Confidence has a major impact on performance. Confidence, or lack thereof often creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. As the classic Henry Ford quote states:
If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.
Furthermore, confidence is one of the 4 areas you must proactively build for mental toughness. According to a famous study done on sport performance, there are 9 sources where athletes get their confidence. The study is titled The role of confidence in world-class sport performance.
Below I have a series of questions related to each of the 9 sources. The more of these questions an athlete can respond to with a “yes”, the more confidence that athlete has in achieving a given goal:
- Preparation: Did you give maximum effort during training and practice?
- Performance accomplishments: Have you had past success in achieving a goal related to this current goal?
- Coaching: Do you have a coach that you believe can help you achieve your goal?
- Innate factors: Were you born with one or more abilities that make achieving this goal easier?
- Social support: Are you getting consistent encouragement and positive support from family, friends, teammates and coaches?
- Experience: Have you learned lessons from a prior success or failure? In addition, have you learned from seeing someone else achieve success who you believe you are similar to or better than?
- Competitive advantage: Did you see your opponent perform badly or choke under pressure in a prior event? Do you have a form of “home-field” advantage? Do you believe there is some other environmental factor that can provide you an advantage?
- Self-awareness: Do you know your strengths and weaknesses well? Are you sure you know what you want and how to go after it?
- Trust: Do you have an overall sense of trust in your preparation, teammates, and coaching?