Book of the Week – Confidence is a Choice

How should you approach confidence? We say it’s all about acting – pretend to be confident to trick yourself into believing it. Is that really the most effective strategy? Instead, try out the guide “Confidence is a Choice: Real Science. Superhero Impact.” Alyssa Dver, CEO of the American Confidence Institute, brings a five-step review on how to master your own sense of confidence.

Learn more about the book from the author below:

What is your book about?

Confidence isn’t a result – it’s a requirement. It’s what fuels achievement, leadership and well-being. But we’ve been misled, and often lied to. Confidence isn’t inherited or vicariously inspired. You don’t just get it by working hard or faking it ‘til you make it. Sadly, it takes most people over sixty years to figure it all out and reach their best and most confident. Using brain science, now anyone can hack the process to master the skill of confidence. “Confidence is a Choice” will fundamentally change the way you act, react and interact so you can consistently get and give real confidence.

Topics include:

1. CLARIFY what confidence is (and is not), how it works in our brains and how it impacts everyone’s behavior
2. CALIBRATE your confidence to understand what is helping or hurting it
3. CONTROL common villains and kryptonite that constantly steal confidence
4. COMMUNICATE confidence to have true executive presence and leadership influence
5. COACH yourself and help other people using practical techniques and tools.

Single most important takeaway

“You can choose to be confident as it is a right, a skill, a decision.”

Skip to Page – Pages 41-42: Fit Wits

Charles Darwin didn’t anticipate Facebook or global competition. He couldn’t predict that human survival of the fittest would need a lot more brains than brawn to adapt to modern-day mental stress and neuronal shortage. Our reaction to combat this is to work harder, move faster, avoid reading, multitask, Google it up, drone and drop, grab and go. We can’t survive without a cell signal. I have a feeling that Darwin would find this sociologically fascinating but equally sad.

Perhaps the seemingly new norm is all part of a grand social conspiracy to see who realizes that 24/7 distraction is a test, a phishing scheme, a way to eliminate the weak-minded: survival of the focused. It makes for a great dystopian story, except it’s in our very real lives – too much choice is cognitive kryptonite. No doubt, it’s weakening everyone’s confidence.

The One Decision We Should Make, We Don’t

This confidence crisis begs us to accelerate human evolution. To do that, we need to sustainably make the one choice that you probably didn’t know you could: confidence.  

Meet the author

Confidence crusader, neuro-nerd and success equalizer, Alyssa Dver brings brain science-based confidence as CEO of the American Confidence Institute and Chair the ERG Leadership Alliance. In 2020, Dver became a TEDx and Boston Best Speaker, as well as a 7th-time bestselling author with, “Confidence is a Choice: Real Science. Superhero Impact.” Her work has been endorsed by thought leaders at Wharton, Harvard, MIT, Yale, UC Berkeley, The US Air Force, The US Tennis Association, Panera, Staples, Spotify, Wayfair and dozens more.