Do you doubt you can perform at your best in your next training session or competition? Ever think 'I can’t do that’ or ‘I’m not good enough’ to achieve that goal? Or perhaps you’re filled with anxiety before your competition? These are all signs you’re lacking confidence. Here’s how to change that:

Achieve sky-high confidence in your sport by focusing on past accomplishments

By intentionally and consciously noticing all of your past accomplishments, both inside and outside of your sport, that show:

you can overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges
with consistent hard and smart work you can crush your goals
when you believe in yourself you knock it out of the park
you have the mindset to crush it, and you’re training your brain to handle greater levels of capacity
your body can smash it, and you’re training it to handle greater load

…your levels of confidence will shoot into the stars. And no one will be able to bring you down, because your amazing levels of confidence will stem from things only YOU can influence.

“Your brain edits your reality according to what you tell it to look for”

— Adelaide Goodeve

Become aware of your reality

When you’re doing nervousness, stress or anxiety around not achieving your competition goal, it’s often because your brain is highlighting to you all of the things (past, present and future) that prove you do not have this, whether it’s the reasons you’ll likely fail, your areas of weaknesses and/or something else.

This creates a negative performance feedback loop, because the unhelpful/negative evidence reinforces your belief that you can’t do this, which is then what your brain shows you, and this cycle is repeated.

For example, if you’re telling yourself that you’re a slow runner, your brain will highlight to you all of the things that confirm this to be true; while simultaneously hiding all of the reasons that show you this to be false, because it doesn’t believe this information is helpful to you, so it won’t show it you.

Challenge your reality

One of my pro triathletes once believed he was a slow swimmer - despite his times put him solidly top-mid of the pack.

But because he believed he was a slow swimmer, his brain would jump up and down waving a big red sign at him around the very few things that made him believe he was a slow swimmer - so this was his reality.

His brain would hide or label with a sad emoji face as not good enough, the things that made him a fast swimmer e.g. his times, great placements, awesome technique etc.

To remove this limiting belief I asked him to gather ALL of the positive evidence proving he actually swam like a fish. He couldn’t believe how high up his swim times placed him against the pro's competing at the Ironman World Championships!

We then installed a really powerful belief that he swam like a shark. The very next day he was first out of the water in a half Ironman distance race for the first time in his career.

Choose your reality

By deliberately choosing and focusing on your POSITIVE EVIDENCE, you are telling your brain to show you ALL of the MANY reasons why you have 100% GOT THIS.

This creates a positive performance feedback loop, because the helpful/positive evidence reinforces your belief that you can do this, which is then what your brain shows you, and this cycle is repeated instead.

For example, if you tell yourself that ‘I am a fast runner’ (notice how you’re not comparing your speed to others), then your brain will highlight to you all of the things that show you this to be true (your positive evidence).

fast runner feedback loop | Adelaide Goodeve.png

Choose relevant evidence

Another pro paraclimber of mine was competing in the 2019 Paraclimbing World Championships and wanted to really know that he could perform at his best under competition settings.

Although he had limited experience in climbing competitions, he was a competitive marathon runner and had many races under his belt proving that he excelled under competition settings.

This was the positive evidence he needed that validated to him that he could perform at his best during climbing competitions.

At the World Championships, he went in confident and hit moves that helped him climb the ranks!

Summary

As you can see, noticing negative and limiting evidence on a conscious and unconscious basis, will lead to low levels of motivation, confidence and performance.

However, by intentionally and consciously noticing positive and powerful evidence you will do epic levels of motivation, confidence and performance.

When you’re DOING low levels of confidence, hit pause and remind yourself of all of the reasons why you CAN do it e.g. run as fast as you can.

This will strengthen those powerful, positive neuropathways and tell your brain to show you all of the positive evidence happening in your daily life that makes this true.

So which world would you rather create and live in?

(A) The one in which my brain highlights all of the positive evidence that I CAN do it, empowering me to do incredible levels of confidence and motivation, and unstoppable performance

(B) The one in which my brain highlights all of the evidence that I can’t do it

Tell me A or B in the comments below!

Adelaide

P.S. Ready to take your performance to the next level? Here are 3 ways I can help you:

1. Apply for a free 30 minute call to discuss your ultimate performance goal and how to get there. Apply now by clicking here.

2. Read one of my most popular blogs: Athletes: How To Create Your Playlist For Unstoppable Performance

3. Follow me on Instagram (@adelaidegoodeve) for daily free brain hacks