Confidence is a verb, part 2: Showing up as the most confident version of yourself
Last month, in Part 1, I talked about why confidence isn't a feeling we wait for, but a skill we build one ride at a time. Now let's talk about how to put that into practice.
Can You Really "Fake It Till You Make It?"
You've probably heard the phrase a hundred times. Nobody knows its exact origin, but the psychology behind it is real. Self-fulfilling prophecy is the idea that what we believe about ourselves shapes how we behave, and how we behave shapes what becomes true. From that idea evolved the concept of "act as if;" if we act as if something is already true, we begin to internalize it as a belief, and once it's a belief, it starts to influence our preparation, our decisions, and how we show up under pressure.
Think about how actors prepare for a role. They don't wait until they feel like the character before they start acting like them; they study the mannerisms and posture and embody the role, and over time it stops feeling foreign and starts feeling familiar. Cary Grant put it perfectly when he said, “I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be, and I finally became that person. Or he became me. Or we met at some point." That's not deception. That's deliberate practice applied to identity. We don't have to wait until we feel confident to start practicing what it looks and feels like to be confident.
Don't fake it ‘til you make it. Act as if until it becomes who you are.
The Power of an Alter Ego
Some athletes take "act as if" a step further and create an alter ego, a performance identity they consciously step into when it's time to compete. It's not about pretending to be someone we're not; it's about giving ourselves permission to access a part of ourselves that might not feel fully available yet: the boldest, most capable, most fearless version of us.
I worked with a marathoner coming back from a significant injury who constant companion was doubt. We explored the idea of an alter ego, and she landed on Sailor Moon, a character who embodied exactly what she needed: strength, resilience, and the courage to keep going even when everything felt impossible. From there she began to embody that strength on her road to recovery.
Your alter ego doesn't have to be an athlete, famous, or even human. It just has to connect you to the qualities you need most when doubt shows up. In that moment, what would it feel like to show up as your alter ego instead?
The objection I hear most often is this: But Carrie, I still don't believe it. Meaning: I don't feel it. And if I don't feel it, isn't acting like I do just lying to myself?
There's an important distinction here Lying is based in deception, creating a false impression about something we know to be untrue. Pretending, or acting as if, is trying something on to see how it fits, giving ourselves permission to access a quality that already exists inside us but hasn't been practiced enough to feel natural yet. Acting confident isn't lying; it's practicing.
Five Ways to Start Practicing Confidence on Your Next Ride
Watch your body language after a mistake. The real practice isn't how you carry yourself when things go well, but what you do the moment things go wrong. Head up, shoulders back, reset, move forward.
Create a confidence cue, a specific way you clip in, a phrase before a hard effort, locking in your mindset during your warmup. Repeated consistently, it becomes a shortcut that tells your nervous system: this is who I am when it counts.
Study the riders you admire. Don't just study their training and results; study how they carry themselves before a big effort and how they reset after a bad moment.
Practice confidence in low-stakes moments. Walk into your next training ride like you belong there. Recover from a hard interval with your head up. These small moments train your brain to choose the confident response automatically under pressure.
Ask the alter ego question. Before your next hard ride or race, ask, "How would the most confident version of me show up right now?" Then do that.
Confidence isn't a gift some riders are born with and others aren't. It's a skill, and like every skill, it responds to practice, how we carry ourselves after a mistake, the cues we create before a big effort, the alter ego we step into when doubt shows up.
None of this is faking it. All of this is training it. We don't have to feel confident today; we just have to be willing to act like it, and then do it again on the next ride.
What would it look like to carry yourself like the most confident version of you, starting with your very next ride?
At BaseCamp, we believe that every cyclist has the potential to achieve greatness, no matter where they start. Our mission is to create a community-driven training environment where cyclists and triathletes of all levels can train together, support each other, and grow stronger, faster, and more confident in their abilities. Our cycling training programs are expert driven and tailored to your needs. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just getting started, BaseCamp is where you belong.
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