Why Confidence is Overrated
I wake up in the morning, the day of my first 25k, and I feel like trash.
Seriously, my body aches. I feel like I’ve slept about 45 minutes total, and my stomach is doing backflips.
I’ve got two choices right now. I either let those external conditions decide my thoughts, or I decide how to think for myself.
In the first situation, feeling like a bag of garbage means that my thoughts, feelings, and my performance are going to be garbage today. Simply put, I’m not feeling very confident.
In the second situation, if I’ve trained my ability to act with trust, I’ll stay committed to my pre-race plan, adjust and remain resilient, and have the best day I can.
So there it is.
I can act with trust or wait to feel confident.
Which would you pin your hopes on?
So why is confidence overrated?
Because most of the athletes I’ve worked with create a long list of pre-conditions that need to be met before they’re willing to believe in their ability to perform.
They hold their best performance hostage.
What’s your list look like?
Feel great
Sleep great
Eat great
Think great
No doubts
No uncertainty
No risk
You can see the problem.
Sport IS uncertainty and risk. If you’re planning on operating at the edge of your abilities, you can’t get away from it. So we end up designing a no-win scenario.
If conditions aren’t perfect, I choose not to feel confident, and my performance suffers. Which justifies my lack of confidence. Rinse, repeat - and so the cycle gets stronger.
A Better Way
We’re not always going to believe in our ability to win, PR, or beat the athlete across from us. Those outcomes aren’t entirely in our control - and uncertainty rides sidecar with self-doubt.
Uncertainty and doubt come along for the ride when we’re pushing the edge.
What I can do is develop the habit of trust.
I can trust in my training.
I can trust in the skills I’ve trained to keep me ready and resilient.
I can trust in my ability to grow from each experience.
In this way, you can unhook yourself from needing to feel great to perform great. You can trust the processes you’ve built that will allow you to get the best out of today and make you better tomorrow.
By letting go of confidence and leaning into trust, you take control of your thoughts, feelings, and actions, and no longer let outside conditions determine your ceiling each day.
Trusting Mindset
This won’t happen by accident! You need to groove the habit of trust, and this takes consistent action.
Ask yourself the following questions:
When can I dedicate time *in training* to build my trusting mindset?
How much time am I willing to commit?
Who will I use as an accountability partner?
What’s my plan for when I fall back into a ‘feel great to play great’ mindset?
If you’re not ready to make a concrete plan of action, then you’re not ready to let go of the hostage situation you’ve got happening in your head.
On the morning of my first 25k, feeling worn out before I even made it to the start line, I had a decision to make. I’ll be honest - it wasn’t a great race, and I made sure that my mind didn’t defeat me before I got started.
I thought about the hard work I’d done to get myself ready for the race. I pulled my attention to some strengths I could really lean on, no matter how I felt. And then I grabbed my gear and got ready to run.
