The honey badger is a mammal that measures about 23 to 28 cm (9.1 to 11.0 in) from ground to shoulder and 55–77 cm (22–30 in) in length on average. Here is a video of a honey badger standing up to a lion. You can look up tons of videos and pictures of the honey badger standing up to all kinds of deadly animals from wolverines to hyenas to lions to snakes. So how does a honey badger do this? Well part of the trick has to do with the extremely tough skin of the honey badger. But its more than that. The honey badger appears fearless when meeting these deadly predators. You see in nature it's all about confidence and how you present yourself and the honey badgers know how to present themselves.
Animals don't want to get into fights unless they have to. That's because a fight could result in injury or death. And in the wild if you get injured that could be a big problem. Animals can't go to the doctor and take time off from work. An injury in the wild could leave you vulnerable to attack from a predator or leave you unable to hunt or get food. Or it could get infected. So if at all possible most animals avoid actually fighting. The stakes have to be high to be worth the risk. So instead animals posture. They brandish their weapons, take up space, show dominant actions, demonstrate their strength, some make a bunch of noise, ect. All to show that they have what it takes to go the distance and win the fight. They are basically trying to prove that they will be willing to fight if they have to and that they will win the fight or at the very least not be worth the fight because they will do so much damage to their opponent.
All animals posture and try to demonstrate confidence but the honey badger is such an expert at this that it can convince lions and hyenas to back off. The wolverine is also an animal known to take on much larger and powerful animals when it comes to food using sheer confidence and assertiveness. So maybe we can take a page from animals such as the honey badger and the wolverine when we are faced with a challenge or an obstacle or a task that seems out of our league. We can show confidence and act like we can take it on. When people asked one of my human teachers in life if he could do a task he had never done before he was fond of responding with "I can do it at least as good as the person currently doing it the worst". What he meant was that he may not be the best at it but he can certainly figure out how to do it. That confidence and willingness took him far in life and allowed him a variety of experiences.
Now you might be saying well building up confidence is one thing but we can't posture ourselves into confidence like animals can. Actually studies show we can. This article talks about the work of Amy Cuddy who has found evidence that just being in a confident and assertive posture(ie one that takes up space) will boost your confidence even after you are no longer in the posture. Here is a TED Talk where Amy Cuddy states that doing an assertive posture for 2min before an interview will increase your chances of success. I personally since first seeing this video have taken her advice before interviews and have yet to not get a job offer.
So perhaps the animal kingdom is onto something. Our bodies are not just machines controlled by the mind but instead work together with the mind. Everything in nature is in relation to everything else however indirectly it may be. So why would our bodies and minds be any different. So let them work together. Be confident in body posture and mind confidence will follow along with skill. And just like the wolverine and honey badger when we act like we can do something we can achieve amazing things.
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