Confidence is a state of assurance and belief in your abilities, and it all starts in the way you talk to yourself. You could have a boatload of talent and ability, but if you do not think you do, your potential will be limited. The best athletes know what they are capable of, and they do everything in their power to try and achieve more than that.
Self-talk is the key to cognitive control. Positive self-talk can keep you focused on the present and not ruminating on past events or projecting into the future. Negative self-talk will more than likely lead to failure, and in extreme cases depression.
It is important to understand that self-esteem and confidence begins and ends with your mind, not what your family, coach, or peers think or tell you. Developing positive self-talk is obviously the goal, but you need to be sure not to force yourself into thinking positively. Sometimes you can not stop negative self-talk. The best thing is to just let it pass and refocus on positive thoughts.
Research has shown that positive self-talk can enhance skill acquisition, change bad habits, control attention, create affect or mood, change affect or mood, control effort (maintain energy and persistence), and build self-efficacy.
Two goals within a succesful mental skills training program are to identify and control self-talk. It is important to recognize how you talk or think to yourself and then take control of your thoughts and self-talk to ensure performance enhancement.
Doing so can increase your self-efficacy, mental toughness, and overall levels of optimism.
Self-efficacy is the idea that you can succesfully execute the specific behavior required to produce the desired outcome. An example of self-efficacy in sport or exercise is the personal belief that you can put in the effort and work to achieve the personal goals you've set for yourself.
Mental toughness is a catch word used a lot in sport, that I do not believe most people understand. Mental toughness is a natural (or trained) psychological edge that allows you to better cope with the demands of performance while staying focused, determined, confident, and in control of your actions.
Optimism is the tendency to expect the best possible outcome or dwell on a hopeful aspect of a situation. Optimistic people are less likely to give up when things are not in their favor, and realize they control their destiny.
Negative self-talk most often occurs as individuals tell themselves they can't do something before trying or without even attempting. This alone sets them up for failure if they are to put forth the effort. Other examples of self-talk are when someone tells themself they're no good after missing a shot or failing to perform as they hoped.
On the other hand, positive self-talk instills confidence and increases focus, attention, and self-esteem. Individuals that believe in their skills tell themselves they can make a certain play or that they will perform up to their abilities. There is a clear distinction between having positive self-talk and high self-esteem and being arrogant. Arrogance infuses a sense of superiority, while confidence relates to a high sense of self-esteem.
There are two steps to develop better self-talk.
First, you must become aware of your self-talk and be able to identify the situations that cause positive and negative self-talk. Being self-aware of your internal dialogue will help facilite positive growth and habits. Ways to become more aware of your self-talk is by personal reflection, imagery, and creating log. Personal reflection requires time set aside to reflect on the situations that cause either positive or negative self-talk. Utilizing imagery (or pictures/videos if able) of past performance will help facilitate this internal retrospection, and finally creating a journal or log of your self-talk habits will be a means to promote awareness and monitor change.
The next step is to take control of your self-talk. Being aware of and tracking your habits is great, but without action there is little opportunity for growth. The goal here is to decrease the occurance of negative self-talk and capitalizing on positive self-talk. It would be unrealistic to completely rid ourselves of negative self-talk. Being able utilize thought stopping, reframing, countering, or identify irrational thinking and provide affirmation statements will assist this change of dialogue.
Thought stopping involves using a cue, for example imagining a large stop sign, red light, or possibly a physical cue such as pinching or slapping yourself, to end whatever negative thoughts and self-talk is occurring.
Reframing is a process of creating a different view point of the same situation. For example, if you are very tense and anxious for a big match, rather than focusing on the negative potential of this, view the sensations as being excited and ready to perform.
Identifying irrational thinking is a simple one. Too often we become perfectionists, and think we must win every game, or make every single play. This simply will never happen, especially in sport. Errors and failures are a part of life, and may be what causes us to enjoy things so much (would playing a game be fun if no one could ever beat you?!). Identifying distorted thoughts well help you cope better when setbacks do occur; strive for perfection, don’t demand it.
Affirmation statements are thoughts and words that reflect a positive attitude. For example a great affirmation statement for a sprinter would be to think to themselves “I am as strong as a bull, I explode out of the blocks” just prior to a race. Again, it is important to be realistic with your thoughts while creating an affirmation statement. Saying to yourself “I always play well in the final quarter” is not as beneficial of an affirmation statement when compared to something as simple as “say yes to success”.
Finally, I leave you with a great thought as provided by by Nate Zinsser, Linda Bunker, and Jean M. Williams. *
Embrace a psychology of excellence!
Go for your dreams
Focus on your successes
Be your own best friend, biggest fan, and greatest coach
Create your own reality
If you are interested in learning more about self-talk and how to optimize your progress, please do not hesitate to contact me.
* Materials and information adopted from Cognitive Techniques for Building Confidence and Enhancing Performance by Nate Zinsser (United States Military Academy), Linda Bunker (University of Virginia), and Jean M. Williams (University of Arizona) . The original chapter was published in Applied Sport Psychology: Personal Growth to Peak Performance. (5th ed.) which was edited by Jean M. Williams and published by McGraw-Hill (2006).
