Pat Powers
Believe in yourself. Then prepare like you don't.
Confidence is not something you wait to feel. It is something you practise, and Pat Powers coaches the practice.
Take the shot.
Then go again.
Pat works with people who know what they want and keep stalling at the edge of it. The pitch they have not sent. The conversation they keep rehearsing. The thing they would start if they felt ready. His view is that ready is not a feeling you wait for; it is the product of preparation, reps and a decision.
He came up through competitive sport—men's soccer at California State University–Sacramento—and he coaches the way he played: you do not compete because you know you will win. You compete because you are excited for the chance, you have put in the work, and you want to take the shot. Win, and you celebrate. Miss, and you go back to the drawing board stronger. His background in Communications and Interpersonal Relationships, combined with his role as a coach at Folsom Lake College, shapes how he works with people.
That is the whole method. Believe in yourself, prepare like you do not, and treat every outcome as information. Pat Powers has lost the same game a week after winning it and come away from both with the same faith in himself. That steadiness is what he helps people build.
Believe. Prepare.
Take the shot.
Decide you can
Self-belief starts as a choice, before there is any evidence. Most people have it at birth and talk themselves out of it.
Earn the confidence
Reps, visualisation, saying it out loud to the mirror. Preparation is what turns a decision into something you can lean on under pressure.
Go, and learn either way
Take the shot. If it lands, celebrate. If it misses, you are stronger for it and you go again.
What Pat can help you with
Confidence
Find the belief you already have and stop talking yourself out of it.
Self-Belief
Build the steadiness to back yourself before the evidence arrives.
Preparation
Turn nerves into reps: visualisation, rehearsal and the habits that make you ready.
Resilience
Treat the miss as a rep. Go back to the drawing board without going back on yourself.
Discipline
Chip away, consistently, at the thing that looks out of reach.
Getting Unstuck
Name the shot you have been avoiding and make it small enough to take this week.
Believe in yourself. Then prepare like you don’t.
Pat Powers was once down 19 to 2 in a throwaway game of ping pong and decided, for no good reason, that he could win it. He chipped away and did. A week later, same situation, same belief, and he lost. He laughed. It did not cost him any faith in himself, because the point was never the result. The point was that he showed up believing he could.
That is the attitude he coaches. You will not win every time. You will be nervous. You can be anxious and still believe in yourself. Belief is what gets you to the door; preparation is what you bring through it.
What is the shot you keep not taking?
A session
with Pat
No hype. No pretending confidence is a switch.
Bring the thing you have been circling: the pitch, the ask, the change you keep postponing. You leave with a clear read on what is actually in the way and one concrete move to make before the next session.
Best fit
Pat may be the right coach if you’re thinking:
- “I know what I want. I keep not doing it.”
- “I can prepare forever and still not feel ready.”
- “One setback and I am back to square one.”
- “I used to believe in myself. Somewhere along the way I stopped.”
- “I do not need a pep talk. I need someone to hold me to it.”
- “I am good at helping everyone else believe in themselves.”
You can be nervous
and still believe in yourself.
Believe. Prepare. Take the shot.
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