Developing Ultimate Confidence

By Richard Ferguson, Ph.D. - Confidence is a very elusive phenomenon. It can’t be bought, it’s not just talking a good game, another person can’t give it you, but it certainly can be developed. You can read books on confidence, you can listen to tapes on confidence and you can even visit a sport psychologist and talk about confidence, but no matter how much knowledge you have about confidence, it’s doesn’t mean that deep down inside you are confident about yourself or your running. Your true confidence will only be revealed when you are put to the test and for any runner that test is usually a race situation.

While there is no set recipe to develop confidence, there are certain factors that seem to be common to gaining confidence in any sport. Ultimately, confidence must be earned and usually the price for earning confidence is sheer hard work. There is no better source of confidence than going to the starting line knowing that you have trained hard and prepared to the best of your ability. If you know you are better trained than the guy next to you then you already have a lead in the race before the gun ever fires.

On the other hand, it’s not just hard training that counts, it’s also smart training. All too often runners fall into the “more is better trap”. Too much training volume can lead to overtraining, chronic fatigue and burnout. A solid, well designed training plan that incorporates periodized training, a good diet, rest and recovery can certainly build confidence, especially if the training plan has been demonstrated in the past to work for you.

You can never be confident you will always win or always run a personal best, because there are just too many external variables you can’t control, like competitors, weather and illness. However, you can be confident that you have trained smart to your utmost ability and that you will give your absolute best effort in the race. Outcome is never certain, but your effort should be. If you make a commitment to the process of sound preparation the outcome will take care of itself. I always remind my clients and students that process leads to product!

Too often fear of failure drains confidence. If your self identity is tied to your race time and finish place then a poor placing or slower than desired time can drain self-esteem, which can ultimately drain confidence. By not fearing failure you are free to explore the limits of your potential because you are not focused on winning or losing, but on being the best you can be as a runner, and when you focus on doing your best the results take care of themselves. By learning to challenging your own personal limits in running you become more confident in testing yourself and understanding that real accomplishment comes in simply finding out just how good you can be through exploring your limits.

From my own running experiences and my work with other runners one the most critical factors in the development of ultimate confidence is dealing with failure when it does occur. All humans fail and runners are certainly no exception. If you are able to turn failure into something that helps you in the future you are on the trail to building confidence. Too often the perception of performing poorly in a race is one that makes you angry, disappointed, frustrated and depressed. But these emotions are only due to your perception of the race, not the race itself. If each time you have a disappointing race you respond with negative emotions like anger and depressed mood, you are conditioning yourself to respond that way in the future. You have the power to change how you interpret poorer than hoped for performances. Ask yourself if you honestly gave the best effort possible and if the answer is yes, have some positive emotions. Would you have liked to have run faster? Yes, but if you gave your honest best effort then don’t be negative because you gave the cause all you had to give. Objectively look at your preparation leading up to the race and see if there is anything that needs to be changed for future races, but be sure to keep emotion out of this post race analysis. Learn from the past and let it go, so that when you get to your next race your mind will be clear of negative emotions. Hanging on to negative perceptions will only lead to negative emotions like anxiety, fear of failure and lack of focus, all of which can reduce the chances of running to your highest level. The next race you run is where your focus needs to be, not on any negatives of past performances.

So really having ultimate confidence is all about diving headfirst into the future with no negatives of the past or expectations from others to hold you back. You can’t be afraid to fail, but you also can’t be afraid to succeed. Many runners may actually be afraid to see how good they can become, because the faster you run and the higher you place the higher the expectations are the next time out. Usually these expectations come from others and you in turn internalize them. The only real expectation you should have is that you prepare your best and give your absolute best effort in the race. Results will simply take care of themselves. Process leads to product, not product to process.

Sometimes things don’t always turn out as you would like or hope for, but on the other hand, sometimes things turn out a lot better than you expect. Running is no exception since on some days “you are the bear” and on other days “the bear eats you”. The key is to continually train hard, train smart, learn from the past, apply the learning to the future, give your best effort and be happy when you do so. If you simply believe in the process then you do indeed have ultimate confidence.