292. The Fine Line Between Confidence and Delusion

Are you being confident or delusional?

I ask you this question because I have actually been asked this question more than once.

Lucy, do you think you’re a little too confident in yourself?

And my answer is no.

I believe we need to be delusionally confident in order to shatter all of our negative self-talks and actually make bold moves.

For me personally, it was being delusionally confident that got me to where I am today. But today I do want to talk about something we don’t really say out loud. There is actually a difference between confidence and delusion because there is a fine line.

But at the same time, I can’t just be delusional thinking I’m better than others, or I don’t need help, or I’m always right. Happy New Year, by the way. I’m recording this as it is the new year of the fire horse, thus the red.

And if you care about growing, leading, or building something meaningful, this is important because there is a difference.

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Here’s what I see all the time. Some people have too much confidence.

They don’t listen.

They don’t ask questions.

They assume they’re right all the time, even before they start anything.

So yes, this kind of confidence can lead to bad decisions, broken relationships, and missed red flags.

But you know what?

Even more people are on the other side, the side where people are fully capable, super smart, and already are ready, but don’t trust themselves.

They wait, they overthink, and they talk themselves out of opportunities.

But most people are stuck somewhere in the middle, trying to believe in ourselves without crossing into fantasy land. So when you look at people who are actually successful long term, they’re not the loudest in the room. They are confident, but more so they are curious.

They are driven by curiosity, but they also listen. They can change their mind when something isn’t working. Now compare that to people who think confidence means never being wrong.

They ignore feedback.

They blame other people.

They confuse confidence with being unshakable.

And that’s where things start to go down south.

Real confidence isn’t about being certain all the time. It’s about being honest with yourself.

I’ve seen people with big energy and big dreams burn everything down slowly.

They believed in themselves so deeply that they stopped listening.

Warnings are brushed off.

Concerns are called negativity.

And what stood out to me was that they didn’t fail because they lacked confidence.

They failed because they refused to question it.

Here’s the difference that changed how I see this.