Comfort, Confidence and Competence
Can I learn to be more confident?
Ever taken a confidence workshop? People often come to me asking if I can help build their confidence. Someone once old them that drama is good for confidence and so they come to our acting classes to see how it all works.
Well, the answer is Yes, but it comes with a caveat – it depends on what you need that confidence for.
Domain Specific Confidence
There is no such thing as general confidence. My self confidence in myself as a coach may be very high, my confidence in myself with mathematics is appalling low.
You see confidence comes from where you stand in terms of your comfort zone with the domain. In acting coaching and training, I am at home, I am happy discussing acting technique, advising actors on their career, discussing the benefits of various approaches. I have competence in my chosen area, I am therefore in my comfort zone and I am confident.
The Triangle of Confidence, Competence and Comfort
If you want to come to me for some public speaking training in Glasgow, I would first assess your skills in the field of speaking in public. If you are low competence, you will be out of your comfort zone, and therefore won’t have much confidence.
Confidence, competence and comfort are dependent on each other.
Confidence from Acting Classes?
Can you grow more confident from acting classes? Yes! You can grow more confident from speaking in public, memorisation, public performance, reading behaviour, script analysis, standing in front of a camera, interacting with others – but it’s domain specific – so if you’re a dentist and you hope to be more confident with your patients, we can probably help, but that’s through role play.
Role Play for Confidence
Sometimes role playing within your domain is the necessary solution and drama CAN help with that. We’ve helped lots of people by role playing the scenarios in which they need confidence and providing them with the chance to practise. This builds their competence, making them more comfortable – and developing their confidence.
Remember, confidence is domain specific and is strongly connected to competence and comfort.