Imagineering Confidence – Take Your Confidence To New Heights

Champions Minimise Doubts

For most boxers, there are many times where mental devils of doubts try to make unwarranted and unwanted appearances in your mind: ‘Can I do it?’, ‘Am I really cut out for this?’, ‘Am I really going to make it?’. Even in times where you are going through a period of success, or are usually a confident, there are times when these little lucifers knock on the door, asking to be invited in. However, the most elite athletes, the  most successful champions minimise the damaging effects, suppressing the doubts. They remain in a state of continuous belief and self- confidence. For those of you who serious about strengthening your winning mindset, there is one mental practice you can learn to help you achieve this.

Imagineering

Imagineering is a technique that utilises your senses in order to  improve your performance when you step into the ring, and champions do this prior to a match. Research has proven, that Imagineering enhances confidence which in turn enhances performance, so any athlete who fails to invest time into practicing this part of their mental game risks limiting the range of their potential success.

Think Success To Bring Success

What you must do, is imagine yourself having already experienced what is about to come before, in every possible aspect and in the most vivid ways possible. So a fighter, would imagine walking the venue he’s fighting in, the crowd he’ll be surrounded by and everything else imaginable. Most importantly, you have  to imagine your own performance. Taking this further, you don’t want to just watch the mental representation you have in your head, but you want to feel yourself winning as much as you can. The more emotion you bring into it, the better. Imagination accompanied by the feeling of triumphing and overcoming struggles, adversity, and obstacles can create an extremely empowering enthusiasm within you.

The Mental Infection Of Loss Acceptance

Imagining yourself failing to overcome a certain problem can you more harm than you think. This is due to the fact that on a subconscious level you are accepting the reality of losing which makes it more likely and no matter how small the chances are, losing is not a situation you want to encourage by  any stretch of the imagination at all.  Allowing your subconscious to harbour worries and doubts can only harm you in the long run.

This is so important in boxing because the pressure leading up to a fight is immense, and there’s nothing quite like it, and that is why people in the boxing world always talk about another fighter getting in another fighter’s head and winning the fight even before any of them first stepped into a ring. Doubts and worries can ruin you, so why let it exist? Do not involve yourself with the impractical. Rather, you want to feed the positive energy within you, promoting successful images and feelings in your mind, giving yourself the best possible chance of performing at your absolute peak.

Acknowledging The Threat of Loss

Despite the fact that it is important to envision being in successful situations, it also is imperative you imagine triumphing through times of adversity and struggle. Many athletes naively focus on winning when the tide is in their favour. This inevitably means that when the storm comes, they know little of how to navigate the ship. You hear fighters talk of how ‘they’ve prepared for everything’. But we can guarantee that they do not prepare for the moment that ‘everything’ isn’t enough.

What will they do when their plans fail? More importantly, how will they feel. When they encounter the onset of stress and discouragement (a thing hard to prepare for in training), how will they react? It will be a shock to their system when they find that their emotions will be out of control when adversity comes for them, and they will be undone. It is important to suppress your ego, and acknowledge that the threat of failure is real, but it is possible to be prepared. Dedicate time towards focusing on how you will triumph over it when it comes for you, because it most certainly will.

Final Note – Are They Doing It?

To perform at your absolute best you always have to do be willing to do as much as you can. So many athletes neglect to strengthen their mind, and this is why so many are broken down. Even if you think you’re already confident, imagine how great you can be if you regularly practice this aspect of your mental game. Champions always do more than their peers, but since you’re here, reading this, accepting that you have further still to go, you are already on the road to doing what it takes.