Welcome to Mental Moments with Dr. Megan! This new section will share quick information and tips for various mental performance topics and issues each month. To get us started, two FSU sport psychology students break down the importance of emotion regulation and how you can better manage your emotions to maintain composure during competition.
Dr. Megan Buning, CMPC, is a faculty member within FSU COACH and a Certified Mental Performance Consultant through the Association of Applied Sport Psychology.
Hot Take: Confidence is Overrated!
Derek Sorensen, M.S.
Headshot: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wKaEgH1HLWx6Une7Fp0UI8Vp4_vp2JCo/view
Link to optional handout: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XNDubp4jfowO5WJ6Yk3vaiWuWDNVVBXj
Everyone has a “hot take”. Maybe you are like me and think chocolate ice cream tastes like gasoline. Or maybe, you are like my wife and think that your spouse isn’t all that funny (big hot take and wrong)! Here is another hot take: Confidence is overrated. Young athletes often hear trivial phrases like, “confidence is key” or “motivation is everything.” The problem with these phrases is that feelings like confidence and motivation can be fleeting and out of our control. High performers believe that they can show up and execute their skills, regardless of if their confidence is high or low that particular day. We need to change the way we view confidence.
Research shows that while confidence is important for performance, it does not have the biggest impact— especially when compared to mindfulness (see handout). Mindfulness is the awareness and acceptance of thoughts and feelings. Traditional views on confidence suggest that if we feel low confidence, we should panic and expect low performance. Mindfulness suggests that we should accept our feelings of low confidence, set them to the side, and refocus on what is most important. One way we can do this is with the following formula: “Even though you feel X, does not mean you can’t Y.” For example, “Even though you feel unconfident, does not mean you can’t keep your eye on the ball.” This formula can be used in all sorts of different contexts to help athletes be more mindful, and less worried about their confidence.