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On Why Action Creates Confidence, Not the Other Way Around

With Byron McCaughey · 17 March 2026

In this episode of In Session with Byron, psychologist Byron McCaughey unpacks a common trap he's hearing from entrepreneurs right now: waiting for the "right" internal state - low anxiety, high confidence, plenty of energy - before taking action on the things that matter. The problem? That feeling might never arrive. And in the meantime, the pitch doesn't get made, the post doesn't get written, the run doesn't happen. Learn why waiting to "feel ready" keeps you stuck, how action creates the internal experience - not the other way around - and a simple question to ask yourself the next time you're waiting for confidence to show up. Take the action anyway, then notice what it does for your anxiety, your confidence, your wellbeing. More often than not, the feeling follows the doing.

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Transcript

What I'm hearing a bit from entrepreneurs at the moment is this trap of waiting for some kind of internal experience - like low anxiety, or confidence, or lots of energy - before doing the action that's important to them. Like pitching their new idea to their co-founder, or putting a commentary piece on LinkedIn, or going for a run.

We don't want to wait for the internal experience before we do the things that are important to us, because that internal experience - of anxiety disappearing, or energy being through the roof, or confidence being sky high - might not come. And then you won't be doing the things that are important to you.

And actually, what tends to happen is the action itself ends up creating an internal experience.

So have a think: are you falling into that trap of waiting for an internal experience before you take the actions that are important to you? And if that is you, ask yourself - what happens if I do the thing anyway? And when you do it, have a think about, and be conscious of, what it did for your anxiety, or your confidence, or your wellbeing.

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