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This was my response to some topic started somewhere on here about something or other. But I think this notion of having “confidence” needs to be dispelled. What follows could be safely described as likely having been written by a gentle, formless wind with the hint of a scent of lilacs and mountain goats. However, you’d be wrong – just me, regular Joe.
On the issue of having confidence in your ability to kick peoples’ asses:
Be right.
Don’t be concerned with being a badass or a tough guy.
Just be right.
Maintain the moral highground. You have to have a reason to fight that is greater than your own ego. Defending the weak, protecting your life, etc.
Fighting because of insults is bullshit. Not necessary…unless the insults become definite threats of imminent harm.
Right makes might. I’m a firm believer in righteous wrath.
When you’re right, then anything you do is going to be a product of honor, win or lose. No one is superman – except me – so if you could die, then you want it to be in defense of a higher ideal than your own ego.
Confidence is irrelevant. It’s about right or wrong. If I see some chick being raped, do I really need confidence? Confidence is code for ego.
If I see a person in need of help, then it is my *duty* regardless of how confident I happen to be feeling at the moment to step to that person’s aid.
I like to think in terms of duty and responsibility rather than confidence. Confidence goes up and down. It’s a damn feeling. But if you submit your very life to higher ideals, then you are compelled to defend those ideals regardless of your feelings.
Your ego is a false identity and an illusion. If you rely on it, it will take you up and then take you down. Instead, you must rely on those things which never wane, principles and higher moral ideals.
I could be Chris Reeves in a wheelchair – not a whole lot of confidence in that position – but if I see some kid being kidnapped or something then I’ll roll my damn wheelchair into that asshole. Actually, he might have been a quadrapalegic…bad example.
Don’t think in terms of confidence, think in terms of duty.
It is your duty to kick ass and defend what is right and protect the weak.
You see this illusion of confidence in sports. Guys get it up for one game, and they’re down for the next. Or they go up and down through-out the game.
Why?
Because they’re relying on their egos – their confidence, or how they feel at any given time – instead of relying on a sense of personal responsibility and duty to carry out their assignment in that game.
For example, if you’re a defensive end, it’s your *duty* to stay in your lane and carry out your assignment with full intensity every play. Your confidence or lack thereof is irrelevant. It is your duty on the field.
I think that if people think in terms of duty then their own feelings become irrelevant.
Who gives a shit if you feel confident? That only matters if you’ve got a chip on your shoulder and you’re goin around lookin for fights. In this case, the guy you’re pickin on will have a duty to kick *your* ass.
Confidence comes and goes. Sometimes I feel like I’m a step behind, or tired – no one feels confident when they’re tired as hell. But duty supersedes feeling. You carry out your responsibility because it’s your duty.
Confidence is irrelevant. Confidence is a feeling. And when you are in the right, it doesn’t matter how you feel. You’re right. You are the Lord’s avenging angel, as it were. You have been deputized by simple decency to act.
I don’t look around sizing people up like, “wonder if I could kick that guy’s ass.”
I. Don’t. Care.
Cuz if that guy tries to impose himself on me or anyone else, I don’t care if he’s a damn grizzly bear, he’s goin down. It’s the only option because right does not lose.
There is a power that comes from being right and knowing it. You’ve got to know it.
Confidence is bullshit. Your life doesn’t belong to you it belongs to whoever needs it.
You have a duty to fight for what is right.
There’s the saying that the only thing needed for evil men to prevail is for good men to remain silent.
I disagree: A good man who remains silent is not a good man.
Think duty not confidence. Don’t worry about if you can kick this guy’s ass or that guy’s ass. Doesn’t matter. Just concern yourself with maintaining moral clarity and commitment to personal integrity.
When you’re wrong, admit it. If you have the strength of character to admit when you’re wrong and to apologize, then kickin ass when you’re right is more likely. Two sides of the same righteous coin.
Kill your ego. Duty, not confidence.
In other words, discipline, not confidence. Discipline is about kicking your own ass, not others’. If you can kick your own ass, you can defeat anyone.
As Eminem said on his latest release “Recovery,” in reference to having gotten over his pill habit:
[quote:vcd1spta]I feel like I’m morphin,
into something so incredible, that I’m dwarfin’
All competitors[/quote:vcd1spta]That’s what happens when you kick your own ass. To do that, you have to impose what’s right on what’s wrong with you. Being right means becoming right. It’s a discipline.
Now go kick yourself in the ass and then knee yourself in the testicles.
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How about confidence in being able to stand up for what’s right?
Confidence in the bravado sense is BULLSHIT. But having security in your ability to do the right thing, isn’t.
You could be a flaccid pasty white (or dark chocolate- no need to discriminate here) couch potato and be 100% in the right but couldn’t do the right thing when it came to physical tactics. You could try, but you probably would get your ass handed to you.
Confidence comes from knowing your ability to do the right thing if you had to. Doing the right thing gives you proper motivation and conviction.
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I’m just saying to defend what is right because it’s right. If you have no confidence, it doesn’t matter. It’s a duty.
A guy with no training, properly motivated, should not be underestimated. Even my observation of pro fighters, from boxers to MMA, has made me realize that training is ultimately all bullshit anyways. It’s like pro golfers who are paralyzed by all their training. Too much crap in their heads. Too easy to upset the delicate balance of “confidence.”
It’s 90% attitude/purpose.
I believe in training, but you have to have a firm sense of purpose and principle at work in your mind or it’s just empty practice.
The brief little training I did with you guys really highlighted this. Every time I got into “training mode” I turned into a bumbling bafoon. But when I zoomed out, and remembered what the hell I was doing it for, everything flowed together again. In “training mode” I had to have “confidence” in different techniques. Back in reality mode, though, none of that mattered, and confidence gave way to purpose.
I also realized that it’s a waste of time to practice anything you can’t relate to. I instantly recognize techniques I would actually use in real life. The drop step, for example. These things instantly resonate with me. Trying to practice stuff that I wouldn’t use messes up my focus. Faith is very important.
I think teaching this stuff is tricky, because everyone is going to embrace different techniques. I’d rather show each one and then say, “mix and match as you please.” What I prefer, another guy might not. Heh, I don’t care – whatever gets it done for you.
Training is good, but training can really mess your head up if you don’t stay focused on the ultimate objective. Which is simply to destroy your target.
All this is to say that confidence is such a fragile thing and to me it’s actually a distraction. Defend what is right. That is my purpose. That is all that matters. How is not so important.
Just more ideas, right or wrong.
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