want to sound more confident?

If you ever catch me using phrases like 'I think', 'I believe', 'in my opinion', 'maybe we should try', or anything else that indicates that I lack confidence in my views, it was probably intentional.

There is a small cottage industry around the updating of linguistic tics to make people sound like the most confident person in the room. This is bad advice.

It is possible that you unconsciously repeat some terms and phrases that indicate low self-esteem. This isn't always the issue, though. A lack of self-confidence could cause you to be hyper-critical of your own words. The additional focus might be the opposite of what you need.

Another possibility is that some phrases are necessary for the situation, even if they are routinely bashed in articles on business websites.

The common understanding of confidence is that it is synonymous with composure. If you watch someone move with grace as they write a cold email, defuse a bomb, or perform any other difficult task, you can estimate their general level of confidence.

This is a judgment based on limited data.

Practice is critical in any task. If this person has defused a hundred bombs, they will appear quite skillful to anyone brave enough to watch them at work. But if they don't have practice in pouring a mixed drink, or approaching an attractive stranger, the first attempt won't look as impressive.

If you don't have the skill, it requires courage to make the first attempt.

We learn things when we are at the edge of our abilities. If we have integrity, we will be honest about what we do and don't know. This requires some humility in our language, particularly in fields with a lot of unknowns.

This is what confidence is. Not just faith in your current level of skill, but faith that you can handle whatever the world throws at you.

​Hedge with authority!