How To Destroy Self Doubt Before You Perform | Amy Cuddy

0:00Amy Cuddy:With the Discover Cashback Card, it's payback time when you earn cash back on everyday purchases. Activate and earn 5 % cash back at different categories each quarter on up to$1 ,500 in purchases. That's 5 % cash back at different places each quarter, like grocery stores, on gas, and at restaurants. It pays to Discover. Terms apply. See discover.com slash 5 for details. Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:38Saying I'm great when you feel self-doubting, in a way, is the worst thing you can do. What's the best thing you can do? Well, here's one of my favorite tasks. So actual, like the theory of self-affirmation in psychology is not about saying I'm great or, you know, I'm going to win this event, whatever. I'm the best. Right. It is about affirming to yourself what your values are, who you really are, like what makes you you. So the task is so simple and there's so much research on this that doing this simple task helps people perform better in totally unrelated tasks. So the task is to first list maybe the top three things that you care most about that really, if I took them away, you would just no longer be yourself.

1:32What would those be for you? A couple of things. I have a kind of pathological optimism. I'm like, I think I am upset when somebody does something that hurts someone else in a way that some people might think is naive. But I'm glad I feel that way. Like, I am so hurt that people behave badly. Like, I'm troubled by it. And I'm glad that I'm troubled by it because I'm going to keep on trying to change that. I think it's a kind of earnestness that people find it irritating. but I'm totally okay with earnestness. And actually this is one of the things that Amy Purdy and I have in common. Yeah. Like she is like this too.

2:12You know, she's just like sad when people are mean. Yes. You know? She's got such a great heart. Totally. But she does stuff. She's not just sitting there being sad. Anyway, I would say that that is one of the things that makes me who I am. And if somebody said, you're just, you know, you're naive and you really can't move forward in life if you hold onto this belief that people can be good, I'd be like, well, then I'm no longer who I am. Right? So the task of self-affirmation is you list like three of these things and then you rank them. And you may be only ranking them based on how you feel today.

2:48But then you take the top one, you write a paragraph about why it matters to you, and then you write another paragraph about a time when you were able to express that value, that belief, and what it felt like to do that. That's it. That's self-affirmation. And so, you know, some people might say, you know, being, you know, being creative, like art is important to me or, you know, helping people in my community, whatever it is. When people do that, they then are less anxious in stressful situations and they perform better. So, for example, college students who do self-affirmation at the beginning of the semester perform better on their midterm exams and have lower levels of epinephrine than students who don't do that task.

3:38So self-affirmation is basically you shoring yourself up. And what happens is that when you go in to take, say, this calculus exam, you know that no matter what happens during that exam, you will still be you when you leave. How you do in that calculus exam is not going to change who you are. Your value of who you are. Exactly. I'm still going to be this person who wants people to be nice to each other. So whether you win or get an A or get an F or you lose, either way you still have that value. Exactly. exactly you're affirming the value that you love about yourself right not related to the result exactly exactly but if you said like oh i'm i'm going to say that i love calculus and then you that would never work right right so it's about knowing who you are you're not you can't be great at everything sorry you can't be perfect at everything right um and that's okay yeah right you will still be, you are allowed to be you.

4:38Absolutely.

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5:29Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Motivation, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description. That will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on The School of Greatness. And if you are loving The Daily Motivation, please follow us over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want more exclusive content and ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcast right now. And if you want to get even more inspiration from our world-class guests and learn how to improve your life and take it to the next level, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.

6:20Again, have an amazing day and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.

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