Confidence, Shmonfidence …

Got a great question the other night regarding confidence. How can we know if our confidence is real and not simply a false confidence?

There is plenty in the Bujinkan we can base confidence on: our teachers, our history, and our tradition, for starters. Trust is at the core of confidence. Do we trust our teachers? Our history? Our traditions? If we do, then we can transfer that confidence to ourselves and the path we’re on.

But this question spoke more to our individual understanding, our own personal ability and skill, and the confidence or false confidence that can manifest through our connection to training. In a sense asking, if we didn’t have our teachers, history, and tradition to rely on, is there a way we could know if our ability is high and take confidence in it?

My answer is, yes, I think there is - it starts with honesty. If we can be honest with ourselves and our training partners we can begin to create the kind of confidence that is not easily questioned, not by us or anyone else. But this requires a level of awareness that must be adhered to in and out of training; the same kind of self-awareness necessary to answer most of life’s little moral questions in anticipation of the big ones.

Sincere training is the best we can offer each other. Our partners have to know that we are sincerely going to strike them, throw them, move against them if they don’t counter our movement. In response to that kind of sincerity, we must always direct ourselves toward the art’s intent – to persevere – until we can feel honest Taijutsu.

Sincere attacks can only be answered with honest defenses, meaning, we must apply the kind of freedom of principle needed to survive the moment and own the next. This is movement that is not simply good, but true, and gives us the chance to realize ability we can not only take pride in, but also rely on.

Sincerity and honesty lay the groundwork for trust, not just in our partners, but in ourselves. And if we can trust in ourselves and our own understanding, confidence is not far off.