15 Steps to Mental Strength in Sports – Step 4

Step 4 – Building the Self-Confidence of a Champion

Consistent top athletic performers have a strong level of self-confidence. They never stop believing in themselves.  This self-confidence creates an almost intimidating sense of presence.

When a top athletic performer shows up, you know it!  They aren’t bragging or strutting around like a peacock, they just have this vibe about them.

Self confidence is the fuel for success.

Here, let me tell you a story…

“During a momentous battle, a Japanese general decided to attack even though his army was greatly outnumbered. He was confident they would win, but his men were filled with doubt. On the way to the battle, they stopped at a religious shrine. After praying with the men, the general took out a coin and said, “I shall now toss this coin. If it is heads, we shall win. If tails, we shall lose. Destiny will now reveal itself.”

He threw the coin into the air and all watched intently as it landed. It was heads. The soldiers were so overjoyed and filled with self-confidence that they vigorously attacked the enemy and were victorious. After the battle, a lieutenant remarked to the general, “No one can change destiny.”

“Quite right,” the general replied as he showed the lieutenant the coin, which had heads on both sides“

This represents the power of self-confidence!

When it comes to achieving your peak athletic performance, the only thing that matters is if you believe in you.

There’s a long distance swimmer Jim “The Shark” Dryer that perfectly depicts how important belief in yourself is.

You can take a look at Jim Dryer story here

http://static.record-eagle.com/2007/mar/25dreyer.htm

Self-confidence is developed; you are not born with it.  It takes a focused and concretive effort using your mental strength to develop self-confidence.

I’ve written others post on this topic and today I’m going to go over a few other mental strength practices that are extremely effective at developing and maintaining self-confidence.

4 Mental Strength Tips To Develop A Self-Confidence Mindset

1 – Pay Your Physical Dues: If you want to perform like a champion you must first train like a champion.  You must put in the physical training first.  You have to pay your physical dues before we can even begin to talk about developing the self-confidence required for peak performance.

This part takes hard work, long training practices and even extra curriculum activities.  You must prepare your body first to do the work so that it (your body) will follow your thoughts for peak performance.

Let me tell you, nothing worth doing is accomplishing without hard work.

Do this, when you are at practice think about what your competition is doing and then do more.

If you’re not willing to pay your dues, and then some, get out now.

If, however, you’re ready to push yourself physically and mentally to reach peak athletic performance building self-confidence is essential.

2 – Find The Things Your Do Right: Starting today I want you to catch yourself and acknowledge all the things you are doing right, specifically sport wise. During your training, practice and at the end of the day purposely look for all the things you did right today.

We live in a negative oriented world and there are more than enough people out there that will be more than happy to point all the things you are doing wrong.  And many of them already do without even asking you!

They’ll point out how you caught that difficult pass for a touchdown, but you dropped the easy one over the middle.

They’ll tell you that you “lost” the race when you turned in a personal best record.

If you want to develop rock solid self-confidence you’ve got to take control of your focus and look for all the things you are doing right.

I know you’re probably saying “I can always to better right?”  “I can always improve.”  This type of thinking is trap that nothing is good enough!

With this mindset you’ll be robbing yourself the opportunity to feel good about you and your performance.   If you don’t look for the things you are doing good you will always feel lousy about yourself and this will lead to low self-confidence.

Here’s what I want you to do, beginning today I want you to start keeping a success journal and keep only positive comments and observations in it.

By the end of every day find 10 things you did well during practice, training or your game.  I want to find 10 things every day!  And keep this up even though your inner critic you’ll provide comments to the contrary.  Tell it “thank you for sharing” and keep writing down the 10 positive things from training that day.

Then one day you’ll feel your confidence lagging take out your success journal and look at all the positive things you have accomplished!

This will give a shot in the arm and boost in your self-confidence.

3 – Don’t Play The Comparison Game: Do not compare yourself to anyone else…you will always loss.  There is always someone out there better.  If there isn’t, you’ll be looking over your shoulder for the person after you.

Compare your results to you…you set your standard, and then beat it!

When you compare, you think the other person is better than you and you are much too hard on yourself and your self-confidence diminishes.

You leave yourself vulnerable when you compare yourself to others and if and when you have to compete against that person you’ll get siked out and intimated.

Let me tell you another story…

There was a samurai, a very proud warrior and he came to see a Zen Master one day. The samurai was very famous, but looking at the beauty of the Master and the Grace of the moment, he suddenly felt inferior.

He said to the Master, “Why am I feeling inferior? Just a moment ago everything was okay. As I entered your court suddenly I felt inferior. I have never felt like that before. I have faced death many times, and I have never felt any fear — why am I now feeling frightened?”

The Master said, “Wait. When everyone else has gone, I will answer. “

People continued the whole day to come and see the Master, and the samurai was getting more and more tired waiting. By evening the room was empty, and the samurai said, “Now, can you answer me?”

The Master said, “Come outside.”

It was a full moon night; the moon was just rising on the horizon. And he said, “Look at these trees. This tree is high in the sky and this small one beside it. They both have existed beside my window for years, and there has never been any problem. The smaller tree has never said to the big tree, ‘Why do I feel inferior before you?’ This tree is small, and that tree is big — why have I never heard a whisper of it?”

The samurai said, “Because they can’t compare.”

The Master replied, “Then you need not ask me. You know the answer.”

Give up the comparison habit.  Only hold yourself accountable to your results.

Here too I want you to write down (not in your success journal) how many comparisons thoughts you have each day for 10-days….really…write them down.  You see, awareness is the first step to change. And you by noticing and writing down the comparison thoughts they will soon stop.

4 – Affirmations:  Say empowering things to yourself all the time.  You become what you think about.  The topics of your conversations become the themes of your life, in this case your athletic life.

Take several 3×5 index cards and write on them how you want to feel during competition.

Then, place them around your house, the bathroom, the refrigerator, your car and even in your gear bag.

Your unconsciousness mind picks up and “sees” all these signs.   This is the same principle as advertising.  Only this time you’re self-advertising about what you really want!

Be patient with this and begin to look for the small changes and when you see them, acknowledge them.

Here’s another great mental strength technique. Before you go to sleep think of one aspect of your performance you want to change, i.e. I want to feel calm and relaxed.

Now, in your bed lie on your back with your arms to your side palms down. Then repeat the affirmation slowly and at the same time press your pinky down and visualize yourself performing like you want (calmed and relaxed).

Then, do it again, this time press your ring finger.  Keep doing this for 20 times keeping track with your fingers

If you fall asleep that’s fine.

The time just before you fall asleep is a very powerful time to reprogram your mind so make use of it.

Select one aspect of your performance your want to change and this exercise for a week and then switch.

Self-confidence for peak performance is created by hard work ethic, catching yourself doing the right things, self-advertising.

Self-confidence and peak performance comes from using the above mental strength tips on a consistent and persistent basis.   Do the above for a month and watch for the changes in your self-confidence and athletic performance.

Take you mental strength training deeper by picking up a copy of “Mental Strength Training for Athletes” by going HERE.