people aren't like talking about or reaching out and talking about your runs too much. So that confidence disappears, right? There is nothing wrong with being excited about having a good run or having friends tell you you're crushing it. There's nothing wrong with it, but if you are relying on that, like that is that borrowed confidence. It is that external validation. Um, and we don't want that all the time because that does lead to confidence disappearing and you get stuck in that cycle. If your confidence only exists when things go well, it's gonna be real shaky. So that's really the point here is talking about like when things are right in life when things go well, right? We feel good. In in work, it feels good. All of that, but things don't always go well. And we start doubting ourselves, like, man, maybe I'm not very good at this. Uh, maybe I shouldn't be doing this, maybe I'm wasting time. I'm training for this ultra, maybe I should just go back to 5 and 10k. Sorry, I said just, and 5K's are not a just. I apologize for that. Um, but for somebody who's training for a 50k, they're gonna have that, like, oh my gosh, like I just can't do the 50k. I need to go go, like, not train so much. It's not worth it. I'm not good enough. So that is that what I consider that borrowed confidence. Um, with that, like I said, normally comes like that external validation. We get that instant gratification from that, but then when things do go poorly, we start to feel down. Um, so on the opposite side of that is that earned confidence, right? This is where we want you. Uh, this is what I coach people to. Um, it comes from doing the work when it's boring and when it's harder. Um, it comes from doing it when it feels easy too. It's showing up when you're tired and still finishing. And I don't mean tired to the point of like being fatigued and overtraining and injuring yourself. I don't mean that. I mean, right now a lot of us are tired. I did a whole episode last week about how shitty this country is. And um sometimes we're just tired, but we're still doing the work. Um, having a run that feels like garbage and not spiraling out of control. Um, I have talked to many athletes about runs that feel like garbage. Um, and they could have had 10 good runs in a row, and that one really, really like broke them for that moment of like, I just don't know if I can do this. Like, why am I training for this 50k, this 100k? How am I gonna hit my goals, all of this? So having those runs that don't feel so good and not spiraling. Walking a hill without talking shit about yourself. Um, that's what I think it's great. I have um one athlete in particular I'm thinking about who's working on uh running up Hillmore, Catherine, and like she is doing amazing, by the way. But like I remember whenever we first started talking about, she's like, man, she's like, normally I get to a hill, and like I automatically start walking. And a lot of people do that. And it has nothing to do with like how strong their legs are or anything like that. It just has to do with like, well, in trail running, we do hike hills sometimes, which is fun. Um, but like there are people who I talk to who they when they walk a hill period, it doesn't matter if they're practicing hill running, um, whether they've been running a lot of hills that week, whether there's a lot of hills in the race they're doing, when they walk the hills, they're like, I'm walking, I shouldn't be walking, I need to be doing more and feeling like shit, instead of thinking, you know what, I am walking more on the hills, but well, what can I do? Like, can I like how can I get better than this and how? That's why I brought up Catherine area. Like, she's like, you know what, I want to be able to run more uphill and for longer. Um, so instead of just being like, shit, shit, shit, you know, I suck, she's like taking this as like, hey, you know what? I can, I can do this. Like, I can, I there are ways to improve. And I have a coach who I can tell. Me, me's the coach, but like to tell, and we can practice on these things. Um, fueling, even when your brain says you didn't earn it. Um, I don't get this one as much, which from my athletes, um, even though I do pay attention to what they're fueling with to make sure they're eating, and not just during the run, but before and after, basically any time they need it. Um, but there are still, you know, those those things out there in our brains. It's like, well, maybe I can eat a little bit less. I talked about how I've lost some weight earlier, but like they maybe they think, okay, like I only ran this much and I um am going to eat less because I have these pounds I want to lose, or maybe it's more, well, I'm gonna go out with friends tonight and probably eat a little bit more, maybe have beer. So I'm gonna eat less right now. Um, not a good place to be. But if you're a person who doesn't feel that need to like your fuel is based on like earning it, that's that earned confidence. That's a fantastic headspace to be in. Um adjusting the plan or having it adjusted by your coach and trusting yourself anyway. Um, I know it's very hard to have that plan adjustment, whether you've been sick, whether you overslept, whether work goes crazy, um, whatever it happens to be, a lot of times we get in our heads about having to adjust a run, whether we don't run that day and move it, get it moved to another day, whether it's just missed, whether we have to shorten it, um, whether instead of doing like a hard VO2 max workout that was on the schedule, we just didn't have it in us, so we did an easy run. Anything like that, when you can have that plan adjusted either by yourself or by your coach, um, and trusting that, that's awesome. Fantastic. That is earn confidence, knowing that you have been consistent and sometimes life shits on you or something happens and you just have to adjust. So earn confidence isn't super sexy. It's not this little thing they're out there in this, like, and you're like, oh man, this is great, everything's fine. And it doesn't make for a great Instagram post. It really is something that I feel like kind of comes on, not even suddenly, it's it's slowly. It's anything that people tend to like escalate or do quickly, it doesn't stick around. So I do feel like having actual confidence that earned confidence um does come about. And it's not just like, oh my god, it's here. Sometimes it feels like that, but then you realize you've actually built towards that. Um, but what's great about doing it this way is it's the kind of confidence that actually sticks with you. It doesn't go away. It takes time. Sometimes you're still gonna have days, even when you are that confident person, you're gonna have days where shit just doesn't feel good. But for the most part, it's there and it's sticky, which is fantastic. So it's not about believing that you're always gonna feel good. It's not saying every run's gonna feel feel amazing, every strength outwork girl it's gonna feel good, every day it works and it'd be great because I'm good at my job. Every meal I cook is gonna be the best tasting thing ever. That's not what it is. It's about trusting your thing self when things don't feel good. So hopefully you don't burn your dinner and that tastes bad. But it is when things don't feel good, your brain goes to this was one run. This is one lifting session, this was just one day of work. Being able to let that slide off your back and maybe even use it as a learning opportunity. Like, there's been times when like I've been running and life has been busy. I mean, it's really busy, right, all the time. But I needed to take away a day of running, like that's it. Or there were times I needed to take something away from life that was kind of an optional thing, so I could focus on running because I had certain goals too. But it's trusting myself when things don't feel good, either way. No matter whether I take something away, add something in, or just realize it was just one of those days. So, um, you can tie this to like life being messy, work stress, grief, hormones, the state of the world, training not existing in a vacuum, really. Like that's what happens sometimes when you don't feel good. But again, knowing that it will be better is where it's at. That's that earned confidence. So, why people think they're not confident, um, but actually are perhaps. So, this part can be really, really validating for uh you listening here. Most runners I work with, like there's a lot of work, I don't want to say most. There are some runners that I've worked with and friends too, who are like, I'm not confident yet, I don't trust myself enough, I don't feel ready. I mean, I've coached a lot of people to their first ultras um for upping their distance and all of this. So they're just like, oh, like maybe not. And I and I hear this and I hear them. So a lot of times just letting them talk, talk it out, like, I'm not sure if I'm there. Uh, maybe I like overshot on my goal. I don't know if I thought this through, but what do they actually do? So so they may say these things, by the way, right? But they show up anyway. They finish the training run anyway, they get their workout in, they modify instead of quit. They come back after a rough day or a week, maybe even a month. Those things happen too, y'all. Um, and they keep going after a bad day. I love reading notes in Final Surge. That's the um app I use uh with all of my athletes. Um, but like they will like talk themselves through, and I don't get long notes from everybody, by the way. Sometimes I get tags and but whatever, but whatever it is, I'll get these these notes sometimes that are just like, oh, like Renee, I'm looking at you, by the way. Um, I have a picture of you in my desk. No, I'm kidding. Uh, but but Renee is one of mine, and she'll be like, you know what, I didn't really feel like getting this done today. Or I wanted to run, but I just didn't feel like I didn't feel good. Like I didn't feel like it was gonna be a good run. I felt really draggy, you know. I get to the trail and I start moving, and it took me a little bit. And then as I kept going and showing up and move my legs, I started feeling better and better and better. So for me, that shows somebody who is like, you know what, like, ooh, it's not gonna be my day, but they still showed up and it got better. Does it always get 100% better? No, it doesn't. Sometimes you still feel like crap afterwards because shit's going on. Maybe you're a little bit sick and didn't realize it. Maybe you got allergies, whatever it is. But like, it's still showing up the best you can show up. Suzanne's another one of mine who I'll get like a text from or a note, and it's just like, hey, man, I wasn't feeling that today and I didn't know, or like two hours in, I felt like shit. But then, you know, I kept moving, and at the end I felt like a badass. So that's what I'm talking about when I think about like some people think they're not confident, but they actually are because their actions are showing that. Would I love it in their brain to always be like, yay, like, even though this was bad, like I'm not feeling good, it's gonna be great. Yeah, sure, of course, but really those actions are what are speaking up there to show that level of confidence. So it's really cool to see confidence grow in people, even when they're not realizing it. I do try to point it out because I think it's great. Like I said, you shouldn't rely on external validation, but that doesn't mean it's not nice to hear. It doesn't mean it's not good to do that as a friend or as a coach or as a family member, whatever that is. It's always good to pump somebody up, especially when it's genuine, by the way. But there's nothing wrong with doing that and liking it. It's relying on it because that's not that real confidence. So it's called borrowed confidence or fake confidence, like I mentioned earlier. So it's confidence, it's not just super loud. It's not you saying, I'm confident, but it's you doing the work and continuing to do the work and showing up over and over again. And it doesn't feel like hype. It's it's a quiet grit, is how I like to think about it. You're just doing your thing, man. You're getting it done even on days you don't want to. What else I think is quiet grit too, which some people may not think the same way as me, is taking a day off when you have that run on there. Whether you've been traveling and you come home tired and you realize, you know what, I need to get in bed at 6.30 tonight with the book and just go to sleep early. That's perfectly fine. Maybe you need to crowd with your dog or your cat's. I don't know. But I think that quiet grit also includes taking those that rest day when it wasn't planned, doing an easy run when maybe you were supposed to do a harder run, maybe on a on a rest day, and I have some flexibility on rest days when I give them to athletes, they know that, but you just had a lot of stress and you got a Peladon at home and you just need to spin your legs for 20 minutes, you know. That's the quiet grit. That's things that you realize you need for you, and that is part of being confident. So a lot of times when you look, it's when you look back that you notice the confidence is there. Um, which is crazy, but it's true. So just keep that in mind though. Like, there's days where I say that. I mean, I don't know how many days sometimes lately I'm like, it's so dark out right now in the mornings, and it's like, oh my God, I just want to stay in bed. I'm tired, man. Like, I I could just sleep and I'd probably feel better. Normally I just get up and move, and I feel great by the end of it. But but those thoughts still come in sometimes. I just call them those intrusive thoughts, where it's like it tries to battle you and battle that confidence and be like, no, like I'm not, I'm not gonna get out of bed. But but then you do anyway. So um and just so you know, borrowed confidence isn't always bad, it's just incomplete, right? So, you know, like I don't want to want people to like feel judged by this at all. Like, um, it's what I mentioned earlier. We love encouragement, we love having those good runs. How why would we run if we never had a good run? We like being told we're doing well. Who the hell doesn't like that? Um, we like the Strava kudos. I know I don't get on Strava that much. A lot of you listening probably know that. Um, but like, you know, we like when you post on Instagram and somebody says, ah, great job, or or like somebody even posts it, posts like, uh, like today didn't go that well, but you have somebody reach out and be like, oh man, I've had a day like that. Like, there is that external validation there, and there's nothing wrong with that. But again, you don't want your entire sense of capability tied to outcomes like that, tied to what other people are saying, um, tied to how someone else is doing too, right? Like, again, having that external validation, fine. Seeking it or feeling bad because you don't get it, not great, right? So borrowed confidence isn't bad, it's just incomplete. Earned confidence is it gives you that steady hold, like when training feels flat, um, when life gets loud, when that motivation dips, and remember y'all, I don't like the word motivation because it will dip, it's a feeling. Um, when comparison creeps in, like that's what's really, really going to help you, right? Is having that earned confidence within you. Because sometimes that comparison sneaks in, sometimes like life gets way too loud, just screaming at you. Sometimes work is just not what you thought it was gonna be. But when you have that earned confidence, that total confidence in yourself, those things matter, but they don't matter to the fact that they take you down, right? Or maybe they take you down for a couple hours a day, but they're not something that really ruins what you're building, whether it be with running, whether it be with life, whether it be with work, whatever it is, it doesn't ruin it. It just takes a little bit of time sometimes to recover from it. So, but that is the kind of confidence that keeps you moving forward instead of starting over every time. I don't know. I have worked with athletes who have had to start over. Um, I really hate the word start over because we've all been through stuff, we've all um have different stories. So I just part of me doesn't like the word start over, but it really it it's a really struggle for me to think about something, um, and or another phrase for that. But it is like it's it's basically that inconsistency. It's you've trained and trained and trained, maybe you got to the race, maybe you got injured and didn't get to the race. Um, I'm using trail running right now, for an example, or whatever that happens to be, and life got in the way, and then you stopped. Like you stopped being consistent. So you were running five days a week, all of a sudden it's three, and then all of a sudden it's two, and then it's one, and then it's kind of like super, super sporadic, right? Like that's what I mean. Why whenever and when you start up again, it does feel like starting over. You still have some muscle memory, you still have some things going on, your cells have done stuff in your body physically, and just so you know, but that said, it still feels like you're starting over every time, and that does make that confidence dip. So the whole goal of having that earned confidence, not the whole goal, I guess we should say part of that goal, is so you can keep moving as you want to. So you can keep doing the things you want. Um, so you're not too scared to do those things, right? I was talking to um an athlete today about like uh they they were they were saying another friend was asking them to do a Spartan race. Uh, I was Catherine again. Man, I talk to my people a lot, man. That's how I get that's how I keep my life going, if y'all are wondering. And she's like, I just don't think I want to do it, right? Like, I just don't, and there's nothing wrong with that. And that's all I said. I said, my only thing is like if somebody doesn't want to do something out of fear, I like to talk about it. Like, okay, you know, what what's scaring you? Is this something you really want, but there's something, fear, some kind of discomfort holding you back. And sometimes you're just not interested. Sometimes you just don't want it. And that's fine. Like, there's nothing wrong with just being like, you know what, I don't want to do that. Um, but that comes with like when I talk about like if somebody asks you to do something and you constantly are saying no out of fear, that's where you want to think about, okay, like I definitely don't have the confidence I need. Like, I know people who though who have done stuff because the friends are excited and they don't want to do it too. So that's also like using external that validation, that borrowed confidence too much because it's something you haven't set a boundary on, you don't want to do, but you do it anyway. So, again, I feel like I'm kind of repeated here, but that's why that earn confidence is so so valuable. Like it can get you doing the things you want to do, it can keep you doing the things you're already doing that you love, and it can also stop you from doing things you don't want to do, it can stop you from wasting time on bullshit things, and maybe it's bullshit things you nut to other people, but it keeps you on your path that you want to be on. So, if you don't feel confident right now, don't feel like you're behind. I mean, I still have days where my confidence kind of wanes. Um, it depends on what's going on, right? And that's okay. But what happened what what does help? Reps. I mean, that may sound silly. I'm gonna use my podcast as an episode. Um, I tell people I feel like I found my voice around episode seven. I feel like my first three episodes were so clunky, I had typed them out word for word. It took me forever. I mean like I want to say like three hours to write my first just like my first episode. So like three episodes probably for my first three or four episodes. So that's like nine to twelve hours. And then I had to record it and then I had to edit it. And now what I do is I think of a topic, I brained up things I'm thinking about, things that I want to say exactly. Like I call them my Britneyisms, just so you know that I want to say exactly. The rest of my podcast isn't bullet points. That's it. But what got me to be more confident, because even the first couple times I used bullet points, I felt like, ugh, what the hell am I doing? This ain't gonna work. I gotta find something else to like a different way to do this to get the words out. But I kept doing it and doing it. And the confidence in this podcast grew, right? So like I'm still doing episode 27 all over six months. How about that? Um, but it was the reps. The reps were where we're building confidence, right? And I do love hearing from people. Like people reach out, like that really helped me. Like my hill running clinic. I was nervous. I told them when I was talking, I was like, guys, I'm nervous right now. Like, ah, like I don't want to miss anything. It's hard to talk in front of people. And they did give me some confidence, right? But like it, I'm still showing up to all of these things. I'm showing up to my podcast, I'm showing up when I want to help people. Like, that comes from reps, though. That doesn't just come from doing it once or twice. That comes from continuous thing. Same thing with trail running. I don't know how many of you guys transitioned from the road to the trail or when you started running, it was all trail, but it's kind of awkward. Um, it's different for road running. A lot of people, once they have their path, they kind of take the same one a lot of the time. It's very comfortable. When you get on trails, at least for me, I wanted to see it all. Holy cow, once I knew what trail running was, but at the same time, then the trails are nerve. There's like, what if I make a wrong turn? What trailhead do I go to? Are there bathrooms at the trailhead? How much water do I need? Is there water along the way? Is there a bathroom along the way? I think about bathrooms a lot, apparently. Um, but all of those things, but as I started trail running more and more, and I know other people like this too, I started exploring more. First, I was with people, um, and then after a while, like I started doing more and more solo runs. Um, and I enjoy both. I enjoy running with people, I enjoy my solo time. Like, it gets me out of my head and and like I don't have to talk to anybody, but I can just think about things. So, like, but all of that was reps. It's like starting a new job. Yes, I'm giving you an example because I want you to see where you've already built confidence. You've taken on a new job, and all of a sudden, three months later, you're feeling a lot more confident, and then six months, and then nine months, and a year. I don't know how long people work at jobs anymore, but like it does grow because you start doing reps, and then what you do is you build on that foundation and you get better and better at things. You learn more and more, um, and then you get promoted, or you take on a totally different job because that skill set that you had starting that other job and grew can transit for it for to another job, right? So we have all done things that are brand new to us. Um, and sometimes you do them over and over and over again, right? And we love it and we get it and we get more confident. Sometimes we try someone we don't really like it that much. And so, like, we have done it a few times. Um, I can think of an example of swimming. I don't hate swimming, by the way, but like it's not one of my most favorite things. Like, I am just, you know, I'd rather just get in the water, swim a few laps, and hang out. Like, that's my thing. But I have tried it several times, and like it's not like a lack of confidence, and it's not why that's not why I don't do it. Obviously, I have other things going on, but like it's just something I found out I didn't like to do, and that's okay too. The whole point of confidence is to be able to try the things you want to do and try them a few times to see if you actually like them or not. And then also, like, knowing as you're doing these things, you actually really don't like it. And that's okay too. So dropping what you don't like, right? So we got two sides to that confidence part of it. So, but remember too, you don't have to feel confident to start or keep going, right? You just do it, you try it, and maybe you're trying it with friends first, maybe you're doing it by yourself, um, whatever it is, but you can try something if you want to, and you can keep going, right? You don't have to have confidence right away. You just gotta keep showing up. Again, if you decide that you like it. So keep showing up for it. And then confidence is gonna catch up later. I mean, we've all been a new person somewhere and felt awkward, or at least I always assume other people feel awkward at new places like I do. Um, I get really sweaty if you're wondering. Um, but like you keep showing up. Maybe you meet some new friends. It is weird making friends as an adult, let me tell you. But maybe you join a softball team like I did when I first moved here. Um, I remember my first time on a pickleball court last uh May. And like even those friends I knew, I was so nervous just to even go there. And it wasn't because of the actual pickleball playing, it was because, oh my god, there's gonna be people here, what do I do? Ah. And like now I show up and it's fun. Like, there's not any thought outside of like, you know what, this is a fun time, right? So you've gotta have you've gotta show up first and you've got to put some reps in, probably before you build that confidence, right? So, and that's okay. That's human. So here's what I want to take. Here's what I want you to take with you, though. What I want you to take with you. Yeah, that's right. Uh huh. Confidence isn't loud and it's not hype. It's not posting the run, it's not needing proof every single time. Real confidence is quiet. It's built when you show up on the hard days, when you adjust instead of quit, when you fuel your body, when you trust yourself to figure it out as you go. And it's also when you give up on something that you realize isn't serving you. That is also confidence. So don't forget that part. When you give up on something that isn't serving you, that is helping, that is confidence right there. So remember that one. If you don't feel confident yet, that doesn't mean you're doing it wrong. It probably means you're doing the work that actually builds it, and that's okay. Uh so keep going or stop whatever the heck is taken away from your life. Um, you're earning something even when it doesn't feel all bright and shiny all the time. So if this episode hit home, share with a friend. Give me a follow, give me a rating, give me a review, whatever it is. Text to the person who uh you're texting right now. Uh so uh it does help this podcast find more everyday athletes and everyday people just like you. Now, go move your body, drink some water, stretch your calves, and if you're listening while running, loosen your shoulders. You're welcome. Good effort? Positive attitude.