Cultivating Confidence

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The Milwaukee Brewers just swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series, and Jake Bauers was named MVP. After Game 4, he said, “I chose to be confident. I chose to believe in myself.” A game earlier, he had reflected, “I stopped caring about results. I started caring about competing.”

When Bauers joined FOX’s postgame panel—Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz, Derek Jeter, and host Kevin Burkhardt—they discussed his, and the Brewers’, confidence and belief. They described that confidence as something you could feel in the clubhouse or see in the dugout. Despite being swept by the Dodgers the year before, the Brewers gave the impression that they expected to win this series all along.

And then the commentators went searching for explanations.

We often describe confidence intuitively as a feeling, as a presence we recognize in ourselves and others. Yet we somehow forget this when we describe how we find it or come to feel it. We put so much emphasis on mindset. On intention. On making a choice or decision. On remembering who we are and what we’ve done before. Bauers’ own words echo that emphasis. And to be fair, these approaches can all be helpful. As can accepting that we will sometimes strike out, staying with the process, and letting go of the outcome. But if deciding to remain in the moment and be confident were all it took, wouldn’t we all do it?

Haven’t we all been told at some point, “Just relax. Let it come to you. Trust yourself. Remember what you’re capable of. Go out there and have fun”?

I imagine Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers’ best player and arguably the greatest player in baseball, told himself, and heard from his coaching staff, much the same. Yet, while dealing with knee and biceps injuries, he hit only .192 in the postseason, going 5-for-26 with 10 strikeouts. Knowing what he is........

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