Welcome to The Mental Arena, a newsletter where I share mental performance tools and pressure-tested insights to help you build confidence, strengthen your focus, and develop the mindset to win—in sport and life.

Forwarded this email? Sign up here.

Conscious Competence

read time 7 minutes

Spotlights slice through the darkness, intersecting walls, investigating the ceiling, inspecting the floor of the ballroom that has a beginning but no ending. I scan through the curtain and begin counting the rows. I lose track at 62 after hearing my name echo through the sound system.

The echo of the echo adds to my nervousness. And my nauseousness. Backstage, a full production crew of 20 people is scattering here, there, syncing everything from lighting cues to camera angles to scrolling teleprompters. In those moments, I realize this isn’t my sophomore science presentation. This is bigger.

Correction. This is H-U-G-E.

In minutes, I will be speaking to 3,000 student leaders at Georgia HOSA. It’s my first major keynote at this level. I’ve banked hundreds of keynotes, amassing a dedicated following and accumulating strategic connections. This. Is. Different. If I nail it, it could accelerate my career. If I bomb it, it might be the first and last shot on a stage like this.

My stomach teeter-totters. The puke doesn’t. It comes up. Twice. My heart rate spikes to 142 beats per minute as I listen to my introduction. My first step is simultaneous with the final word. The roar of applause crashes on me like a tsunami. The spotlights blind me. I walk toward the light. And into the darkness.

As I think back, those keynote’s words are elevator music. I hear them, I just don’t remember them. The only memory that is as fresh as yesterday is the feeling of walking off stage. It’s not what I felt. It’s what I didn’t feel, like a dream you can’t remember.

I hesitate to open the email. It’s been a few weeks since I returned from Georgia. I didn’t need the subject line to know the substance. Feedback.

“Less lecture. More entertainment.”

I stop. Re-read. The last line stings. Not like a wasp. Like a needle. It doesn’t just stab my skin. It inserts something inside me, a shift I didn’t know I needed. What enters is conscious competence.

Up to that point, I had relied on preparation and passion, hoping both would carry me through. But now I start bringing understanding to my craft and asking myself better questions:

• What held attention?
• Where did I lose the room?
• Could I tell another story there?
• How could I bring more interaction?

That’s when things started to transform.

As an athlete, improvement had always been measurable. Stats gave you feedback. Film showed you what to tweak. Why wouldn’t it be the same here?

Confidence comes from clarity.
Not just knowing you’re good — but knowing why.

And that’s the piece most people skip.

The hard truth about lasting confidence is that it doesn’t come from one source. While preparation is critical, it’s not the whole picture. True confidence comes from insight. From understanding your process, your strengths, and your progress. Belief matters. Preparation builds the foundation. But insight is what helps you sustain and improve your performance.

Arena Entry: Built, Not Born

If you’ve ever looked at someone and thought, “They were just born confident,” you’re not alone.
But here’s the real question: What happens when talent meets turbulence?

Because what looks like unshakable self-belief is often something else entirely; it’s talent that hasn’t been under pressure yet. That kind of confidence feels strong… until it’s not.

Then there’s the other kind. The quiet kind. The kind that’s earned, not assumed.

It’s not flashy, but it holds up in challenging moments. Why? Because it’s built on understanding.

I first heard the term conscious confidence from Tom Brady. In his words:

That level of awareness makes your confidence durable. It can hold up under pressure, not just when conditions are ideal. It’s the opposite of blind belief. It’s a belief backed by reps, feedback, and pattern recognition. It’s confidence with roots.

Arena Skill: Conscious Competence

Unconscious competence—being good without knowing why—is common among naturally talented athletes. It feels strong until something goes wrong. Then it collapses.

They don’t know how to adjust because they’ve never needed to. Without awareness, their belief becomes brittle
But conscious competence? That’s resilience in motion.

Athletes who build this kind of confidence:

• Know what drives their performance.
• Understand their strengths and how they apply them.
• Acknowledge their gaps and do the work to improve.
• Stay composed under adversity because they know what to expect from their own response.

This is why some athletes fade after a stumble, while others get stronger. The difference isn’t talent. It’s often awareness.

Three Paths to Durable Confidence

Tom Brady: The Underdog Blueprint Tom Brady’s confidence wasn’t handed to him. It was built in the shadows. Drafted 199th overall, he didn’t have the luxury of raw talent carrying him. So he studied. Every film session became a masterclass in defensive recognition. He dissected coverage schemes, mapped blitz packages, and trained his internal clock to operate with surgical efficiency. He worked with receivers on timing routes until they became muscle memory. He refined his footwork to sync with play design. Brady kept binders of notes—tracking formations, opponent tendencies, and situational strategies. This was preparation with purpose. So when pressure mounted, he didn’t panic; he processed. Brady’s greatness didn’t come from swagger in the early days. It came from studying the little things until he inherently understood what set him apart. From knowing his craft at a level few ever reach. That’s how he knew he was ready, and more importantly, why he believed it when the game was on the line.

Nicola Olyslagers: The Journal as a Performance Mirror One of the world’s top high jumpers, Nicola Olyslagers doesn’t leave her confidence to chance. Between each jump, she heads back to her journal—what she calls her “little book of gold”—and scores herself on the technical details of her performance: her run-up, her take-off, her timing in the air. She rates each element numerically, jotting reflections, next-step intentions, and personal cues to refine her focus. Her journal has the precision and attention to detail of a brain surgeon. A processing tool that helps her detach from emotion, extract data, and reset her mental frame. Even after clearing 2.00m in the Tokyo Olympic final, Olyslagers resisted the urge to relax. Instead, she evaluated, adjusted, and wrote it on her T-shirt. Literally. Her scoring became part of her uniform—a public declaration of private clarity. She doesn’t watch competitors. She doesn’t get caught in the noise. Her focus stays internal, guided by precision and personal feedback. That’s conscious competence in action. She’s not just performing. She’s studying herself in real time, building belief through awareness, not outcome.

Katie Ledecky: Precision in Preparation Katie Ledecky is a masterclass in preparation. Behind every world-class swim is a system of data, detail, and discipline. She tracks every workout in a training journal, logging interval splits, stroke counts, sleep quality, and recovery metrics. After each session, she reflects with her coach to spot trends, assess fatigue, and make surgical adjustments to her training blocks. Her process is grounded in metrics, not mood. In patterns, not pressure. When she steps onto the block, she’s not doubting. She knows what her body can handle, because she’s seen the patterns in practice. That kind of clarity transforms pressure from a threat into a trigger for performance, a challenge. Her belief isn’t based on past wins; it’s reinforced by daily proof.

Brady, Olyslagers, and Ledecky earned their confidence by studying themselves. They built confidence by understanding, refining, and owning what made them great. Not every high performer will obsess like Brady or dissect the details like Olyslagers and Ledecky. And that’s okay. The goal isn’t to copy their methods—it’s to uncover your own. The real edge comes from knowing what drives your excellence, and having the courage to keep sharpening it.

Next Rep: Confidence Clarity Map

If you want stable confidence, identify what’s fueling it.
​

Use this map weekly:

• What am I consistently doing well?
• What patterns lead to my best performances?
• Where do I need to improve—and how am I addressing it?

Confidence is rooted in competence, reinforced by clarity, and sustained through the courage to keep showing up.

Final Buzzer

Confidence doesn’t just grow in the dark while you prepare.
It also grows in the light—when you shine awareness on what’s working, what’s not, and why.

That clarity is the foundation of conscious competence: knowing what drives your performance, what holds you back, and how to grow from both.

This applies to individuals and teams:

• Great teams know what makes them effective—and why it matters.
• They confront weaknesses with honesty, not avoidance.
• They raise standards and hold each other accountable.

If your confidence feels shaky, this is your reset moment.
Open your journal. Your Notes app. A whiteboard.
Use the Confidence Clarity Map™ to reflect in real time:

• What am I consistently doing well?
• What patterns lead to my best performances?
• Where do I need to improve—and how am I addressing it?

Confidence isn’t something you wait for.
It’s something you build—through repetition, reflection, and self-awareness.
When you know your strengths, improve your weak spots, refine your process, and own your growth, you stop hoping you're ready. You know you are.

Competence builds it.
Clarity sharpens it.
Courage sustains it.

Confidence grows when you know your craft, understand your edge, and keep showing up to sharpen both.

Challenging you head-on and always in your corner,
​— Coach VJ

Thanks for reading. Your next issue of The Mental Arena drops August 19th.

Upcoming Speaking Events:

Am I coming to a city near you? Let me know!
​
August 7 - Phoenix, Arizona
August 29 - Thousand Oaks, California
September 3-4 - Orlando, Florida
September 25 - Las Vegas, New Mexico
October 15 - Pottsville, Pennsylvania
October 17 - Santa Fe, New Mexico
November 1 - Featherville, Idaho
November 26 - Rio Rancho, New Mexico
March 20-21 - Arlington, Virgina (2026)

Interested in bringing me in to speak to your team or organization?
​Request an event or shoot an email to support@mentalitysolutions.com to get on the schedule.

Resources:

The Confidence Blueprint Online Course