Video transcript:
This might sound a little crazy at first, but one thing that I think athletes should prioritize over being confident is being courageous. And again, I want to reiterate that being confident is incredibly important and it comes from being competent. But sometimes the athletes who are competent and who should be the most confident in their abilities really struggle from a lack of confidence and you see this a lot in athletes who overtrain or get really nervous before games or who seem to be perfectionistic and if any of these sound like you, you might be wondering how you can put in so much work and still doubt your abilities when game time rolls around.
The truth is that confidence is a feeling and it will inevitably fluctuate, you’re going to have to show up with courage when your confidence is lacking and a lot of people confuse being courageous with being fearless. But courage is not the absence of fear. It is taking action in spite of it. And you can insert any unwanted emotion in there. Fear, worry, doubt, anxiety. Each of these are going to show up in your athletic career and you’re going to have to play through them.
And when I talk about courage I’m not talking about having the courage to go out and play the best game of your life when you are already lacking confidence cause honestly that’s probably too much to ask of you. But I am talking about having the courage to acknowledge your doubts or worries and then ask yourself two questions. One: What is my intention for the day? And this intention should be process focused and not outcome focused. And two: What is the smallest positive action that I can take that brings me closer to that intention?
When you ask yourself those questions, you will come up with answers and you might be surprised at just how much you’re capable of when you focus on doing those little things. And I want to emphasize that this is not easy to do, and that’s why it takes courage, but maybe it’s not as impossible as we sometimes make it out to be. And no, confidence and courage are not mutually exclusive. But courage will pick up the more confidence drops off. Follow me for more tips on how to put yourself in the best position for peak performance.