Our first question comes with a long answer, but theres some great pointers here on really important question about self doubt. WHERE DOES SELF DOUBT COME FROM? WHY DOES IT HAVE A GREATER EFFECT ON SOME PEOPLE MORE THAN OTHERS? WHAT IS THE BEST WAY OF COMBATING IT? Jane has prepared this answer and is on line now to answer any further questions you might have on this. Please post your questions or comments on this topic below and Jane will endeavour to answer! Self-doubt is an insidious little seed that basically stems from fear. If you are experiencing self-doubt in any area of your riding, it is most likely springing from a thought process that leads you to believe that you are not going to be able to follow through or deliver the results that you need in order to be successful. And in saying successful, I don’t necessarily mean in a competitive sense. Success is subjective, and can range from making it around a course in one piece to ending the day at the top of the rankings. Self-doubt begins as a niggle, and the niggle starts with a change in focus. As the saying goes, where attention goes, energy flows. Whatever you focus on, you will find, even if it wasn’t there in the first place. If you begin to doubt yourself, you have consciously or unconsciously, begun to direct your focus to your less desired possibility. The voice in your head starts to ask you a series of disempowering questions and statements, combined with a series of images in your mind. What am I doing here? That jump looks huge! I’m really not sure I want to do this. I’m not sure that I have what it takes, I’m really out of my league. What was I thinking?! Is it getting cloudy over there? My horse hates the rain! The brain is like a computer. The types of software you load and how you run your systems will essentially determine the answers it provides you with, and when you realize and truly take this on board, then you realize that like anything, the ability to be self-confident is really a skill. It’s a muscle, just like anything else. It’s a set of abilities combined with a set of beliefs, and it’s trained. WHY DOES IT HAVE A GREATER EFFECT ON SOME PEOPLE MORE THAN OTHERS? Because of an ability to change their focus, to influence their physiology and the way that they move their bodies, and by the types of questions they ask themselves. If you are experiencing self-doubt on a consistent basis, in relation to a common event, then you will have a ritual that you take yourself through in order to be in that state. This is not necessarily conscious, but there will be a pattern of behavior, of self-talk and of focus that you will be replicating until you essentially become skilled at self-doubt. It is the same for confidence. You need to model the behavior of confident riders. You need to discover the types of thoughts you need to cultivate, a way of speaking to yourself and a way of moving that is your “confident” state. In addition to this, it’s obviously not enough to “feel confident”. Telling yourself you can jump at Grand Prix level when you have just started on trot poles is obviously not the recipe for success. BEST WAY OF COMBATING? The answer is repetition, repetition, repetition. Persistence. Combined with the right focus, self-confidence will come when the situation is not new to you. You need to get yourself into a position where you are like, I’ve done this 1000 times! Where you’ve done the physical and the mental homework required to feel confident and to feel successful. Primarily you need to train yourself to: - Control what you focus on - Give your circumstances and situation an empowering meaning - Take control of your emotional state and develop rituals to support it
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 06:33:36 +0000
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