Love this one from John Maxwell: “When it comes to believing in themselves, some people are agnostic!” (Talent is Never Enough, p. 19)

How true!

In softball, there was one position I always hated: centerfield.

Let me repeat: I HATED IT!

The thought of never knowing when the batter would hit the ball my way…

…the anxiety of waiting…

…and then eventually seeing it fly high up in the sky and down toward me….

Yep. Usually filled me with terror.

.

I was either afraid of getting hit by the ball or dropping it. With all eyes on me of course.

“During crunch time, players want the ball. Others want to hide.”

(John Maxwell, Talent is Never Enough, p. 20)

I played on a softball team for two seasons. The coach made me catcher, which was usually fine until all the bases were loaded and the stakes were in my hands. That’s when I hated the position almost as much as being in the outfield.

But one day we had a game when the head coach wasn’t there. The assistant had me play short stop and I nearly had a coronary.

However, as the game got underway, something amazing happened. I became totally juiced.

There was something about being that close, with a 95% probability that the ball (fast and furious) would come my way almost every time, that got me totally jazzed.

I WANTED to catch it. And at that point, the way I played the game totally changed. It was the biggest rush.

When the head coach returned for the next game, I fully expected to be given a shot at the new position…

It was back to catcher.

I was bummed AND ticked.

During crunch time, players want the ball…

Hmmmm…something to think about…

Perhaps at this point I should say, baseball…er…softball been very, very good to me!

Confidence. There’s something about having it that makes people want to believe you, follow you, trust you. People who know who they are and where they’re headed are like magnets. They have a sense of certainty that draws others into their belief.

Have you ever walked down a grocery aisle looking for something and stopped to ask a clerk where you could find it? Now, if they said “Ummm…I think it’s in aisle 9…” how certain would you feel about walking all the way down to aisle 9 if you were in aisle 2?

Ever find yourself lost and decided to pull over at a gas station to ask for help? What if the attendant said something like,

“Well…I’m new in town, but I think if you just turn left at the corner over there, you should be heading in the right direction.”

How confident would you feel about turning left at the corner?

There are, however, people who speak with such certainty, such confidence, that I can’t help but believe they are completely knowledgeable in whatever it is they are conveying to me - whether opinions, expertise, or heck, even directions to the next town!

Now here’s the interesting thing, they could have all the confidence in the world and STILL not know what they’re talking about!!! In fact, I can think of a handful of individuals over the course of my life who have had that level of confidence…and in restrospect, they knew SQUAT.

Now here’s what I’m really trying to say…

If I am prone to question or perhaps even blow off someone who lacks confidence in something on the one hand and completely believe or trust someone who has a ton of certainty about a subject on the other hand (whether they do or don’t know what they’re talking about is irrelevant), what if…

WHAT IF…I developed confidence about something to such a degree that I believed whatever I told myself about it?

And what if that confidence was in something about myself…an ability, a quality, a character trait.

What if it was a confidence IN myself? Forget about the subject.

Hmmmmm…something to think about…