I tend to be someone that tries to accomplish as much as they can throughout their day. I begin my mornings quite early, and from the moment I open my eyes, I'm parceling out each hour to one task or another. I DO accomplish a lot each day, but for the longest time, I couldn't seem to be confident in the abilities that I had developed through my achievements.
A confident mindset is essential to furthering your skills, whether they be sports related, musical, or in the performing arts. Whatever your inclination, you need a certain measure of confidence to get to the next level of expertise. How does one go about this? There are a few things that helped me raise my confidence levels, and in my case, they are related to being a performing musician.
First and foremost, you must envision success. If you cannot see yourself doing well before you even begin your task (whatever it might be), you are are most certainly destined for failure. Even if it seems difficult or initially unsuccessful, take your brain through a mental 'trip' of your performance. Imagine each step in your brain as you have practiced it, and think carefully about how you will do it perfectly. Of course, no performance is perfect, whether it be for sports or anything else, but cognitively manifesting a perfect performance almost guarantees a laudable one in real life.
Secondly, practice your performance. There is no better way to gain confidence in an ability than to practice it. I don't mean go to your empty room and practice your instrument or recite your speech. I mean replicate a performance setting as closely as possible. Put on your performance clothes, invite friends or family to sit in your living room, and perform. I suggest doing this as many times as you can tolerate (or that your family can tolerate). The idiom "practice makes perfect" is something we are all familiar with, but I prefer the altered phrase of "performance makes perfect".
These two simple steps will assuredly help you with your confidence, if not at least to calm your nerves prior to any event requiring a healthy dose of confidence.
