Confidence
“Besides pride, loyalty, discipline, heart, and mind, confidence is the key to all the locks.”
-Joe Paterno, Penn State Football Head Coach
When advised to believe in our future success, we are often told that we should "have more confidence.” Being self-confident does not mean that you are cocky or arrogant. Confidence in yourself prepares you to focus on the situation to set yourself up for success. A confident athlete realizes full potential by feeling empowered to accomplish success. You are poised to be effective. Psychologists call it self- efficacy. A confident athlete expects to win.
Believe in Yourself.
How strongly do you believe in your abilities? Your perceived self-efficacy determines how you feel, think, motivate yourself and behave. Self-efficacy affects your life in 3 important ways.
- Thinking: Your attitudes determine how you acquire new information, organize information, and how you use that information. Low confidence may cause you to ignore or reject critical information. High confidence primes you to use all information to bolster your chances of success.
- Motivation: Your level of self-efficacy affects your motivation to perform in tough, stressful competition. Low confidence can negatively impact on your motivation. High motivation pumps up your confidence and your confidence pumps up your motivation. Your level of motivation affects your choices, how hard you try, and how long you persist.
- Feeling: How much you understand your feelings and emotions, and how you respond to them depends on your confidence.
How Your Self-Confidence Affects Your Team
Teammates thrive on each other’s attitudes, enthusiasm, and encouragement to maximize their own personal performances. Each member of the team must have self-confidence to ensure team confidence. This means that if you believe in yourself, you are able to depend on and support your teammates. Confidence enables the team to have dynamic and united performance during competition.
Is That a Challenge?
People with high self-efficacy view these tasks as challenges that they can overcome, not as threats to avoid. People who doubt their abilities shy away from tasks which they perceive as difficult. Your confidence determines the tasks you choose to undertake and your goals. Have you ever noticed that you procrastinate on difficult tasks? Everybody wants to feel that they are good at what they do. Confidence in your abilities pushes you to tackle tough challenges.
“Whether you think you
can or think you can't -
you are right.”
~Henry Ford
THE BOTTOM LINE
Having a high self-efficacy means that you are likely to try hard, not quit, and perform better because you are confident in success. Your confidence is contagious on your team. It bolsters team success.
How’s Your Self-Confidence?
Working to improve your self-confidence is important to help you in many ways. Let’s take a look at some characteristics of a high level of self-confidence versus a lower level of self-confidence. Check to see if you find any problem areas you may have and take on the challenge of working to improve you self-confidence on and off the field.
Self-Confidence
- Expecting to win.
- Doing what you believe is right, even if others criticize or make fun of you.
- Willing to take risks without worry of failure.
- Admitting your mistakes and vowing to learn from them without feeling demoralized.
- Accepting compliments graciously.
Low Self-Confidence
- Governing your behavior according to how other people think.
- Staying in your comfort zone. Fearing failure so that you avoid taking risks.
- Extolling your virtues as often as possible.
- Feeling uncomfortable when given a compliment.
EXACT Sports Discussion
Star Wide Receiver Terrell Owens exemplifies one of the most confident and aggressive mental approaches in the offensive game of football. Although “T.O.” is criticized for being outwardly overconfident at times, his fearless attitude intimidates the defense of the opposing teams. As a “hard to guard” player, Owens recognizes his talent and is confident in his abilities as a wide receiver. Discussion: Do you agree? Do you think Terrell Owens displays confidence? Can you think of other athletes who display a confidence in their game? How about relief pitchers in baseball?
By the Way...
People can tell how confident you are in your abilities from the way you look, walk, and talk. The more confident you appear, the more people will see you as a positive force. Walk tall with your chin up. Don’t show competitors you’re tired by hunching over or gasping for air. Look your competitors straight on. On the field, how would you view competitors or teammates who didn’t display confidence? Look happier. People with low self-efficacy have a tendency to look sad or upset, especially if they feel that they are not good at the task. Self-efficacy enables you to feel poised.-efficacy?
Something to Think About
Make a list of times and places when you feel the most confident. Which activities make you feel confident? What is it about these things that make you have a higher level of confidence or better self-efficacy?
The
Tools To
Improve
Proven methods to raise your level of self-confidence. Trust us. They work.
Please follow the next steps
Speak It.
Talk to yourself using only
positive words. Telling yourself
you can't do something may
eventually convince you that you
can’t (when you can).
Recognize It.
Practice complimenting yourself
about your accomplishments.
Keep a simple log.
Get Over It.
Don’t dwell on mistakes.
Everyone makes them. The best
learn from them. Tell yourself to
move on.
Sources of Self-Efficacy
Looking to boost your self-confidence? Here are some tips that may help you to improve your mental approach and self-efficacy.
Mastery Experience: things you have succeeded at in the past
Improving your self-efficacy can be as easy as setting a challenging goal and achieving it. When you succeed you prove to yourself that you are capable of doing what you set your mind to.
Vicarious Experience: seeing people who are similar to you succeed
Sometimes, seeing somebody that you can relate to succeed can be all that it takes to boost your self-efficacy. The cool thing is that you don't even need to know the person for this to affect you. It could be somebody you see on TV, or read about on the internet. As long as you feel as though you are similar to that person and share some characteristics.
Social Persuasion: hearing from others that you are capable
Hearing somebody tell you that they believe in you and think that you are capable can help you want to try harder and not give up. This increases your chances of success, which increases your self-efficacy.
Emotional Status: staying positive, managing stress
People with low self-efficacy see stress as an indicator that they cannot handle the tasks that they are given. When you manage your stress level and encourage yourself to think positively, you increase your perceived self- efficacy. This makes sense, because when you think positive thoughts about yourself, you feel good about yourself and your ability to succeed. Negative thinking, on the other hand, can lead you to feel badly about yourself, or that you cannot succeed.
Volunteer.
Volunteer in a job situation where you need to work as a team member and take on important tasks. Consider volunteering at a hospital, nursing home, animal shelter, or with kids who need help. This will boost your self-confidence in a calm and authoritative way and prepare yourself to be a leader.
Pep Talk!
Next time your team huddles up, try to instill some enthusiasm and boost the morale of the team with a heartening pep talk. Encouraging your teammates before a game or match can help to get everyone’s adrenaline pumping!
Final Thought.
The significance of being a confident athlete is great. Not only will you feel more comfortable accepting challenging tasks and staying determined, but you will be able to trust in yourself and your abilities. Having self-efficacy enables you to take your performance to a whole new level because you will be able to envision a goal and achieve it. Be careful not to let your confidence become arrogance of selfishness. But be sure to let your fearless attitude and confidence shine through on and off the field.