Phase 1 session 2: Building self-confidence
Transcript:
Why confidence is important when it comes to lifting.
In this session, we're going to look at confidence boosting strategies and work towards creating a positive self-image that will help you step into the gym in the right mindset.
Let's look at what confidence can mean to us as individuals. Confidence is a feeling or belief in yourself, your abilities and qualities. But it also affects our judgement and decision making.
When we're in a confident mindset, we're more likely to trust our judgement and make decisions based on our beliefs and values. But when we’re lacking confidence, we may doubt our ability to make the right decision, which can lead to indecision or making decisions based on the opinions of others or other external factors.
I’m going to give you 5 strategies to help you work on your confidence and I’ll give a breakdown of each one. These key areas include:
Focusing on your strengths to feel more capable and competent
Prioritising self-care to improve your physical, emotional, and mental health
Challenging negative self-talk by replacing it with positive affirmations
As well as:
Setting achievable goals to give you direction and a sense of accomplishment
Surrounding yourself with positive people who believe in you and encourage you
These strategies have been proven to be effective so you should absolutely apply them to the gym but you can also use them in other areas of your life.
The first strategy for building confidence is to focus on your strengths. Identify what you're good at and what you enjoy doing. When you focus on your strengths rather than your weaknesses, you'll feel more capable, which will in turn boost your confidence. This thought process is known as a strength-based approach.
This is really effective for building confidence because it helps you to recognise your abilities and accomplishments. When you concentrate on what you do well and enjoy doing, you gain a sense of competence which can help you feel more confident in your ability to tackle things that are challenging.
So we want to emphasise your strengths and abilities rather than your weaknesses. Things that you feel good about rather than things you feel bad about. Instead of focusing on what you can't do, it will encourage you to think about what you can do. This will improve confidence and self-esteem.
The second strategy is to practise self-care. Now we’ve all heard of self-care, but it can and should start with the absolute basics. So, taking care of your physical, emotional, and mental health are all areas that should be involved in our self-care practice.
Physical aspects can involve getting enough quality sleep, having a healthy diet, regular physical activity - which can just be walking, and taking time to relax and recover.
Emotional self-care includes any activities that help you acknowledge and express your feelings, so it could be journaling or talking about your emotions with someone to help you reflect on your thoughts and feelings.
And while these other areas can absolutely affect mental health, the mental side of self-care should incorporate things like managing stress, setting healthy boundaries, and practising compassion for yourself and positive self-talk.
This brings us onto our next strategy…
The third strategy is to challenge negative self-talk.
We all have an inner critic that sometimes tells us that we're not good enough or that we can't do something. This negative self-talk can be really damaging to our confidence and self-esteem. To challenge negative self-talk, we need to replace it with something positive. For example, instead of saying, "I can't do this," say, "I am capable of doing this."
It's important to be aware of our inner critic and how it affects us because sometimes, we might not even realise we’re doing it. You could even ask yourself, would I say this to someone else in a situation where they’re feeling bad? Or when they need support? Unless you’re actually a mean person, it’s likely you wouldn’t.
The fourth strategy is setting achievable goals. Setting goals gives us direction and purpose. And when we achieve our goals, it gives us a sense of accomplishment and boosts our confidence. Because of this, it’s important to set realistic goals otherwise you could end up in a downward spiral of feeling bad about yourself. So you need to work towards things that are challenging but achievable.
Working towards achievable goals that challenge you enough can help you build momentum as you work towards them. It's also important to break down larger goals into smaller, more manageable steps, so that you keep getting those quick wins and feel proud of your achievements along the way.
Finally, it's important to remember that goals are not set in stone. If you find that a goal you've set for yourself is not achievable, or if your circumstances change, it's okay to adjust your goals accordingly. The important thing is to keep moving forward and stay focused on progress rather than perfection.
The fifth and final strategy is surrounding yourself with positive influences. Notice I’ve said influences and not people. The people we spend time with can have a significant impact on our confidence and the way we think, but I appreciate that it’s not always possible to completely avoid spending time with negative people.
You should aim to surround yourself with people who believe in you, support you, and encourage you but sometimes that is going to involve a lot of self development, learning how to set boundaries and limiting your exposure to negative people in your life.
This might mean limiting your time on social media or choosing to unfollow certain people. It could mean spending time with people who lift you up and less time with people that bring you down. This is something that I see in people’s circle of friends, when they’re making positive changes to their lifestyle, and their friends aren’t doing that so they become a bit negative about it.
So make sure that most of the time, the people and things you allow into your life align with your goals and values.
In conclusion, building self-confidence and self-esteem are essential for getting through difficult challenges.
Remember to focus on your strengths, practise self-care, challenge negative self-talk, set achievable goals, and surround yourself with positive influences.
By following these strategies, you'll be in a much better place.
So download the worksheet. You can make a copy to fill it in via google docs and refer back to these goals every so often, because things might change.
