Do you know this feeling? There is no wondering, there is no question, there is no doubt. You're not thinking, Maybe I got this; you think, feel, and know it with every fiber of your being: I have GOT this. The feeling of knowing you can handle the situation in front of you is a very good feeling.
This is what athletes are after when they say to me, "I want to feel more confident." They are chasing a feeling.
You want to believe in yourself, you want to be bold under pressure, and you want to rise up to the challenges that come with training and competition. You want to know you have what it takes to handle whatever comes your way. When you tell me you want to "feel" more confident, you are telling me you desire an unwavering trust, faith, and belief in yourself.
When it comes to confidence, people often wonder if it's the chicken or the egg. Do we need to feel confident to perform well, or do we need to perform well to feel confident?
The answer is both! However...confidence IS as confidence DOES. We have to stop thinking about confidence as a noun and think of it as a verb. Confidence isn't something we are; it is something we do. So many of us are always searching for a feeling, but confidence comes by taking action.
I'd like to share three ways to take action to feel more confident.
Chart Your Confidence
I talk about this mental training drill in my book Rebound (Chart Your Confidence, p. 155), and it is a fantastic way to figure out what action you need to take to move yourself up the confidence scale. On a scale of one to ten (one is low and ten is high), where would you rank your level of confidence in this moment in your ability to accomplish the task in front of you? Don't overthink it. Once you've decided your level of confidence, answer the following questions:
Why did I choose this number instead of one number lower?
What would need to be different in order to rank myself one number higher?
These questions help us assess what we've done to gain the confidence we have and what we need to do to gain more. Focusing on how to get to the next number (not jump ahead two or three numbers) helps us figure out how to take action right now. Any time we feel our confidence wavering, we can do this quick exercise to figure out what we need to do to boost our level of confidence.
Change Don'ts to Dos
How often do you spend time thinking about what you don't want versus what you do want? If you are experiencing feelings of hesitation and doubt about something, I guarantee that you've had some inner dialogue about the things you don't want to do or have happen. Another way to take action to feel more confident is to practice changing your don'ts to dos. It's a subtle yet very important distinction.
Our "don't wants" are grounded in fear, while our "do wants" are grounded in desire. Each presents a very different emotional landscape. When you catch yourself thinking about something you don't want, see if you can flip the script by asking yourself, "Okay, so what do I want?" The more we practice, the easier it gets. Every time we catch ourselves and flip the script, we break free from self-limiting beliefs that erode confidence.
Set Some Goals
Now that you know what you need to do to increase your confidence and how to shift your mindset and break free from self-limiting beliefs, it's time to set a goal. Setting goals is an incredibly effective tool for performance accomplishments, and experiencing performance accomplishments is a very effective tool for gaining confidence. When we've successfully accomplished a task in the past, we're more likely to feel confident about our ability to accomplish that same task in the future (remember, confidence is the chicken and the egg). Setting a deliberate goal with a well-thought-out roadmap to accomplish that goal is another action we can take to feel more confident.
It's a big fat myth to think that we can feel 100% confident all the time. We can still do great things and only feel 80% (or 70% or 60%) confident. What we need to know is where to focus and how to take action. When we do our mental training, that is how we get to that place of having an unwavering trust and belief in ourselves, no matter how many butterflies are flying around in our gut.
At BaseCamp, we believe that every cyclist has the potential to achieve greatness, no matter where they start. Our mission is to create a community-driven training environment where cyclists and triathletes of all levels can train together, support each other, and grow stronger, faster, and more confident in their abilities. Our cycling training programs are expert driven and tailored to your needs. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just getting started, BaseCamp is where you belong.
Comments