You get your confidence and intuition back by trusting yourself, by being militantly on your own side. You need to trust yourself, especially on a first draft, where amid the anxiety and self-doubt, there should be a real sense of your imagination and your memories walking and wool-gathering, tramping the hills, romping all over the place. Trust them. Don’t look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just dance.

Competence is how good you are at something. Confidence is how good you think you are at something. Competence is an ability; confidence is the belief in that ability.

1.3. The Ego Default

Our ego tempts us into thinking we’re more than we are. Left unchecked, it can turn confidence into overconfidence or even arrogance. We get a bit of knowledge on the internet and suddenly we are full of hubris. Everything seems easy. As a result, we take risks that we may not understand we’re taking. We must resist this kind of unearned confidence, though, if we are to get the results we desire.

2.4. Self-Confidence

It’s only human to have doubts about whether you are up to a given task. Even the most capable people have doubts about this from time to time. But those who have self-confidence never give in to feelings of despair or worthlessness. That’s just another ego trap. Instead, confident people stay focused on completing the task at hand, even if it involves relying on the help of others to do so. Every successful task only further serves to deepen your trust in yourself, and that’s how confidence is earned.

Confidence also Comes from How You Talk to Yourself