Creating Confidence for High Performance

Ah.. yes… confidence.

The trait that is desired by every athlete but some may feel confidence is only available for a select few.

Being “confident” has an arbitrary meaning and signifies something different to everyone.

To me, the definition of confidence is,

"Preparing the body, mind and spirit. Being intentional about building self-trust to compete at a high level"

I believe (from my own experiences) confidence can only be built after an individual struggles and overcomes adversity.

One must face many challenges AND get through them to understand and recognize their true strength.

Before you have confidence, you need self-belief.

Before you have self-belief, you need self-trust.

Before you have self-trust, you need to show courage.

COURAGE + SELF TRUST = SELF BELIEF

SELF BELIEF + SUSTAINED PROGRESS = SELF CONFIDENCE

Self confidence does not just appear from thin air, confidence is EARNED.

If you really want to be confident, then intentional WORK must be invested.

Before feeling empowered, you have to use courage to do hard things (and probably struggle through them.)

Courage is a two second decision.

Courage calls us to face our fears.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but it is feeling the fear and moving forward anyway.

It requires an act of bravery and perseverance to do something tough for yourself.

It’s a decision that needs to be made in the moment of hesitation, judgment, or self-doubt.

Confidence is something we all seek and to find it we must use courage in the moments of doubt to start our process.

Accessing courage over and over again and conquering tough tasks is when self-trust can be developed.

If you are able to persevere through hard things on a consistent basis, then you are able to trust yourself.

Self-trust is built by following through on promises you make to yourself and being intentional about the work.

Through prolonged self-trust, the unwavering self-belief will begin to develop.

I would be remiss if discussing confidence and did not address the voices in your head that say you can’t be confident…

We all have the voice in our heads that sets limits on what we can or cannot do.

Conversely, there is also a voice that says anything is possible.

Some of us have been talking to ourselves negatively and expressing our limits for such a long time, it seems like the norm.

Our brain’s job every day is to make sure we survive.

Because of this primal instinct, our brain puts natural limits on what we believe we can achieve.

In the moment of discomfort or pain or self-doubt, we can start to hear that voice creep in and make us think we are not worthy of competing and becoming more confident.

The ones who have recognized that voice and either ignored it or proved it wrong are the people who have used their courage to build their self-trust, self-belief, and eventually built their confidence.

No body is special enough to NOT deal with the voices in their head.

One voice says we are awful and could never measure up to what we want to become.

The other voice has a growth mindset and believes we are capable of so much more.

One voice is the victim, one voice is the hero.

If you are wanting to build more confidence in your life, start to notice this conversation happening when things get hard.

Decide what story you want to write - one where the main character gives up at every feeling of discomfort.

OR

A story where the main character steps into their own power and pushes through discomfort with vigor.

The hero knows on the other side of struggle is where they truly find their own strength.

Choose which character dominates the conversation - the line of thinking that recieves your energy is the character that does the internal talking and directing.

We have the choice to go with “easy” or “hard” when choosing our character.

The hero’s journey and story is hard, but one worth telling.

Confidence is NOT reserved for an elite few.

Confidence is available for anyone and everyone, you just have to be willing to recognize though patterns, use courage, put in the tough work, and build your self-belief through the tough reps.

To create confidence, start with consistent courage to step into your own power!