Paddy Upton
I often hear coaches and leaders say, “Believe in yourself.”
It sounds supportive. It sounds encouraging. But I’m cautious of the word belief.
Belief, by definition, is an idea that lacks factual evidence. It’s something we hold onto. And when new evidence arrives — a poor performance, a mistake, negative feedback — that belief quickly fades.
I’ve seen teams speak confidently about believing in themselves, only for that belief to wobble the moment momentum shifts.
Knowing is different.
When someone knows they’re good enough, it isn’t something they’re trying to convince themselves of. Knowing is rooted in preparation. It deepens when you know you’ve done the work. It comes from understanding your strengths, from trusting your plans and yourself enough that confidence feels settled.
Knowing doesn’t remove nerves. It doesn’t guarantee results. But it changes the quality of what sits underneath the performance.
In high-pressure environments, the distinction becomes clear. If confidence relies on belief, it often needs protecting. It needs reminding. It needs reassurance.
When confidence is built on knowing, there is less noise internally. The focus shifts to execution. The conversation becomes simpler: I trust my preparation. I understand my game. Now I’ll apply it.
That trust isn’t loud. It doesn’t need to be.
It’s grounded.
For leaders and coaches, this has implications. Telling someone to believe in themselves can sound encouraging, but it may also reveal uncertainty. Helping someone build knowing requires more patience. It involves developing self-awareness, clarifying strengths, refining preparation, and allowing experience to build its own evidence.
Belief can fluctuate with circumstances.
Knowing tends to deepen with deliberate work.
Under pressure, we don’t rise to the level of our hopes. We tend to operate at the level of our preparation. And preparation, done properly, builds something sturdier than belief.
It builds knowing.
That knowing is not dramatic. It’s steady.
And in performance — whether in sport or business — steady usually travels further than fragile.
Paddy Upton is a renowned mental coach, leadership consultant, and former high-performance coach to elite international athletes. With a background in sport psychology and years of experience working with top cricket teams, he now helps individuals and organisations unlock their full potential through talks, workshops, and his unique A-Game methodology.
