How Anyone Can Build the Unshakable Confidence of Elite Performers

Here are 3 steps from my career of coaching elite performers that anyone can use to build unshakable confidence, regardless of professional role or personal ambition.

By harnessing the lessons from the best athletes and leaders I've been around, anyone can learn to appreciate the long road to achieving success and tap into an ability to transform any win or loss along the way into an increased sense of self-worth and confidence in one's own abilities.

Unfortunately, while these steps can be simple, they are not easy. Building authentic self-confidence requires commitment, a consistent approach, and hard work to unleash the true feeling of self-confidence that elite performers feel every day.

Here's how, step by step:

Step 1: Reflect on Previous Wins

So many elite performers I've worked with routinely disregard their previous successes in life and share feelings of imposter syndrome.

It's important to develop a good practice of self-reflection. This allows you to recognize the immense value of your previous success, and also understand the habits and abilities that were required of you to accomplish those successes in the first place. Oftentimes, attributes such as resilience, work ethic, mindset, and teamwork translate into any other area of your life and should be appreciated, not discounted.

Step 2: Set Up Small Wins

This is a crucial element to any elite performer because it creates a habit of winning, otherwise known as "The Winner Effect." Achievement is a skill just like any other ability, and setting up small goals and accomplishing them starts to get you used to that winning feeling.

You can do this by creating small goals for yourself to accomplish on a daily or weekly basis.

For instance, if you're trying to get in shape, that will be impossible to do in one day or one week. Instead, focus on creating small wins by simply showing up at the gym and the positive feeling that comes from showing up. Even though showing up at the gym in merely one small win today, you will start to get used to that feeling of accomplishment.

This feeling of accomplishment helps create momentum, and makes it easier to incorporate other small wins and winning habits into your routine, such as eating healthier or doing more sit ups.

Step 3: Be Picky With The People That Surround You

While it is called self-confidence, the people we surround ourselves with is the most overlooked aspect of building great confidence in one's abilities. Nobody, whether a company's CEO or an elite individual athlete, accomplishes great things alone.

Make sure you are building a team for your support, whether accountability partners or people that are simply pulling for you and provide reliable emotional support, is essential to feeling good about yourself and giving you great confidence.

When I am going through tough personal hardships or professional challenges, it is normal that feelings of doubt or imposter syndrome sneak into my inner thoughts. But what consistently brings me back on point and elevates the way I think about myself to give me unshakable confidence is to picture how those in my inner circle think about me. These are people that would be the first to remind me of who I am, where I've been, and what I've accomplished.

Make sure that your inner circle can provide for you the same feeling of erasing self-doubt and energizing you through any difficult times.

By taking these steps, anyone can start to turn around any situation or feelings of inadequacy commonly associated with imposter syndrome and begin to pave a path towards developing an unbeatable self-confidence.