The Confidence Gap

A wonderful book.

By 

Ronald Spiers 

The confidence gap is a brilliant new book by Dr. Russ Harris that in my opinion has really hit the nail on the head with how true confidence works and can be achieved. It explains clearly how with a little hard work and perseverance we can learn to understand ourselves better and achieve things we were previously terrified of. 

 

The author uses acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to demonstrate how we do not have to be slaves to our thoughts (a nice example in the book is to try raising your arm whilst repeating to yourself "I can't lift my arm". see what happens!). The author also invites us to identify our values, the things that really matter to us, the things we want our lives to be about. He shows us that once we have a clear idea of our values we can then use these as a life compass, so that even if we are like a boat lost in fog (the comparison here being the fog of fear, doubt, sadness etc) we still know where we want to be heading.

As you work through the book you shall live life in a more and more fulfilling way, I personally have found myself going to bed satisfied with a day well lived and then springing out of bed the next morning ready for the next one! Negative emotions such as fear still occur frequently when i am pushing out of my comfort zone but instead of being dominated by them they just become friends along for the ride.

The best part of all this is that this method and ACT in general is widely backed by science. (examples and references are cited in the book)

Thank you Dr. Harris for an excellent book