The Confidence Loop: How to Build Self-Trust Through Action

• Why high achievers get stuck mid-loop (and which stage is usually the culprit)
• How to choose your next aligned action without needing it to be perfect
• The three questions to ask yourself any time you feel stuck
• A simple daily reflection practice (the VIP framework) that builds self-trust over time
• Why celebrating tiny wins isn’t fluffy — it’s actually one of the most productive habits you can build

“Confidence isn’t built before you take the action. It’s built inside the loop of choosing, acting, reflecting, and adjusting.”

“We get it backwards as overachievers — we’re trying to get it right before we move. But fire, then aim, is actually the more powerful approach.”

“Reflection is the part that most high-achieving women skip — and it’s exactly where the magic lives.”

“Even if it’s not the right step, it’s the next move that keeps you in momentum. That’s how self-trust is built.”

“If I trusted myself 10% more, what would I choose? That’s the question that changes everything.”

The Productivity Sweet Spot Podcast
Episode: Confidence, Self-Trust & the Entrepreneur Mindset with Becky Plautz
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EXCERPT
What does it actually take to boost focus, protect your energy, and build lasting confidence as an entrepreneur? In this episode, Anne Rajoo sits down with certified coach and confidence expert Becky Plautz to explore the mindset shifts that make productive habits sustainable — not exhausting. Together they unpack the Confidence in Action Loop: a four-step framework designed to help high-achieving female entrepreneurs move from overthinking into aligned, intentional action. If you’re navigating the tension between entrepreneurship and productivity, wrestling with self-trust, or looking for a more sustainable energy approach to your work and business, this conversation is for you. Because confidence isn’t something you find before you act — it’s something you build while you do.
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TRANSCRIPT
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Anne: Becky, welcome to the podcast. I’m excited to have you here. I want to dive right in with a question I think my listeners will really be burning to know the answer to.
So many of my listeners are what you would call high achievers. They are really good at what they do. They probably don’t feel too doubtful about what they do or how they do it — but every now and then they hit a moment where it’s like, oh my God, what am I doing here? Am I doing this right? Their confidence can get really high and then crash down.
We want to speak about confidence. So if someone like that comes to you, where would you start?
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Becky: Thanks — I’m excited to talk about confidence in a way that I love to address with overachievers and overthinkers, because that’s exactly who I work with. What I do is talk about confidence through choosing more intentionally, rather than working harder.
Instead of thinking about putting more on our plates, more in our days, more time towards something — it’s about being more intentional and choosing with purpose the things that are actually going to move us forward. So that we aren’t overworking and reaching that point where we need to burn out or set everything down just to reset. I really work on intention and how we choose things more purposefully.
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Anne: You’re speaking my language. We don’t need more to do — we already have more than enough on our plates. It’s exactly that: the intentional choosing of what really matters.
So what does intention look like in practice?
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Becky: When I talk about intention, I think about what I call the Confidence in Action Loop — which is one of the things I wanted to share with your audience today. It’s a loop built around choosing, acting, reflecting, and adjusting. If you want, I can break that down.
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Anne: Yes, please — let’s dive right in. I love a loop. I was telling you when we first met, I talk about the busy loop — which I think is the opposite of what you’re about to share. I’m really excited to learn how we can intentionally create an action loop instead.
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Becky: Exactly — you’re more about sustainable energy and I’m about decisive movement. I think it’s going to be a beautiful pairing.
So the Confidence in Action Loop — the first part is choosing. This is where we pause and really decide the next aligned action, instead of just reacting to what’s in front of us or picking up whatever’s there and running with it. It’s about making an intentional pause so that we can make a choice that feels aligned — one that moves us toward our intention.
The second part is acting. It’s about making one small, visible step forward. And I really want to emphasise: it doesn’t have to be the “right” step. If we’re overachieving and overthinking, we can get completely stuck waiting to take the action. This step is important — just move forward visibly, because then you reach the next part.
The third part is reflection. This is where we get to notice what worked, what maybe didn’t work as we’d hoped, and what we learned. This is where the magic lives — you don’t need to know if your action was the right one before you take it, because you do the reflection afterwards. It’s fire, aim, fire — instead of aim, aim, aim, fire. Overachievers tend to get it backwards: we want to get it right first.
And the fourth part is adjustment. This is where you make your next decision from the awareness you gathered in reflection. That’s the loop: choose, act, reflect, adjust.
And this is powerful because confidence isn’t built before we take action. It’s built inside this loop — choosing, acting, reflecting, and adjusting along the way.
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Anne: I love this. I can go through so many examples where it really is exactly that. You take an action, it’s often messy — and that’s where you understand: this is working, this isn’t working.
I love the reflect piece especially — not onto the next thing, but adjusting the thing you just did. A lot of the women I work with do one thing, knock it off the to-do list, hype themselves up, and then move onto the next thing — without necessarily adjusting or refining. Have you seen that?
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Becky: Yes, a lot of the time the actions aren’t connected to the broader vision. A lot of the time people are just picking things up to stay in movement, to feel productive because they’re checking something off the list. As a list-maker myself, I completely understand that. But the nuance is in knowing that the action is aligned with where you’re going — and that the momentum is really coming from making an intentional choice.
One of the patterns I see most often is women waiting to feel confident before they speak up, launch something, or raise their pricing. But the confidence only appears after they make the move. I’ve watched it happen in coaching sessions — and even during photography sessions, which was my background before I became a certified coach. When someone finally sees themselves differently, it’s because they made a powerful choice before that shift happened.
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Anne: So would you say the choice part is where most women get stuck? Or is it another part of the loop?
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Becky: It can be at different points. A lot of the time, I think it’s the reflection point that’s not supporting them. Like you said — they’re checking the box, they’re taking action, but they’re not giving themselves enough space to let the truth come to the surface. The awareness that this isn’t actually where I want to be going can’t land if you don’t slow down. They’re running on autopilot — doing what they’ve always done because they get that hidden dopamine hit from taking action.
The other side of it is the action step itself. A lot of women know what they want, but there’s fear around taking the action that will actually get them there — so they stall. So it tends to be that middle part of the loop.
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Anne: That really resonates. My theme this year is bold. I’m a decent action-taker, but I’ve realised over the past two years there’s always something holding me back from the really bold, courageous action. And the reflection piece speaks to me deeply — I used to be someone who wouldn’t rest, who wouldn’t allow herself to slow down, because slowing down felt unsafe. I was afraid it might mean I was being lazy, losing out, or stalling the business. I wouldn’t stop to reflect. So both of those really land for me.
What would be your best tip for someone who gets stuck at either of those points?
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Becky: There’s an alignment exercise that might be helpful here. It’s three questions you can ask yourself at any point in the loop.
The first is: What decision are you avoiding right now? You might have a sense of what you want to do, but you’re avoiding it.
The second is: What’s one small action that would move you forward today? Taking action faster is a way to build self-trust — to build evidence that you can step out, take the step, and not need it to be perfect. Self-trust is a huge part of the work I do with women.
And the third is: If I trusted myself 10% more, what would I choose?
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Anne: I love that one.
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Becky: Because then it’s just a small step. Those tiny movements create giant momentum when we’re willing to act — even if it’s not the “right” move. Not what if it’s wrong — that’s fear. But faith is: even if this isn’t perfect, it’s the next move — and it keeps you in momentum and builds that self-trust. I think helping women trust themselves more is a huge part of the work we’re doing. It’s messy, but that’s okay.
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Anne: Absolutely. This speaks to me so much, and it’s a lot of what I say to the women I work with too — especially around small steps. When I was a young mum with young children trying to build a business part-time, I always felt like I never had enough time to finish anything completely. I had to learn to break things down into really small steps.
But what I realised is that the confidence comes from: yes, I’m doing it. Yes, over time, I’m getting to where I need to go. Plus, sometimes the adjustment only becomes available when you’re taking small steps — because you’re taking one foot at a time, you notice: maybe this doesn’t quite work, maybe I have another idea. Sometimes it’s even more beautiful when you go slowly and keep it small.
It doesn’t have to be perfect. It needs to start somewhere. And it can be tiny, tiny, tiny — but with time and consistent action, you get there.
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Becky: And Anne, I want to add — that’s exactly where celebrating those tiny steps is so important. I’m sure you talk about this too, but it’s a huge part of my coaching and my community. I’m always asking my clients to open with a celebration, every single call. It can be anything big or small — but it shifts the mindset away from not doing enough, not having enough, and starts to shift it toward: those tiny steps are building momentum, and I can choose again.
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Anne: Yes — we can make a new choice. We are allowed to choose differently and to adjust. I love that.
Is there anything else you’d say to a listener whose confidence isn’t consistent — who experiences those big highs and then the sudden crash?
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Becky: I’d say: go through those three questions. And then I want to encourage the listener to commit to one tiny step in the next 24 hours of hearing this — because it builds self-trust. It creates evidence that you can make a choice and see how it ripples out.
And the other part of that is being willing to know that as we take small steps, new opportunities come. When we build trust that we can step toward an aligned move, and we reach that reflection point and say that wasn’t it — that’s just evidence. Not failure. It’s one more thing we now know: that’s not it. Which means we’re more clear about what it actually is.
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Anne: Exactly. Sometimes it’s easier to say what we don’t want than what we do want. And sometimes that’s powerful in itself. I find it hard sometimes to name exactly what I want — but I can be very sure about what I don’t want. So acting and noticing that this doesn’t quite feel right is useful data.
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Becky: Yes. And I can share one more framework — the VIP Framework, which I use for daily reflection.
V is your victory for the day.
I is an improvement — something you noticed you’d do differently. Not something you have to go and fix immediately; just the awareness.
P is your plan — what’s the next step?
It’s a simple, quick daily breakdown.
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Anne: I love that. I do something similar in my own planner, actually — though mine is monthly rather than daily. But I like this as a daily practice.
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Becky: I’m a big reflector too. I do daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly reflections. I look back at my week to see what three things moved me forward on a larger scale. I’m consistently practising what I talk about.
And there’s a great analogy about a plane: if a plane is even 1% off course, over a long distance it ends up nowhere near its destination — way off course. It’s those tiny trajectory adjustments that matter most over time. So reflection is a huge asset. My advice to high-achieving women: slow down. Allow yourself to reflect. Then make a choice that is grounded in that awareness.
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Anne: I love that. These were perfect closing words.
Would you share with the listener where they can connect with you — and I believe you have something to offer them as well?
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Becky: Absolutely. My website is BeckyPlautz.com [Note: please verify exact URL spelling before publishing] — you can find everything about me there. I host the Choose On Purpose podcast and write the Healthy Headspace blog, which I update every week.
I also have a freebie called the Weekly Confidence Catalyst — it’s a weekly email that sends you the podcast, the blog, and some words of encouragement, along with some dares or challenges to take action steps that might be outside your comfort zone. I’d love to offer that as some support.
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Anne: That sounds like exactly what I need to stay on theme with being bold and making daring decisions. Thank you so much for being here, Becky. It was such a pleasure.
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Becky: Thank you, Anne.