Let's talk about the action of confidence vs the feeling of confidence + my favorite book on confidence in general. 

I love The Confidence Gap by Russ Harris because this book finally spoke of what it's really like to build confidence in any skill...often, you take the actions of confidence and then feelings often, but not always, follow. 

I have run into this reality in my life, again, and again, and again. I'm so grateful to have had singing as a part of my life, because it gave me this really concrete way to take the actions of confidence: there are few things that require the emotional vulnerability and nerve that singing (especially in front of others) requires. It is training ground on being yourself, owning your mistakes, and still singing your song anyway. 

One of the things that might surprise you about confidence is: the less confident you feel, the more likely you are doing something that will build your confidence (within limits/context of course).  When I first started making YouTube videos, I felt incredibly NOT confident. I would have all kinds of thoughts going through my head saying "omg what are all those weird ticks?!" "Why am I saying that?!" etc.  Because I've taken the actions of confidence over time, I now know when those thoughts come up, it often just means I'm stepping out of my psychological comfort zone. 

I then remind myself that I don't have to FEEL confident first, to act anyway, so I keep on going. Many times, the confidence comes, with practice, feedback, pacing and learning. 

Oh! and I'm not perfect at this, I still have moments where I absolutely do get caught up in the smog of fear and doubt,  but I've gotten better over time.  My world now doesn't feel so small, tightly controlled by everything I was afraid of. Instead I have felt more alive, open to becoming the "change I wish to see in the world". 

This has had quite the ripple effect across my life...I taken leaps of faith that have absolutely terrified me... literally feeling my body shaking from fear on the verge of making a risky but right decision,  knowing in my heart, in my gut, that it was the next step forward in my life, knowing I will have to face my fears to feel the freedom that that new leap of faith can bring. 

That's part of why I made the Singing Confidence Class, to have a concrete way to apply the skills of building confidence...through the skills of singing and have some (scary-but-life-affirming) fun!

So the realistic way that singers build confidence in their singing, is by singing precisely when they don't feel confident. Now when you can do that, with someone who has been there before many, many, many times over, you can begin to nurture the feelings of confidence within yourself, even if you have an inner critic cringing at a missed note. 

Now of course, does that mean I want you to, with no experience or training in singing, start singing everywhere all at once? Well no, because that's not the only ingredient in building your singing confidence! In the Singing Confidence Class, we'll cover the keys to building confidence, but most importantly, you'll get a chance to actually participate so you walk out of the class knowing you took a first step to nurturing the feeling of confidence in yourself.