High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 777: Collect the Evidence that You can Trust Yourself

Episode Date: September 17, 2026

What if confidence doesn't come before action, but because of it? In this episode, Dr. Cindra Kamphoff explains why waiting until you feel confident can keep you stuck, and how taking small actions creates the evidence your brain needs to trust yourself. Cindra shares the idea of building a Confidence Bank, where every courageous action, follow-through, recovered mistake, and small win becomes another deposit. Over time, those deposits change the way you see yourself and help you face future challenges with greater confidence. In this episode, you'll learn: Why confidence often follows action rather than comes before it How to make daily deposits into your Confidence Bank Why small wins can build stronger confidence than waiting for one big achievement How your brain tends to remember failures more easily than successes The simple "Capture Your Wins" practice for collecting evidence of your progress Three questions to ask yourself each night to strengthen self-trust Power Phrase: "I can trust myself." You don't need to feel completely confident before you move. Take the action, collect the evidence, and build your confidence one deposit at a time. To buy Cindra's new book: confidencetools.com To download our full study report, visit: confidencestudy.com To request a Free Breakthrough Call with a Mentally Strong Coach, visit: freementalbreakthroughcall.com To learn more about the Mentally Strong Institute, visit: mentallystronginstitute.com To learn about Dr. Cindra Kamphoff's speaking and coaching, visit: cindrakamphoff.com To follow Dr. Cindra on Instagram, visit: @cindrakamphoff

Hi friends. My name is Dr. Sindra Campoff, a national leader in the field of sport and performance psychology. Every week, I'm on the local radio sharing my top tips on exactly how to develop the mindset of the world's best so you can accomplish all your dreams. Get ready for a jammed, packed episode, focus on practical tips to help you get after your goals and step out of your comfort zone. Let's go. Confidence isn't built by convincing yourself you're amazing. It's built by collecting evidence that you can. can trust yourself. So what are we talking about today? Well, Seth, I think we sometimes have confidence backwards. And what I mean by that is we think that we need to feel confident before we act. You know, like once I feel confident, I'll speak up, or once I feel confident, I'll apply for that

job, or once I feel confident, I'll have that difficult conversation. But confidence often comes, like, in the opposite way, where you have to take action first and then your confidence catches up. So you're saying we shouldn't wait until we feel confident. Exactly. Because confidence is a feeling, yes, but it's also a decision, like an action and a skill and a belief. And one of the biggest mistakes is that we wait to feel confident before we take action. So instead, take action and give your brain evidence that says, okay, I can do hard things. I can handle this. I can trust myself.

And that's how confidence grows? So how exactly do we do that? Well, I think one way that you can do that is through what's called a confidence bank and a confidence account. So I call it in my new book, The Confidence Habit, I call it a Confidence Bank. So every time you do something that proves to yourself that I can trust me, you make a deposit. So let's say you speak in a meeting when you're really feeling nervous, right? That's a deposit. Or you make a mistake and instead of like beating yourself up for three days, you learn from it and you move forward.

Like that's a deposit. Or maybe you do have that difficult conversation you've been avoiding. That's a deposit. Or let's say you try something new before you completely feel ready. you exercise in the morning, right? Even when it's hard, that's a deposit. And all these deposits go into your confidence bank. But what about the big wins?

Don't those build some confidence too? Yes. I mean, these are kind of the small wins, right? But absolutely big wins do. But here's where we get ourselves into trouble. You know, we think confidence will come just from that big thing. Like, I'll get a promotion and then I'll feel confident. Or when I hit that goal that's big, you know, I'll feel confident.

Or when I get that recognition from my boss or my coach, then I'll feel, you know, I'll believe in myself and I'll feel confident. And of course, like those things, Seth, make us feel great. But if our confidence only comes from those big outcomes, which many times are things we can't control, like other people's opinions or achievements, it's going to actually be fragile. So the strongest confidence is built through evidence

that you collect every day, right? And those deposits don't have to be big. In fact, the small deposits make consistently show that you're, like, you're completing that change in the way that you see yourself. What do you mean by evidence? Okay, great question. I would say evidence is anything that reminds you that you're capable of doing what you said you're going to do.

So maybe you did something today that you didn't want to do. That's evidence. Maybe you had that difficult conversation, you know, better than you did six months ago. Or maybe you got knocked down and you got yourself back up. Or maybe you set a boundary or you asked for help. Or you were nervous and you did it anyway. So these are all wins. And one of the practices I teach within the confidence habit book is called Capture Your Wins,

because here's the problem, Seth, is that our brain is really good at looking at, you know, keeping receipts and evidence of our failures, but really terrible at keeping receipts and evidence of our successes. That's so true, though. I can remember more than a few things that were a little probably on the embarrassing side that I have done over the years. Yeah, me too. And sometimes those are the things that we, you know, we keep. bringing in our mind like the times where we stumbled over our words or the mistake we made or the opportunity that we wish we had but we missed right and so we remember that one critical moment or that one critical

comment you know sometimes 10 years later and so the thing is is that we want to just continue to move on more quickly and when we do that we're throwing evidence into this confidence bank so taking a look at at all of those things you know what are are some of the things we need to be better at noticing with what's going right? I would say not just noticing, but capturing it. And so think about this confidence bank. And what I'd like you to do is build a million dollar confidence bank. So let's imagine having a million dollars worth of evidence that says, like, I've done hard

things. I've figured things out before. I've recovered from mistakes before. I've been nervous, but I still performed. You know, I faced uncertainty before and I found my way through it. And, you know, those are all things that are saying, like, hey, I trust myself. Because here's what's happening when you're facing something difficult in the future. Instead of your brain saying, like, I don't know if I can do it, you have evidence that says, you know, I've handled hard things before and I can handle it again.

And that's confidence. So what is the challenge for everyone listening today? So here's the challenge. So tonight before you go to bed and your head, you know, hits the pillow, I want you to write three pieces of evidence that you can trust yourself. So not just like three huge accomplishments, but three pieces of evidence from your day. So ask yourself, you know, what did I do today that required courage? Or what did I follow through on? Or what did I handle well?

And, you know, don't dismiss the small stuff. You know, again, those small wins are deposits. And if you do that every day, imagine what could happen. You know, you stop waiting for confidence to magically appear because you're building it and you're building it one deposit at a time. And what is our power phrase for today, Sandra? It's simple. I can trust myself because Seth and everyone listening, remember you don't need more confidence before you take action. You need more evidence that you can trust yourself. And the best way to get that is evidence that you've already taken action.

Cindra, thank you for joining us here today once again. And if listeners want to learn more, how can they get in contact with you? You can head over to Dr. C-I-N-D-R-A.com. And I'd love to hear from you. Way to go for finishing another episode of the high performance mindset. I'm giving you a virtual fist pump. Holy cow, did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, remember to subscribe. And you can head over to Dr. Sindra for show notes and enjoy my exclusive community for high performers,

where you get access to videos about mindset each week. So again, you can add over to Dr. Sindra. That's d R-C-I-N-D-R-A.com. See you next week.