Most people are used to having to work at:
- Building confidence, or
- Finding confidence
As if it’s a mythical object or quality we somehow mislaid.
Oddly, those people who have it don’t talk about it, and those that think they’ve lost it and it’s the holy grail to skiing keep looking for it, frequently talking about ‘lack of it’! And guess what keeps showing up in both cases????
In fact, confidence is a consequence of a clear mind. Lack of confidence is a consequence of an unclear mind. So what are some of the other consequences of an unclear mind:
- You’re being analytical
- You’re consuming a lot of mental energy
- You’re searching for it outside of you
- You’ll find yourself on trainings that promise to build or find your confidence
- You’re getting frustrated, annoyed, anxious
- You’re getting tense and fearful
Truth be told, no-one can teach confidence, let alone give it to you. I certainly can’t.
However, I can help you with an understanding of how you’re creating your experience in the moment. And having that understanding can lead to all manner of insights and changes, including the consequence of confidence.
And you don’t have to work backwards from lack of confidence to confidence. It actually doesn’t work that way. It’s more of a ‘flip’. Confidence and lack of confidence can be considered two sides of the same coin. Not two ends of a spectrum. And it’s seeing this that flips you over from one side to the other. ‘Working at it’ means you’ll be spending more time on the downside, not the flipside. And how will you know? See the list above and ask yourself how many of these apply to you?
Bon ski!
PS Here’s an extract from my forthcoming book How to be a complete and utterly useless skier!
#5 Keep looking for the confidence. You probably dropped it on the slopes somewhere so keep looking for it. Whatever you do, don’t give up on the search and allow yourself to ski with nothing on your mind and allow your confidence to re-appear naturally without searching for it or even knowing it, realising it was never lost, merely forgotten. Forget about all those moments when you just knew what to do without thinking about it. That’s only for enlightened people, and those born at an early age.
PPS And if you’ve got 2 minutes to listen, here’s something on confidence from my current ebook/audiobook Skiing with nothing on your mind: Insights in to Skicology
PPPS If you now want to un-cover your confidence in skiing (and everything else too!), book your Skicology sessions here
