One of the major pillars of success is having confidence. A low self-esteem or a lack of confidence will show in anything that we do. It shows through our work, in the gym, and even in a casual conversation. Unfortunately, confidence can be a hard thing to develop, if it wasn't nurtured when we were young. It can also be lost quickly with a serious of mishaps or short comings.
Confidence can affect any athlete or business man. It can make an inferior performer better and a better performer inferior. A lack of confidence and we will fall short in our endeavors. An overabundance of confidence and we might not work as hard in obtaining our goals. Maintaining a healthy level is of confidence is a key element to elite performance. Here are the three types of confidence I have noticed through coaching, competing, and in other areas of life.
1.) REFLECTIVE CONFIDENCE
Reflective confidence comes from past experiences. With every achievement, with every successful venture, with every sale, and with every win; we add to our growing bank of confidence. Unfortunately, during a dry spell, a down turned economy, or during a losing streak confidence bank can be depleted quickly.
In the book The Success Principles, by Jack Canfield, there is an exercise that I found useful to rebuild confidence. Simply take a piece of paper and list 100 things that you have accomplished throughout your life that make you proud. Driven people can often spend too much time on looking ahead, and making goals to obtain things they don’t yet have. This exercise forces us to reflect on our past achievements reassuring us that we are already successful and capable of doing more. Make this list and review it often.
2.) GROOMED CONFIDENCE
Another we can improve our confidence is simply being prepared. Our level or preparedness is directly correlated with our confidence. Few things will make a speaker feel more confident when giving a speech, than knowing he knows more about the subject than anyone else in the room. The athlete who has prepared himself properly for his competition carries much more confidence into the arena than the athlete that has not prepared.
To increase you confidence levels you simply need to groom your skills, knowledge and conditioning on a continual basis. Prepare in a way that will enable you to say “I have done everything possible for this moment. I am prepared.” This confidence will shine through brightly. Find the discipline to not take short cuts. Don't make excuses on why not to work harder, find reasons why you need to work harder.
Don’t attempt to fool yourself by saying these things if they are not true. As Jim Rohn said, “Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion.”
3.) INTERNAL CONFIDENCE
The third type of confidence is the internal confidence that some people seem to carry natrually. I recently had a conversation with a friend about some people’s inability to pat their selves on the back when they should. Often this type of person has been taught or has taught himself to be humble to the point, that it affects his/her attitude towards himself.
I believe this internal confidence can only be obtained during our youth. This confidence is learned by our parental guidance, our self-talk, our environment, and the way others talk to us during our childhood years. Occurrences and experiences during child hood can set the foundation for our confidence for the rest of our lives.
Exercising ways to increase our groomed and reflective confidence is still possible and will help, but a poor foundation will make the work harder as we age.
Examine yourself and others see if you can notice the confidence level that others carry. Try to use some of these exercises to increase your own confidence. If you have other exercises I'd love to hear what you do when you feel your confidence slipping.
Jerome
www.fightlogs.com
No comments:
Post a Comment