Host: Christopher L. Camp, M.D., Creator & Guide | Mayo Clinic Human Optimization Project

Guest: Cathy Winter, President | Executive Leadership Advisor - Premier Performance Advising | Premier Sport Psychology

Confidence is something that lives on a spectrum, and we can all find ourselves at different points on that spectrum on any given day. Sometimes we can be overconfident, and at other times we can be woefully underconfident. So, how do we get this right? How to we learn to become “appropriately confident”, and how would that impact our lives.

To help us answer those questions, our expert guest today is Cathy Winter and the three big questions we are going to answer for you are:

1. What is confidence and why is it so important?


2. Why do we struggle to be confident?


3. What practical steps can we take to be more confident in our everyday lives?

How to start a Mayo Clinic Human Optimization Project “Pod-Club”:

Step 1: Find 2-30 friends who want to get better

Step 2: Choose your episodes (can be focused on specific themes or random)

Step 3: Listen to/watch the episodes

Step 4: Meet with your group to work through the provided discussion questions for each episode, and feel free to add your own!

Step 5: Celebrate the fact that you are turning passive knowledge into action!

Discussion Questions for this Episode:

1) How do you personally define confidence? What does that look like in everyday life?  

2) On a scale of 1-10, how confident do you consider yourself? What do you think others would rate you? Why are those ratings similar or different?

3) Based on your last response, do you tend to be over- or under- confident? For most people, this varies by situation. What types of situations make you feel over-confident? What types make you feel under-confident? What types make you feel appropriately confident?  

4) What are some of the down sides of feeling under-confident? What are some of the downsides of feeling over-confident?

5) How has your confidence in big institutions (government, education system, law enforcement, insurance companies, your organization, etc.) changed over the years? How do you think that has impacted your confidence in yourself?

6) Do you feel that our society is becoming more or less sensitive in recent years? Why, and how does that impact confidence of individuals?  

7) How confident are you that you can get your confidence dialed in so that you are “appropriately confident”? If you can do it, what benefits do you think it will provide?

8) Go through the list of “internal facing” factors that we can work on to improve our confidence (discussed in section three of the session). Which of those most resonated with you as something you can easily accomplish?  

9) Tell your group at least one new thing (action step) you are going to do or behavior you are going to adopt to improve your confidence.

10) After others list the "one new thing" or "action step" they are going to do, tell them why you think they can be successful in accomplishing that thing. What positive qualities about them makes you believe that they will be successful at this?

Learn more about the Human Optimization Project at: https://ce.mayo.edu/optimize

X: @MayoHumanOpProj

Instagram: @MayoHumanOpProj

YouTube: The Human Optimization Project - YouTube

Email: optimize@mayo.edu