Are confident people just born that way? This week I explore the origin stories of both self-assurance and self-doubt. I explain how as children, we allocate “confidence points” towards beliefs that often become self-fulfilling prophecies over time. Many devote high confidence to anxiety or insecurity, cementing them as identity traits reinforced by others’ reactions. The good news is confidence can be re-allocated through realizing the power of subconscious beliefs, breaking cycles through changed actions, and leveraging the heightened suggestibility of the childhood brain.