Building Confidence
Is building trust with yourself
We hosted a retreat. I could talk many hours on the importance of building spaces and times for rest in our lives, especially in light of our 24/7 culture. but I want to share one outcome of this retreat - building confidence in life through playing games. How? Through the transfer of success in game to life itself.
Confidence
I spent some time talking with my friend Natalie. She works at a summer camp and specifically performs the hundreds of interview to hiring summer staff. She speaks to how little confidence the 18-25 year old’s possess, almost to the point of indifference to an outcome. They don’t care and not in a cool grunge kind of way, but rather looking on with that 1,000 yard stare and saying, “I don’t know” a lot. She claims the seemingly lack of interest is simply rooted in massive shortage of confidence.
But then, one of my game master students jumped into an interview with her to work as a summer counselor. She marveled at his articulation, engagement and confidence. His mom later shared that he said this to her
At first I was nervous to work my first job. But then I realized I ran a table as a gamemaster for Sojourners Awake. If I can lead that way, I know I can also lead a cabin for a summer.
Jackson, 18
Confidence is transferable
Did you hear that? He learned confidence by rolling dice, playing a game and entertaining his friends??? Of course, I provided guidance and shepherding along the way. But this proves my point - our brains do not differentiate between winning in a tabletop role playing game and winning in life.
Learn like a Child
“To enter the kingdom of heaven, you must become like a little child.”
As it turns out, he was not the only one to boost his confidence. Another student wrote me a letter. I love how she recognized her own development in confidence. Like Jackson, she begins the journey of trusting herself to win at life. I see more accomplishments on the horizon for both of them.
May your story continue!
