Mental Reps 001

The Barrier

You’ve outlined a goal to increase your confidence so that you can reap the benefits of taking more initiative, communicating effectively, and adapting when necessary in your sport. However, you’ve subconsciously bought in to one of the major misconceptions about confidence, and now, you’re complicating the process without even realizing it.

The Breakdown

While there can be many things to confuse your confidence, there are 5 misconceptions that muddy the water faster than others. This may sound like: (1) you either have it or you don’t, (2) only positive feedback can build confidence, (3) success always builds confidence, (4) confidence equals outspoken arrogance, or (5) mistakes inevitably destroy confidence. These perspectives are less functional because they are rooted in half-truths or outright distortions. Confidence isn’t finite, it can ebb and flow, be built and rebuilt. Athletes can also take constructive criticism, or downright negative critique, and apply it in a more conducive way to their goals. Previous success can create a foundation for confidence, but your “failures” are opportunities for learning if you position them strategically. Confidence is not always brash and verbalized; some performers choose to carry this feeling privately and internally while still optimizing their results. Lastly, mistakes foster growth. How you respond to mistakes offers an incredible place to improve from, and thus, a springboard toward a belief in oneself if you leave the door open.

The Mental Rep

If you realize that you’ve fallen into the trap of a confidence misconception, you can reach for Cognitive Reframing. Reframing is a technique rooted in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that helps you identify, challenge, and change unhelpful thought patterns. This strategy takes thought patterns that might encourage performance barriers and neutralizes the root of the thought through applying more functional language. This can help you see your experience or circumstances from a different perspective, and this perspective change might offer new approaches to the task at hand that feel more authentic and appropriate for your goals. Positive self-talk is great, but sometimes you might need to start at a more realistic place. Neutrality can be just as effective as positivity when you practice this skill.

The Application

Imagine that you want to increase your confidence for an upcoming performance. However, when you start to analyze your previous results, you realize that you made some uncharacteristic mistakes. This makes you feel like you cannot utilize this information because you don’t want to destroy your belief in yourself. You want to avoid a snowball of negative self-talk from becoming too critical. Thankfully, you pause, adjust your perspective and remember that previous mistakes can still be beneficial information to your game plan. You use those results as a blueprint to point you toward the outcomes you want rather than the outcomes you don’t. You walk away feeling more connected and in control of your approach, and you’re ready to play. Confidently.