Belief is the knowledge that we can do something. It’s the inner feeling that what we undertake, we can accomplish. In belief there is power: our eyes are opened; our opportunities become plain; our visions become realities.

Confidence is belief in yourself to do what has to be done. To do what needs to be done, with faith in your ability to achieve it. To meet new challenges with an expectation that anything is possible. To accept failure as an opportunity to learn from the experience and try again. And try again. And try again if necessary .

Confidence is trying to achieve, and if you fail, knowing that it was the nature of the task or the circumstances or just plain bad luck, not your lack of character. Confidence is learning from that failure and trying again with more energy, more commitment and greater determination.

Confidence it seems, is a skill -- a skill that can be learned. You learned to swim. You learned to dive. You learned butterfly. You can learn to be confident.

Melbourne-based Sports Psychologist Dr Mark Andersen agrees: "Many people believe that confidence is something that comes from the inside, but we probably develop confidence from the models we have around us, that confidence really comes from the outside. If we have coaches, parents, and teachers that model confidence in our abilities and let us know that they think we can do good things, slowly their confidence in us becomes internalized".