Two Bad Habits that Ruin Confidence in Sports

There are two bad habits that many athletes today engage in - and they do it without even thinking about it. The habits I’m talking about are NOT about drinking or smoking.

The two bad habits that kill confidence are…

1. Setting unrealistic expectations
2. Engaging in self-doubt

I talk about both of these concepts a ton in my work, as they will Hold you back and cripple self-confidence. Here is my conclusion after working with 1000’s of athletes:

**Strict or high expectations can undermine
and suck the life out of confidence!**

Why are expectations so harmful to your confidence? First, you set yourself up for a win/lose proposition. You either achieve your expectations or you fail to achieve your expectations. Not a good scenario for success.

Second, if you don’t achieve your predetermined expectations, it’s easy to question your ability that day either during or after your performance. Essentially, you set yourself up for failure before you even take the field or court.

Here is a typical example: One of my golf students started every round with an unrealistic expectation to hit the ball perfectly every shot. When he hit his first bad or even marginal shot,
he would start to question his swing mechanics and wonder if he would hit the ball well enough to score a low round that day.

Enough on expectations – I think you get the point. What about self-doubt? Why is doubt a confidence killer?

Doubt is the number one killer to confidence. Pessimistic or perfectionistic athletes tend to hold on tight to doubts, which if left to run wild can ruin your mindset and derail performance.

Some athletes start doubting before they even get in the game or start the competition - "How can we win today against this team?" However, most athletes struggle with doubt after making
a mistake or performing poorly in competition.

When you let doubt run rampant and unchecked, it beats down your confidence. However, athletes who can recognize doubt and turn it into statements of confidence - can counter the negative influence doubt may have over them, which should be your goal today.

Fight the doubt and take back control of your confidence!

I have some great news for you today. We have a new program to help you overcome strict expectations, abolish self-doubt and build ultimate self-confidence in 14 days!

If you want confidence oozing out of your head, I suggest you jump on over to peaksports.com and check out THE CONFIDENT ATHLETE: A 14-Day Plan for Ultimate Self-Confidence!

This program will go a long way to helping you get the *confidence
edge* over your competition: Get More Sports Confidence Today!

Your Ultimate Confidence Coach,

Patrick J. Cohn, Ph.D.,
Master Mental Game Coach

P.S. There are two premium bonuses that come with THE CONFIDENT ATHLETE: A 14-Day Plan for Ultimate Self-Confidence, which will help you stomp out strict expectation and fight the doubt after mistakes. The best part is you can download these free bonuses right away and begin to take back control of your confidence: http://www.peaksports.com/The_Confident_Athlete.php