Arnold Schwarzenegger on confidence

I’ve got hooked to the Tim Ferriss universe some time ago, after hearing about his Four Hour Work Week method. Then I went on a search for information and started absorbing every content I’ve found on the internet about him.
One of the very best things he created, on my opinion, was his podcast, that I cited before here, on another post.
I’ve listened to a number of them, where he interview some awesome successful people, of many different areas, but one stood out for me.
It’s was the Arnold Schwarzenegger’s interview. More specifically, a short answer he gave right at the beginning of podcast.
It was so signifying to me that I felt compelled to transcribe it and post here, not only because of that weird felling of — The world need to know about this!, but also for a personal record.

So here it is. Hope someone in the universe reads it and enjoy it.

T: I was looking at a very old photograph of your first major body building competition, the Junior Mr. Europe, and if you just look at the faces, not the bodies, it was so clear to me that you were going to win and that you knew or believed you were going to win. You’re face was so confident compared to every other competitor. Where did that confidence came from?

A: My confidence came from my vision. Because I’m always a big believer that if you have a very clear vision of where you wanna go, then the rest of it it’s much easier, because you know always why you’re training five hours a day, you’ll always know why you’re pushing and going through the pain barrier, and why do you have to eat more, and why do you have to struggle more, why do you have to be more disciplined. And all of those things become much more clear.
It’s not like: — Oh my god! I have to do another two hundred sit-ups, it’s more kinda like: — I can’t wait to do another two hundred sit-ups, because that will get me one step closer to have the abs that I need to win that Mr. Universe. That’s my goal.

I see myself on that stage, winning the competition, I see myself very clearly getting the trophy, standing there with the trophy, raising it above my head and having hundreds of bodybuilders around me, kind of bellow me on stage, looking up and idolizing me, including the thousands of people that are watching the event.
So that was always my clear vision, and that always inspired me to go all out. […]There was this will there, that no matter what it takes, even if I had to crown to Germany, I would be there at that event, because that was my shot […] and I felt that I could win it, and that’s what I was there for: I wasn’t there to compete, I was there to win.