Confidence

Although I feel a little weird using sports and martial arts analogies (haven't done either in years. Decades?  Other than friendly little volleyball games and the like) but I think the examples hold true.

In one memorable but of training, our martial arts instructor had each of us take turns standing in the center of the mat. If it was your turn, you stood in the center of the mat and waited for someone to approach you.

They came one at a time, and each had been given a different instruction. They might just wave 'hi', they might try to grab you...

The point was that you didn't know what was coming, but you had to react according to the situation.

Most of what I remember is that state of readiness. And focus. You can't assume the person coming is a threat, but you have to be ready in case they are.

And you have to pay attention to the signals they're giving. Have to try and decide when that hand coming up is a friendly wave or attack. ('decide' is a bit misleading since it's not exactly conscious. Happens too fast.)

There's something similar in volleyball. In standing loosely, on the balls of your feet, ready to move in whatever direction the volleyball comes from.

Its not about control. Or perhaps it's about control of yourself and your abilities. You don't get to dictate where the ball goes, or (in the martial arts example) what the other person is going to do.

But whatever it is, you are ready.

...

I was reminded of that because I was trying to explain something about my job. That is, I very often get given errors to fix that I know far too little about. But, Idk. I know how to look things up, have some sense of what various error messages might mean, have more experienced team members to ask (in the volleyball example, your team helps handle the balls that are too far for you to reach), know how to read through scripts (and sometimes code, depending) and puzzle out what something is trying to do...

And by and large we figure it out.

I'd like to learn more, of course. And every time we figure something out I learn a little, and it's easier to fix next time.

Anyways, I wanted to highlight that sort of ready state, and the confidence that comes from knowing you can figure out whatever.

I don't seem to see that as often...

People either don't have any confidence at all, or try to gain confidence by controlling what comes at them. What other people do, where the ball goes...

Not confidence in their capabilities and their team.