Eric Chow on believing in yourself: where his own confidence comes from, why he calls self-image the first step to changing a life, and the slow, ordinary ways he keeps raising it.
Eric Chow gave a whole episode of his podcast to self-image, and the subject runs through many more: where confidence comes from, who gets to define you, and how to take a rejection. He is plain that the work does not end. This guide gathers where he explains it.
The first step to change your life is to change your self-image. You’ve got to believe that you’re worthy, you’re capable, you have something to offer the world. If you can raise your self-image, then you can, will, and are on your way to raising your life.
Later in the episode he is clear that it is no quick fix: he raised his own over several years of learning, studying, and getting around the right people. Read from this moment, Episode 52 at 14:12. The quote on its own page.
Each link opens the transcript at the moment the excerpt begins, in Eric’s words as the page shows them.
“Confidence is this faith that I have that life is going to work out, even if I can’t see how.”
“If you can raise your self-image, then you can, will, and are on your way to raising your life.”
“If you’re not believing in yourself, you’re holding yourself back from your own potential.”
Feelings that come up around confidence and self-image, as The Emotional Wiki reads them: what each one is telling you, with Eric’s words on it.
As Eric tells them on his podcast and in his essays.
A friend once asked Eric how he presents himself confidently. In episode 7 he credits his family, nearly six years of martial arts training, and praise for his schoolwork, and then the biggest reason: a faith that life is going to work out, which he walks through with an exam he has not prepared for.
Episode 7 at 4:42In episode 52, Eric describes exercising five days a week for about six weeks. His physique had not changed much, but he could say he really did it. Doing things that make you feel that way is one of his strategies for raising self-image.
Episode 52 at 25:23Speaking to high school juniors and seniors in episode 28, Eric turned to rejection. A rejection, he told them, is someone’s opinion of an application that does not fully represent them, and someone else’s opinion is never the measure of their worth.
Episode 28 at 41:55Habits, mindset, and the reading behind Chow’s Choice: one of the subjects Eric speaks on.
Personal DevelopmentLog how you feel through a day, with the feelings of The Emotional Wiki, and keep the report.
The Emotion TrackerWhat confidence is telling you, as The Emotional Wiki reads it, with Eric’s words on it.
Confidence, in the Wiki
