79. “If they can do it, I can do it, too”: Building Self-Efficacy Through Vicarious Experiences

Continuing in our short series on self-efficacy, today we’re talking about learning from the success of people who are – or who were once – just like you. Liz calls these our “mentors from afar”: the people we admire whom we choose as our writing mentors. We can follow in their footsteps and carve a pathway through the wilderness of writing to end up a little closer to where they are now. Albert Bandura called these “vicarious experiences,” and they are the second way (after our own mastery experiences) that we build our self-efficacy.

Link mentioned in this episode:

• Episode 5: Trusting Yourself as a Writer with Kate Moore

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