Stretch Your Confidence
You can’t teach confidence…right? Not so fast!
I recently had a conversation with someone who asked me what I do for a living. I explained to them the role of a mental performance coach. When I mentioned teaching athletes how to build and maintain their confidence, they immediately said “you can’t teach confidence.”
Naturally, I was a little taken aback by this comment because I see every day in my work that confidence is a skill that can be learned and improved.
However, I realize there are so many people that have this same rigid view on confidence. They believe that confidence is something you either have or you don’t.
The reality is that confidence is just like any other physical skill you learn for your sport. You put in the reps to learn a new skill. Then, you put in more reps to improve and master the skill. The same goes for confidence (along with all mental performance skills)!
Building confidence is something that you should constantly be working on. It’s like stretching. You stretch before working out or playing. The act of stretching helps to loosen up, release the tension in your body, and warm your muscles. Once you’ve stretched you feel ready to go.
If you don’t stretch, you feel off. There is a stiffness in your body that doesn’t allow you to feel like yourself on the field. You may even take a pause to shake out and stretch a little bit when you notice that stiffness.
Now, let’s look at this from the perspective of confidence. Confidence comes from the way you are thinking. Something completely in your control, but takes practice to master.
When you are lacking confidence, it starts with what you’re thinking. You fear the result you’re going to get. You worry you’re going to let your team down. You doubt whether you’ll play and not make a mistake that causes your coach to pull you out. All of these thoughts create so much tension, anxiety, and pressure.
Every performance should include a mental stretch, the loosening of the tension in your mind. This will come in the form of taking a look at the thoughts you're having. If you notice negative thoughts, you’ll want to write them all out. We call this a brain dump.
Just the act of writing out fears, worries, and doubts can instantly release the stiffness in your mind. You’re already feeling loose and so much better. You feel the weight lift, the tension release. Just like you do when you get a good stretch before a competition.
The next step is shifting your thoughts to positive and intentional statements. It’s one thing to write out the negative thoughts, but it’s another to shift to positive, intentional thoughts.
When you can make this shift, this is when you play loose and free! You’re in the zone and out of your head. You know the feeling, it’s those moments that remind you why you love playing your sport.
Shifting to positive and intentional thoughts is a constant choice you have to make. You have to choose to believe you will make an impact in the game. You have to choose to believe you’ll make the shot. You have to choose to trust that all of your training has prepared you for this moment.
That choice you'll make consistently leads to confidence. It’s the mental muscle growing the more you choose to believe. The more you choose to be intentional with your thinking, the greater your confidence muscle grows.
While you may be someone that questions whether or not confidence is something that you can actually improve, I want to challenge you to try! Schedule a consultation today to get started!
I’ll push you to put in the mental reps to grow your mental muscles. I know it’s possible to build confidence because I see it done every day! You will too!
