Hello, my friends. Welcome to another episode of the Savvy Painter podcast. I'm your host,

Anne Treeswood. And if you've been listening for a while, welcome back. And if you are new here,

I am so glad that you have found me. Savvy Painter is the podcast for artists who want practical

tips to create a meaningful art practice that is both fulfilling and supports you.

Today I want to talk about confidence and this idea that it's a personality trait, which in my

mind is false, but I know a lot of us get sucked into that idea. To me, confidence is not a personality

trait. It is a practice. And if nobody has told you this today, I want to remind you that

you are not broken when you feel insecure or when you feel uncertain about your work or you're feeling like,

what am I even doing here painting when the world has just gone mad? So I'm just here to remind

you that you're not broken. You're just practicing something that you were never taught. And if you've ever looked at another artist and thought, I wish I had their confidence, this episode is for you. Because confidence isn't something that you're born with. It's something that you build, just like a painting.

So let's kick this off. There are two kinds of confidence. One is the confidence that comes from

experience. This is the kind of confidence that says, I've done this before. I know what I'm doing. I can do this a million times and not even really think about it. For example, I can drive a stick shift. I've been doing it for over 40 years. Please don't tell my mom because she thinks she taught me when I was an appropriate age, but in reality,

my brother taught me how to drive when I was 11. So I know how to do how to drive a stick

shift. I know how to drive a stick shift that's temperamental. I know how to drive a stick shift

that has a lot of play or one that has no play. Doesn't bother me. On a hill, off a hill, totally

fine. Right? That's what confidence is. Confidence comes from having done something and have the

experience to draw from having done that thing.

The second kind of confidence is self-confidence, and self-confidence is the kind that says,

I've never done this before, but I trust myself that I can figure it out.

I trust my capacity to try, fail, do it over again, learn from that. I trust my capacity to ask questions, to find answers. So as an example, I have never, ever flown a plane before, but I do have the self-confidence that I could learn. I definitely would need a teacher. I definitely would need to

practice. And I definitely would need to take a lot of deep breaths, but I trust in my capacity to learn and grow

and that that is something that I am capable of doing under the right tutelage. Okay, so those are

...