To feel confident for your viva you have to do the work: you have to do the research needed, write your thesis, develop yourself and really realise what all of that means.
Confidence isn’t a destination on your PhD journey. It’s a feeling you have to find through the work that you do. Your actions lead you to feeling confident (or not) and so you have to see what works and what doesn’t. Does your confidence grow through simply doing things, like giving talks or publishing papers? Or do you need to reflect more on how you feel afterwards, perhaps carefully unpicking what happened?
Will simple things like considering what you wear and how you explain things help? Will small things like a music playlist or some other helpful placebo steer you towards feeling confident?
Confidence isn’t a destination. It’s a feeling you can find. Keep going, keep doing, keep thinking and you can steer yourself towards feeling good, both for your viva and more generally.
