You can’t win a game you walked in already planning to lose.

Deciding the result before you start quietly changes what you attempt. You stop taking the shot, you hold back the answer, you save yourself the embarrassment of trying in front of people, and then the outcome arrives looking like proof you were right. That is not weakness of character, it is a normal way of protecting yourself from disappointment. It just charges the attempt as the fee.

Listen for the sentence you say beforehand, the one that sounds like realism. You do not have to swap it for false confidence. Pick one thing you will do regardless of how it is going: one shot, one question asked, one attempt.