Just Believe in Yourself

Believing in oneself is the basis for many Hollywood films such as Hoosiers, Rudy, or all eight Rocky movies... it's the one big thing all legends have in common. They believe in their talent even when the deck is stacked against them and the perseverance on never giving up is important.

When you believe in yourself, you will find that there are no limits for you in any athletic performance, including your CrossFit training. The mind is a much more powerful tool in workouts, athletics, and life than we often give it credit for.

In general, you are going to be limited by the things that you believe could be possible. This deserves repeating, if you are an athlete, there will always be the limitations of what you believe is possible. You will always act in accordance with your own beliefs. Many workouts or competitions can be won or lost due to our ability (or inability) to control our thoughts.

Weightlifting is a prime example. If you approach a bar thinking that it is going to be heavy, unsure if you are going to be able to lift it, you may as well have already failed. And if you aren’t careful, this thought pattern could turn viral and become a vicious cycle. If you don’t believe in your skills and talent, you aren’t going to give it 100% and you will always come up short. Eventually, you'll end up losing confidence in yourself and the next time, you will put in even less and less effort.

On the other hand, if you approach that barbell telling yourself that you are going to hit the lift, and visualize doing it, it becomes much easier to lift that weight. Extinguish your limiting beliefs and all that self-limiting inner talk and consciously choose to believe in yourself and give your maximum effort, then you are going to achieve some incredible results.

This doesn’t mean your athletic performance will instantly make you stronger or faster overnight. You won’t automatically wake up great at things but if you simply change your thought patterns and begin to believe in yourself, you work hard and put in the time and effort and actively work on technique in the pursuit of mastery, you can be UNSTOPPABLE!

***BONUS*** All of this will carry over into your other areas and successes in life. Your results in sports, school, at work and beyond are not because you lack ability. Instead, it is the belief that you are going to help you in this process. Positivity, and mental focus go a long way.

3 Steps to Believing in Yourself:

• Visualize succeeding and reaching your goals. Without positive visualization, your goals are unlikely to be completed.

• Stay in the moment. If you failed in the past, so what? Don’t allow the past to hold you back. Live in the present and strive to succeed.

• Relax. There is no need to get nervous over things that you cannot control. Free your mind from worry and negative thoughts and allow yourself to succeed.

Edited and expanded from the article Learning to Believe in Yourself as an Athlete by Gregg Swanson; owner of Warrior Mind Coach specializing in the development of mental strength to reach your maximum human potential and achieve peak performance.

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