Read on to learn 10 ways to boost your self-confidence before your next race and triathlon for the rest of your life.
- Self-confidence in racing is rooted in training efforts and achievements. Train the most intelligent of your mental capacities. Get ready for the fastest of your physical capabilities. Perform in races to achieve optimal results from both.
- Self-confidence does not prevent fear. The fear of the unknown before the races is a great motivation to be prepared for different scenarios. Just don’t be scared by your self-confidence.
- Building self-confidence is like a routine. Triathletes like routines. We perform rituals. Notice how meticulously most racers set up their gear in transition. And don’t even think about moving someone else’s stuff once it’s in place.
- Self-confidence in isolation is ignorance. Validating your self-confidence with or in consideration of others improves your performance in the race.
- Self-confidence is fitting. Have you ever noticed how the fastest triathletes dress? Just like all the other fastest triathletes. Dress for success on race day. Entrepreneurs dress every day according to the rules of their office.
- If you are successful at everything, then you are not stretching your self-confidence or competing at your peak capabilities.
- If your self-confidence ever drops, create a retrospective success list. Make a list of your achievements to restore your confidence in the future. Be a Phoenix and rise from the ashes of a dead flame.
- Self-confidence is not broken by failure, but is strengthened by success in subsequent endeavors.
- Fully utilizing your self-confidence is giving your best against everyone, whether they finish ahead of you or outperform others.
- And if you’re preparing for your first triathlon or maybe your first Ironman triathlon, then you need to act like a triathlete. Winners do this all the time.
In three track meets over a seven-month period, I graduated from a class of nearly 400 students to compete at a Big 10 university with a student body of over 35,000 students. I went from setting my high school’s 800-meter dash record to finishing last in my debut track race in college. My confidence was shattered. I had one foot off the track and considered walking away from the sport. Big Ten champion and teammate Mark Shroyer set me back. He first started a conversation to find out all the things we accomplished before the first race. He then convinced me that a single major or even a full year of challenging majors as a freshman would not determine the full potential of a college career. The harshness experienced in defeat was instrumental in building my confidence and strength for future success.
Mark earned All-American status. With mentorship from him, he took me to find my confidence at a new career level that never wavered. Even 10 years later when I became a MOP triathlete.
Later, when I was living in Seattle in the mid-1990s on an impromptu group bike ride with half a dozen triathletes, the conversation turned to Ironman racing and triathlete designations. The consensus of the group was that triathletes weren’t really triathletes unless they completed a full 140.6-mile Ironman triathlon. I had never met those riders before, but for me, after 25 triathlons in 10 years, I was confident in being a triathlete, even without an Ironman race on my resume. I didn’t respond like a phony and pretended to be an Ironman. Actually, triathlon is an accumulation sport.
People can’t take away what you’ve already achieved.
Triathletes do not place asterisks next to their names due to times, places or distances to mark their achievements. Whether you ran an Ironman or any other triathlon, you will always be a triathlete.
We can be our worst enemy if we perceive that we have little confidence in ourselves. Don’t think you are a fraud. Don’t believe your hype either. Instead, believe in yourself. You got the opportunity to compete by signing up, training, qualifying or even self-determination to prove that you are not fake.
If you act like a triathlete and run like a triathlete, then you are a triathlete!
And do not allow yourself to believe that you are a fraud in any other activity in your life.
Did a race or training result destroy your self-confidence? What did you do to get your mojo back and never let it go?