In all walks of life, confidence or lack of is often the defining feature between success and failure.
Confidence to make a difficult decision in the workplace. Confidence that you know what you’re doing when you take your driving test. Confidence that you can join your first gym class or lift weights for the first time. In the fitness world, confidence, or what scientists call self-efficacy , is also a key component to people achieving their goals. To have confidence that, despite being short of time, lacking energy, or lack of motivation, doing the work out you had planned or going for that walk or jog will take you one step closer to your goal and it is worth doing!
There is a lot of scientific evidence to prove that confidence has a positive effect on how hard people train and indeed the way they train and confidence and has long been recognized by sports scientists and elite level athletes and coaches as being one of the most important factors to a successful team or individual performance.
So, how does confidence influence whether we achieve our fitness goals?
We spoke with Rob Francis, an Ex-marine and Paratrooper, fitness, health and wellbeing expert and owner of Gympass partner gym, energie Fitness Gym in Milton Keynes about how having a positive mental attitude and in particular, confidence is key to getting fitter, healthier and stronger. Here are his top five tips for developing your own self confidence in order to boost your chances of success.
1. Tell yourself that you can do it!
This sounds like one of those trite expressions that is easier said than done. But believe me, it isn’t. It truly is as simple as repeating to yourself a “belief statement ”. In other words, say out loud to yourself, “I will succeed in achieving my- insert goal- here.” Then confirm this by expressing how you will achieve your goal: “ By taking steps 1,2,3, I will achieve my goal of X. ”
For example: “I am going to lose my first five pounds of body fat by walking to and from work and preparing my meals in advance.” Or “I will be a fitter healthier person by attending just three of my favorite online fitness classes a week and drinking enough water every day.” If you repeat this simple statement every day- perhaps when you’re brushing your teeth in the morning- then you will inevitably begin to truly believe it. You must make sure that, like the examples above, the statement is relevant to you. It needs to be specific and you need to make sure that it’s achievable.
2. Teach yourself or get someone to teach you.
Lack of knowledge or understanding is one of the biggest barriers to our confidence. If there is something you want to do, but don’t have the confidence to do it, start by learning about it . This could be as simple as googling a particular subject or watching a Youtube video, it could be as simple as asking someone who does know. Or you could decide that you really want to do something properly and to pay for either a course or for a trainer’s specific expertise.
If I refer to my days as a Paratrooper. Once we had passed all the weeks and months of physical training required to become a Parachute Regiment soldier, we then had to pass the Parachute training itself. …… ..I’m someone who has a strong natural fear of heights. Ordinarily, there is no way I would ever have chosen to throw myself out of an aircraft from about 150 meters up in the air traveling, yet with the correct training, I managed to do it. Training on how the parachute system works. Training on how to take the necessary action at the right time in case of emergency and training on how to land without breaking your back or legs …… then, and only then, did I have the confidence to jump out of that aircraft.
This is exactly the same with fitness or diet. If we know what we are doing, why we are doing it and how it will work- then we are far more likely to have the confidence we need for success.
3. Celebrate all victories (no matter how small it may seem!)
We can easily spend time being self-critical, or displeased with what we haven’t done, or what we should have done. We don’t spend enough time congratulating ourselves on our achievements . No matter how small it may seem, we should recognize when we have done something well or succeeded at something. Even go as far as rewarding yourself and making a point of celebrating your achievement.
It may not seem like much, but if you took the time to get out for a walk today, despite it being a bit wet and miserable, you can feel proud and recognize the beneficial effects of the walk. The fresh air made you feel more alert, the cold wind or rain made you feel much better. It is easy to find and celebrate the positives in almost any action.
4. Get your friends and family on board .
It’s hard to do anything in isolation. So don’t be afraid to enlist the support of your friends, work colleagues or loved ones. If people around you know that you are trying to achieve something or that you lack confidence in something, in particular, they are more likely to assist and support you.
Just think how, if someone else says, “You’re looking well, that new diet is doing you loads of good!” or “You’re looking much faster / stronger / leaner- your new gym is working out for you,” you get a huge lift in confidence. Especially if it comes when you’re not expecting it. Friends and family and good work colleagues will want to support you and congratulate you as you develop.
5. See yourself succeeding.
A well-tried and tested technique used by sports teams and athletes is the use of imagery. This is where we spend time thinking through and imagining, in as much detail as possible, the actions and successful outcomes of an event. This is simple if all you have to do is run 100 meters. It’s easy to picture yourself on the starting blocks and to imagine the feel as the gun goes off and you drive through the balls of your feet to take the first stride. Or the moment you duck for the line.
It is also something we can put into practice in our everyday life, too. Perhaps visualize in as much detail as you felt when you completed your first class at the gym. How you felt a rush of positivity, of exhilaration at completing the class. If you are feeling less motivated on a particular day then use this visualization technique to boost your confidence and positivity- it will increase your motivation and make you much more likely to get on the work out you were umming and ahhing about.
