ESSENTIAL READING
The gap in the title is between where you are and where you would be if you felt confident enough to act.
Most approaches to confidence try to close it by raising the feeling: think better of yourself, dispute the negative thoughts, build yourself up until you are ready. Harris argues the whole model is backwards, and that the gap closes from the other side.
THE BOOK
The Confidence Gap was published in 2011 and is Harris's application of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to one specific problem.
It is a companion to The Happiness Trap, and if you have read that one, the machinery here will be familiar. Defusion from unhelpful thoughts. Acceptance of uncomfortable feelings. Clarity about values. Committed action regardless of emotional state.
What is different is the focus. This book is about performance and about the specific paralysis of not feeling capable enough to begin.
THE AUTHOR
Russ Harris is an Australian physician who moved into therapy and became one of the most widely read trainers in ACT. He writes plainly and with a low tolerance for mystique, which suits the subject.
THE CENTRAL IDEA
The central claim is a reversal of sequence: the actions of confidence come first, and the feelings of confidence come later.
Harris is precise about what confidence actually is. The word is used for two different things that get confused. One is a feeling of certainty. The other is an act of trusting, going ahead without certainty. Almost all advice about confidence targets the feeling. Almost all of the value is in the act.
Once separated, the problem changes shape. You do not need to feel a certain way in order to act. You need to be willing to act while feeling as you feel. That is not a motivational trick. It is a description of what competent people are actually doing, which is rarely what it looks like from outside.
The second idea is his treatment of negative self-talk. Standard cognitive therapy would test the thought and look for a more accurate replacement. Harris does not bother, because arguing with a thought grants it standing. His approach is to loosen its authority instead, and then proceed with it still present. You can carry a thought that says you will embarrass yourself and give the presentation anyway.
The third is fear as fuel. Harris rejects the idea that the physical sensations should be eliminated before performing, pointing out that the physiological state of fear and the physiological state of readiness are largely the same. What differs is the interpretation and what you do next.
WHAT IT IS USEFUL FOR
It is the more rigorous version of Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, for readers who want a psychological model rather than encouragement.
It is particularly good for people who are already competent and do not feel it. The book separates the demonstrable skill from the feeling that is supposed to accompany it, and points out that the feeling is not required for the skill to operate.
It is also good for performance situations specifically, since it deals directly with the state that arrives before an important thing rather than with confidence as a general trait.
READ IT WITH THIS IN MIND
There is significant overlap with Harris's other work. If you have read The Happiness Trap, much of the first half will be repetition, and you can read this one quickly.
The evidence for ACT is reasonable and still accumulating, and it tends to perform comparably with other cognitive behavioral approaches rather than better. It is one credible approach, not the answer.
And the same caution applies as to any self-help book about a therapy. For a genuine anxiety disorder this is a useful supplement to care and not a replacement for it.
IF YOU TAKE ONE THING
Confidence is not a permission slip you receive before acting.
It is the residue of having acted.