So many athletes and people struggle with confidence.

But who says you have a confidence problem in the first place?

The reality is that most confidence problems can be easily fixed. Here is how:

  1. Stop using the word confidence.
  2. Definitely don’t tell yourself that you have a confidence problem.

This solution often works because identifying as someone who struggles with confidence is like a trap.

As long as you ‘believe’ you have a confidence problem, then every time adversity strikes, pressure rises, or doubt creeps in, you find yourself falling back down the rabbit hole.

There becomes no sustainable solution.

Instead, you have created your own self-fulfilling prophecy that does not work in your favour.

This is the difference between how you talk to yourself vs about yourself. And you want to be very careful about the latter.

What is Confidence Anyways?

The solution also works because of our deep misunderstanding of what confidence actually is.

In fact, the word confidence is tainted and is too associated with external results and praise. Therefore, it encourages an outside-in approach that leads to your self-belief being dependent on external results.

This is not a sustainable approach.

So replace the word confidence with what it actually is:

Confidence = Owning Your Capabilities

This shift in language from confidence to capabilities makes for a much easier solution.

Confidence often feels allusive, but your capabilities are something more tangible that you have earned through hard work.

Your #1 Job

So your job is to own your capabilities.

The challenge is athletes often have many ‘excuses’ to why they are struggling to own their capabilities:

  • Poor results
  • Criticism from others
  • Lack of praise or recognition

And I get it, these can make it tougher to own your capabilities. But also, I don’t care and to me there is no “good” excuse.

Your job is to own your capabilities regardless of what’s going on around you.

If you struggle with being too hard on yourself and want more insight into owning your capabilities, you can check out the How to Play with Confidence Blog/Video.

Final Thoughts

Now instead of saying “I have a confidence problem, this is who I am, and here we go again…” you can say “I’m having a problem owning my capabilities.”

This is a much easier and more tangible problem to tackle.

It helps you break free from all the dogma and limiting narratives around confidence that trap so many athletes.

Instead, you can start taking action, owning your capabilities, and building your own momentum.

You can check out the full breakdown here.