How To Build Self-Confidence In A Young Athlete

By Katie J. Brooks


Every day, I get calls from athletes who feel that they are lacking in self-confidence. I am currently working with a skier, a swimmer, a bowler, a tennis player, a pitcher, a second baseman, a golf pro and two soccer players. All of these people are trying to believe in themselves a bit more and trying to elevate their self-confidence.Yesterday,I got a call from a baseball player who is playing triple a ball for a major league team. He is worried because he has been in a hitting slump. In addition, he is fearful that his lack of confidence will prevent him from making it into the major leagues. Obviously, he is under some significant pressure and to make matters worse, he is doubting himself.
[How To Get What You Want In Life]


Tactic One: Understand who you are. Do you truly understand yourself? The Grecian philosopher Socrates stated it best when he uttered the statement, "Know thyself." If you don't know yourself or understand yourself, how do you think someone else will be able to identify and relate to you. Have you ever asked a close acquaintance, "Tell me the truth; what do you think about me? What can I do to change for the better? What are my strengths and weaknesses? " Being at peace with yourself is a manifestation of good self-esteem. You are the captain of your ship and only you can come to a conscious self-awareness state of who you truly are. You must be in tune and totally honest with yourself so that you can grasp a clear picture on what is going on inside of you.

You can include a good grade, a great game, an award you won, succeeding at something that was difficult or working hard to master a task or to finish a difficult project. One of my patients loved to remind himself of how he felt when he learned to surf. Another, like to revisit his best basketball games.A swimmer I worked with like to take herself back to her best times and to the meets where she touched the wall first at the end of the race.

As you get ready to go to sleep spend a minute revisiting each of these experiences and accomplishments. When you are done, just let yourself relax, have a good night of sleep and maybe dream about some of your goals your positive accomplishments.Do this for three weeks. Stacking your positive memories like this on a daily basis can help you to build your confidence.

Highly self-confident people have learned the habit of catching negative thoughts before they can have an effect on their moods, feelings and performance. They consciously choose to cancel these thoughts and replace them with positive empowering thoughts instead.They have formed the habit of saying: stop, cancel or pass, whenever they catch a negative thought... not giving any power to that thought... not reacting to it.Affirmations are a very powerful way of re-educating our minds to think empowering thoughts rather than the counterproductive negative thoughts.So CHOOSE to improve self-confidence by choosing positive thoughts and practice these using affirmations.

Focus On Your Strengths.Lack of self-confidence is a result of losing sight of our great qualities, and exaggerating our flaws instead.High self-confident people know their strength and focus on what they can do, rather than what they can't.When you think you are not good at something, try to consciously focus on the qualities that you have that are important to carry out that task.For example, if you are doing public speaking and are not confident at delivering a speech, but you are a great researcher, writer and organiser... focus on these attributes instead, and know that you can be confident and proud of the content of that speech. Focusing on the great content will make the delivery of the speech less significant.

An absolutely vital and worthwhile thing to do in this case is to increase your self-confidence.Often, the way we feel is a direct result of how we act. So the first thing you're going to do is...Pretend to be confident.If you know a woman you like, but haven't had the guts to ask her out, pretend you are confident as hell, walk up to her and ask her out. Just do it.Pretend to be confident often and before you know it, you won't be pretending any more. You'll get such positive results from merely acting confidently that it's almost as though you are hypnotizing yourself.You can program yourself. As an example, if you're in an average mood and you take a deep breath, punch the air in victory and state, 'I feel great!' you'll feel great. If you hang your head, move your face into a miserable look and say, 'man, I feel awful', your mood will follow suit.Ok, that's the really important one, your personal attitude.

You see COURAGE is not acting without fear; courage is acting in spite of fear.When you make it a habit of being courageous you will increase self-confidence, because you are more likely to give the things you want a go, and when you are more focused on the doing rather than the thinking and worrying, you've overcome half the battle.Act and Feel Important.High self-confidence people have a habit of thinking highly of themselves through the way they behave and the image they portray. They have high levels of energy.If we were to look at their behaviour, you will notice that self-confident people stand up for themselves and speak up when it is appropriate.The image of self-confidence is also portrayed by the physiology and body language, by way they look after their body and the way they dress.Do you see many self-confident people who walk around with slumped shoulders and are dressed badly?No one is more conscious of your physical appearance than you are, so make it a priority to look good and feel important.

Don't overthink how much she wants you to have a six-pack though. She may well be impressed with it, but you don't want her to think you're more vain than she is.Learn how to dress well. I'm no haberdasher, but it's simple to dress well. Suits are easy to wear and ensure you are clean, and you have decent shoes. For some reason women love shoes.Now those are simple things most of us can do better. Increasing our abilities to be more pleasing to the eye and interesting to the ear will ensure that we feel more ready to talk to women we don't know.Lastly, I will say that it's very important to understand why we lack confidence.

At university I had a fear of public speaking. My mentor asked me why and I mentioned it was because I was afraid that people would laugh at me. He asked me if I laughed at people when they were talking in public and I realised that I did not. I had thought for ages that strangers were possessed of the most negative traits and in fact most people are kind and interested, otherwise they wouldn't have been listening to me in the first place.Women are like that.

You might get the odd one who tells you to piss off, but mostly they'll be flattered if you approach them. Of course a lot of that is down to you, but I can count on one hand the aggressive and humiliating rejections I've had, and I've been rejected a LOT.Sit down by yourself for 10 minutes and list the reasons why you lack self-confidence. This will work only if you are honest with yourself.Then write a list of what you think you can do to overcome these issues.




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