“You've got to dream a little harder
When life won't go your way
Simply dream a little harder
Trust me when I say that when you
Dream a little harder
You're sure to follow through
'Cause if you're good and you're attractive
No need to be proactive
Good things will just happen to you!”
Dream a Little Harder from Twisted the Musical
People who are good at things are confident- it does not then follow that becoming confident will make you good at things.
Method acting is also like this- great actors embody their characters, but embodying your character doesn’t necessarily make you a great actor. Heath Ledger famously remained in character as the Joker during his filming of The Dark Knight and delivered a fantastic performance, but Jared Leto also stayed in character when he played the Joker, sent his castmates condoms, and failed to produce a great performance.
The reason why beliefs like ‘you just need to be more confident’ or ‘you just need to really believe you’re the character’ are so prevalent is because they’re self-reinforcing.
If you fail- you didn’t believe hard enough or you weren’t confident enough, so you have to move your thoughts to believe harder. If you doubt that all you need to do is be confident in order to succeed then you aren’t confident so of course you’re not succeeding.
This simple belief-virus format is potent enough that it’s spawned a whole range of grifts: Manifesting, prosperity gospel, and all manner of ‘think and grow rich’ and ‘the power of positive thinking’ tripe that all work on the idea that ‘if you believe it you’ll have amazing benefits and if you doubt the benefits you will inevitably fail.’
But really you don’t need any help coming up with dreams to wile away the fruitless hours. Even without trying to manifest money or love or employment or good health, we spend a lot of time wishing someone would do something about our lives and our problems.
There is someone who can do that- and that someone is you.
You don’t need to change how you feel- you need change how you focus. If you’re failing and you don’t feel confident, pay attention to what exactly you’re doing. If you have a problem that’s nagging you, pay attention to what exactly you’re doing and change. Don’t turn your focus inward to your state of mind and try to wish your way to success- put your focus outward into the world.
“The world isn’t in your books and maps, it’s out there.”
JRR Tolkien