How to Create 100% Belief in Yourself The Path to Total Self-Confidence

Building self-confidence in golf and other areas of life is often stopped in its tracks at a certain point. A golf player is somewhat confident in his skills but not really when it comes to big tests.

One of the main reasons for that is because his confidence is fragile and built upon certainty. (I am confident if I am certain I will win.)

Since there is no certainty in sports, confidence remains fragile and it breaks down at the first sign of trouble.

But there's another reason why golf players struggle with being really confident...

Most Golf Players Resist Total Self-Confidence and Belief in Success

Doubt is the biggest enemy of performance in golf. To eliminate doubt means to be certain. And that's not being realistic; it's being somewhat delusional.

A normal person resists such thinking and allows himself to feel doubt, because that's the reality of any sport and life-it's unpredictable.

Many players also resist such thinking because they feel it's not modest-which is an important value that we learn from our parents and society.

Top players are not really modest in their view of themselves. They simply act that way in social situations and interviews in order to be accepted and liked.                                              

Modest players are NOT Major winners and NEVER reach #1 in the world.

In order to become #1, you need to believe you deserve it. And that's not being modest.

Many players find that such strong self-confidence borders on or is even the same as arrogance and boastfulness. Other words that come to mind are vanity and conceit.

These are all words that most people do not want to have attributed to them.

But you need to clear things out of your mind and know exactly what is what in order not to sabotage yourself on the brink of success because you felt you were thinking of yourself too favorably.

The Difference between Strong Confidence and Total Belief in Success

But how do we reconcile the idea of the fragile confidence that I described as confidence based on the outcome (i.e., I am confident if I am certain I will win) - and the idea that believing in the outcome with 100% certainty is the trait of real champions?

The reality is that most people are not capable of such "blind belief" or this slight delusion that you need in order to believe in your success even when reality suggests otherwise.

Most golf players simply adjust their thinking according to reality.

If they are under their handicap, they believe they will win. If they are above it, they believe they will not win.

The score and other factors determine their thinking and, thus, their confidence.

That's why I suggest thinking (building confidence) based on the skills and abilities and not on the outcome.

(Most players are able to adopt this kind of thinking as most players resist thinking that is slightly out of touch with reality as I suggest in this article.)

The predictions of the outcome keep changing during a round, but the skills and abilities do not.

"I believe I CAN (I am capable of) winning" is a statement that does not change during the round.

But even this kind of positive thinking includes doubt and realism. The thinking is "I believe I can win, but it's also possible that I will lose."

The underlying message is still positive, though, and is based on hope. The key is, on the other hand, having 100% belief in success regardless of the reality.

You don't hope anymore; it's not about being positive but about having determination and the faith that any obstacle or problem you'll encounter you'll also overcome.

You must be convinced beyond any doubt that you will succeed.

This kind of thinking is somewhat delusional, and that's why most people cannot accept it or adopt it. But if you do, you will play the best you're capable of.

Not Being Confident Is also Delusional

In my efforts to help golf players understand and adopt the kind of thinking that enables them to believe in themselves 100%, I show them that not being confident is also not realistic. A really non-confident person is thinking "I will not win this match."

Of course, that's not realistic either. As long as you're still playing, there's a chance of winning .

Once you understand that you're being a slight psycho (that's how I put it sometimes to golf players to really emphasize my point) when you're being totally negative and that you're also being a slight psycho when being totally positive, why not choose the positive psycho thinking, which will actually achieve great results?

It's a choice you make in your mind. You control your thoughts if you CHOOSE to!

Whether you choose your thinking, the thoughts will happen anyway. Thoughts keep appearing; we cannot stop them for long periods of time.

Usually, the thoughts that appear without us choosing them are negative. We are aware of the uncertainty of the match, and we haven't really learned to think in the right way to build confidence.

In order to make the best of our potential, we need to take control of our thinking and use our minds as tools. We need to think thoughts that allow us to perform to the best to our ability.

That is mental toughness, and that means being a mental winner. You use your mind to help yourself.

The ultimate goal of mental training is to make your mind your best ally.

Summary - Learning to Believe in Yourself

So, why do some players struggle with confidence?

Because they mix confidence-which is a positive trait-with negative traits such as arrogance, conceit, and showing off.

They resist being really confident because they are afraid they'll be seen as arrogant and boastful.However being really confident means that you don't feel any need to intimidate opponents and you don't feel any need to cover up any of your insecurities with false bravado.

Therefore, do not be afraid to embrace full confidence in yourself. You're not crossing to the dark side of over-confidence or arrogance. You simply KNOW you're good.

One of the more important values for most people is also modesty. Being strongly confident in your abilities and being modest hardly go together, though.

The key is to act modest, but be very confident in your abilities-believe in yourself. That thought includes the lesson we probably all have to learn or have learned already-and that's a lesson on being over-confident.

That happens when you don't respect the golf course. The key to real confidence-a state of mind that only the best possess-is to be slightly delusional; in other words, you believe in your success even when things don't look like they're going that way.

It is a state of mind where you are certain even of the outcome (which, in reality, is uncertain).

While it's true that this state of mind is slightly out of touch with reality, it's also a fact that attempting to hit the ball with complete certainty, lack of doubt, and decisiveness will make the highest percentage of shots go in.

NO OTHER mental state calms and coordinates the mind and body as well as total certainty toward a positive outcome.

If you can adopt this kind of thinking and realize that this is the best use of your mind to achieve the best results of your play, then you're on the right track to be a supremely confident player and play to your full potential.