What it Means to be Confident

Being confident can mean different things for people.  So you might consider what I write about, and how I implicitly define it, but I encourage you to reflect on confidence and arrive at your own meaning.

Yours truly

My main sport is road cycling.  I love the rush of the wind against my face, and I love the camaraderie and competitiveness of riding with friends.  When I lived in Dubai, it was a great community that rode early Friday mornings, for 80 - 120 kilometers, and returned for breakfast together.  

For a long while, I'd  have terrific training sessions during the week, but inevitably hit the wall during those Friday morning rides.  I'd straggle back with a couple of other riders who were dropped, too.  I studied my body, and altered several things in my training and preparations. 

To make a long story short, I was now consistently riding with the lead group and occasionally mixing it up with the guys on sprints.   

I also made mental adjustments, one of which was this:  I imagined that I was the best rider in the lot and believed that I could smoke anyone of the others with my cycling strength and speed.  In reality, of course, I was not the best, because there were very fast riders among us.  

But what I imagined and believed were hallmarks of the confidence I built.  For a long time, I was very frustrated with hitting the wall and getting dropped, but I proved that I could figure things out and make effective changes.  I was already pretty strong and fast, but my improved performance was proof positive that I could be stronger and faster.

This confidence was a positive vicious cycle, as it actually helped me to ride even better.  The better I rode, the more confident I became.  

I knew I could do better, and I did.  Confidence was in my mind (belief), my spirit (purpose), and my body (muscles).          

Where does T'ai Chi come into the picture?  

I have been studying and practicing it since 1978.  I am energetic by nature and therefore engage in many activities, and T'ai Chi is the underpinning to everything I do.  For example, it teaches me how to be aware of what is going on outside of me and inside of me.

It encourages me to follow the Tao, the way of nature. In this regard, I realized I was pushing my training way too much. T'ai Chi helped me to ease up, reflect more, and make adjustments.  Practically speaking, the way of nature meant I had a strong body that also had limits. T'ai Chi prompted me to train, prepare and ride within that strength and those limits, and I realized there was quite a reservoir inside me.

Finally, sitting in meditation alone wasn't going to keep me fit.  T'ai Chi was a perfect activity for me as it kept me calm and rooted, while building up my body, too.  Over time I could do more things physically, and the more I could do, the more confident I became that I could keep doing those things.  And more.