Yes,you can really create self confidence, because it is merely a state of mind. How to build self confidence? It’s not some thing that happens to you by accident or you magically wake up with it one day.
I bet you already have a lot of confidence or you would not be playing your sport. I also know most every athletes, in fact, most people would like even more confidence, right?!? We all know the more confident we are, the better we play.
What is a simple solution? Reversing the way you think can help dramatically improve your self confidence. What does that mean? If you are like most athletes, you tend to forget your successes, but clearly remember your failures and mistakes. You have to start by changing that..
What we teach at the Mental Toughness Academy that one of the easiest ways to get into a confident state is to go back and remember all of the past successes you’ve had in your life. Then you attach to them by creating pictures in your mind and really pretend you are re-living those scenes in your mind. The great, confident feelings will follow.
Do this by writing out a list of all the things you feel you have done successfully in your sport. Most athletes tend to forget their successes, but clearly remember their failures and mistakes. If you do that – It’s time to turn that around! The more specific the successes, the more you can come up with the better!
Write out all the great plays, games, events, moves, scores, compliments and praises – anything you’ve done in your sport that has made you feel really good. Practices and training time counts too!
If you feel stuck, one way to get you started might be to go look at videos or pictures of yourself competing or look at a past schedule of games to remind you. No need to write a full story on each success. Just shorthand notes, so it makes sense to you. This is only for you – Nobody else.
Here’s some examples of what you might write:
Baseball:
Turned first double play of the season against the Yankees.
Batted .355 last year.
Struck out every player on my team in practice at least once.
Learned how to bunt
Stole my first base last week
Scored a goal against the toughest team in league
Got the fastest time on the team in the skating drills
Led the team in assists
Volleyball:
Made game-saving dig against Valley High
Led the team in hitting percentage last year
Learned how to jump serve
Brainstorm, get creative and write everything down! Alright, now you have your list, I want to organize it in a way that makes it easy for you to look at often. You might put it on a sheet of paper in a page protector or on note cards – that is what I use. The point is I want you to take it out and read it often. Ideally once day.
Wendy Lynne is the Director of Mental Toughness Academy. The Academy’s online Mental Toughness Training helps kids build confidence, focus, determination and the ability to bounce back from adversity – what we call Mental Toughness.
Her passion is helping kids, their parents and coaches transform their thinking so they lead happier, healthier and more successful lives.
Wendy Lynne is the Director of Mental Toughness Academy. She oversees the marketing, social media and JV partnerships for the Mental Toughness Training for Youth Athletes. She is in the process of developing new mental training products for soccer, hockey, softball and basketball players and coaches.
She has over 30 years experience in marketing and sales and uses her knowledge to help kids, their parents and coaches transform their thinking so they lead happier, healthier and more successful lives.