How To Create Battle-Tested Confidence - Dr Nate Zinsser

The great accomplishments in human history were all preceded by a certain degree of delusion. Roger Bannister said that in order to run a sub-four-minute mile, you have to be humble enough to do the work, and then you have to be arrogant enough to think that you can actually do it. I think Sir Roger was dead on.

What's your job at West Point? What do you do?

I direct a program of training and instruction in the intangible mental skills that are important for human performance. The skills that allow one to be confident even though there are setbacks and difficulties in life. The attention skills that allow one to stay focused on what's important, even though there are a heck of a lot of distractions around us every day. And the skills that help us stay composed and energized despite living in a world of stress and demands. I have a staff of three trainers. I work with a lot of cadets individually, in small groups. I give talks to various athletic teams and various groups of cadets within the organizational structure of West Point. We've been doing this work here for over 30 years, and it has had expansive effects throughout the United States Army. And there are a lot of these sim- same skills being taught, um, all over the, uh, North American continent, uh, South Korea bases, German bases. Um, it's important work.

Why do Army cadets need that training?

Because they are engaged in preparation for what could be the ultimately stressful situation. Combat, where lives are at stake, where property could be destroyed, um, where casualties are possible. So as important as it is for emerging officers in the U.S. Army to be physically fit, technically very sound, tactically very sound, it's also important for them to be mentally tough. And we have paid lip service traditionally to the importance of these intangible factors, confidence, focus, composure, et- et cetera. But 30 years ago, West Point decided that this stuff is too important just to leave up to chance. Let's formalize a way of exposing our cadets to these important principles, and let's formalize a training curriculum that will really help them get good at it, rather than just leave it up to chance and hope that they get it, you know, through osmosis or something else.

How does confidence impact performance then?

Confidence, at least the way I des- define it, as a sense of certainty that allows you to be more or less natural and unconscious in your execution, doing something complicated without having to pause and think your way at each step. That certainty makes it easier for your eyes and your senses to take in all the important sensory variables and stimuli that are in a situation. It helps your automatic recall from your training and experience on what to do with those stimuli coming in. And then it helps your nervous system deliver the right instructions to your hands, to your feet, to your mouth to communicate. So it really facilitates in the, um, most accurate and quickest and most effective behavior in a stressful situation.