It's time to get at the root of what confidence really is; what causes it and how can we cultivate it.

Imagine you are a general. Standing on a small hill overlooking a field of enemy soldiers. You are to lead your men into battle. They look to you now for inspiration. You are to display unwavering confidence. Your ability to project confidence onto the men may be the single determining factor in victory or defeat.

Could confidence be the only factor?

If you were outnumbered 100 to 1 confidence would only lead you and your men to slaughter. That is unless you were confident because you had machine guns and they had spears. There are three parts to the confidence equation.

Part 1: Preparation.

Knowledge is the ultimate form of preparation. Not just any knowledge - applicable knowledge. This is a great way to evaluate the knowledge you're investing in. For example heart surgery is valuable knowledge. But unless you're preparing to be a heart surgeon it's useless knowledge for you. So ask yourself when you learn something, "What am I preparing for? How will this help me?" If you don't have a good answer then you may not have a clear vision for the future - or you may be making a poor time investment.

Part 2: Positive Expectancy

Expectancy can be based on two things...

1) The "pattern" you've observed in the past serving as your indicator for the future. Imagine if a glacier moved 3 inches a year in the last 10 years. You could reasonably predict how much it would move this year.

2) Your ability to interrupt patterns and create your own outcomes. In the past you've been able to alter outcomes. This is like having the ability to move your own glacier 3- 6 inches in the last 10 years depending on how much effort you put into it. You have a more active role in the outcome and you can make predictions, or expectancies about future results.

In the first case you haven't got much control over the outcome. You know what to expect and that's it. In the second case you've got control over the outcome. You know what to expect based on the effort you exert in controlling the outcome. For example if you moved the glacier six inches and you only gave it half your effort, you could reasonably expect to move it 12 inches if you gave it all your effort.

In the battle field scenario positive expectancy of victory could form from winning battles before. Or winning battles against this particular enemy. You know that positive expectancy alone would be foolish so you also prepare. This means you send out spies against the enemy. You train your own troops. You equip them with the best armor, and the best weaponry. Now you're prepared for what may come. And because in situations before where you've been prepared, you can expect a positive outcome.

Now there's one other obvious ingredient here -

Part 3: Outcome.

You know your outcome - victory. Without an outcome how do you know what to expect? And victory on the battle field could mean simply pushing back the enemy or driving every last one of them into dust.

When you know you're outcome, you're prepared and you expect a positive outcome; the force of your army grows exponentially. This means that even before the first sword is drawn a dominant reality in a future space of time spreads, and becomes reality.

Think about this for a moment. This is an amazing thing. The reality that dominates your mind has the greatest chance of becoming real. Why? Whether you're conscious of the reality or not - whatever you hold in your mind by accident or on purpose prepares you for something. That could mean nothing or that could mean something.

In other words if I hadn't even thought about my victory on the battlefield that day (no outcome) I wouldn't have bothered to prepare my troops. (I was unconsciously preparing for defeat). As I stand on the battlefield in that condition I could do nothing more than fake a rousing speech and hope for a better outcome than defeat. And if the opposing force was well prepared they would know the condition of my troops and their confidence would soar to even greater heights. A force even 10 to 1 could be defeated in this condition.

What can we take away from this?

True confidence begins forming when we are clear on our outcome and prepare for it. The battle is won or lost even before we step foot onto the battlefield. And when we do achieve a glorious victory against all odds, we know it wasn't luck.