Video transcript:
This is something that most athletes don’t understand about confidence, and it’s a game changer when developing that lasting confidence that we’re looking for. I mentioned before that even the best athletes in the world don’t feel confident at times, and when that’s their experience, they rely on their ability to take confident action. Their ability to actually separate their feelings and their thoughts from the action that they’re going to take. But in listening to some of the best athletes in the world, talk about where their confidence comes from, that seemingly unshakeable confidence–athletes like Tom Brady, tiger Woods, Rafael Nadal, I noticed that they always feel confident in something. And that that something is just different than what most everyone else has put in their confidence in. Most athletes put their confidence in things like their sport specific skills, or the way that they think they’re moving or the way that they feel physically.
And having confidence in these things is not a bad thing. If you’re executing at a high level, if you feel good, if you feel like you’re moving well, then that should absolutely give you confidence. The problem is that these things fluctuate. If you’re a baseball or a softball player, you know for a fact that you will not have your best swing every single time you step on the field. If you’re a pitcher, you will not have your best stuff every single time you step on the mound. If you’re a golfer, there might be days where a club just does not show up for you, and we have to figure out how to deal with it. If your confidence is completely, or even majority of it, if it’s in those things, you’re gonna find that your confidence is just like a rollercoaster.
The best and most consistent competitors one–they put their confidence in their preparation. Those athletes are unmatched in the way that they prepare for competition. But two, they put their confidence in things like their ability to compete. Or their ability to make adjustments and problem solve mid game and their ability to handle whatever challenges are thrown their way, and whether those challenges are external, like bad calls or opponents or mistakes they make, or even if those challenges are internal, like unwanted emotions, nerves, worries, uncomfortable thoughts. They put their confidence in their ability to handle those things when they pop up for them. The difference is that their confidence comes from something that they have complete control over. That the game can’t affect, that the opponent can’t affect, that nobody can take away from them, and that’s why when everything seems to be working against them in competition, they don’t flinch. It’s why no poor performance or mistake or distractions seems to really knock their confidence at all. It’s the confidence that says, even on my worst day, I’m still capable of a really good day.
So ask yourself, is my confidence in things that fluctuate, like my skills, or is it dependent on things that I can’t control, like who I’m going up against or the outcomes? Because if it is, as those things inevitably go, your confidence will go with them.
If your confidence is in things that you can control. Like your ability to compete, your ability to problem solve, your ability to handle whatever adversity is thrown your way, you will have that unshakable confidence that you’re looking for.