VS newsletter: Confidence and Comparisons sermon

Velocity Sports sends out a newsletter on a semi-regular basis. Today's sermon was about confidence:

Confidence and Comparisons

Hey everybody! I love this subject. I am passionate about it, and if I could teach
anyone anything, it would be this. Confidence is there for the taking. You can't
order it on-line, but if you have the courage you can find it. That's right, I
said courage. The number one enemy of confidence is fear. Oftentimes we are afraid
of failure, embarrassment, inadequacy, harm, and at the end of it all we are often
afraid that we just aren't good enough. So, how do we protect ourselves from these
fears?

Confidence is a passionate belief that one can be successful. I cannot stress enough
that confidence is a belief.

Begin with a commitment, a commitment to confidence. Decide that you truthfully
want to be confident. This is harder than you think. It feels good to get angry,
be afraid, and to lose control. In fact, it is a lot easier than being confident.
Confidence is hard work.

Let's first start to feel confident right now. Think about your greatest accomplishments.
Remember your greatest plays or moments. Seriously, stop reading this, close your
eyes, and watch the ESPN highlights of your greatest moments. Can you feel that?
If you are anything like me, you heart rate just sped up. I can feel energy coursing
through my body. I am literally excited right now. I want to run out and do something.
You can use this process to build your confidence. It is called visualization. You
can do it before a game, or at night when you put your head on the pillow.

To build the strength of your confidence, learn what you need to know to become
and expert at your sport. Then, commit to becoming better at those things. Learning
builds energy and confidence. Make an action plan to become better. If you are reading
this, you have likely already made one action plan. You have become one of the thousands
of Velocity Sports Performance athletes across the country. You are putting in hard
work on a regular basis to become more athletic. Good for you. Give yourself credit.

What else can you do? Come up with plans for the things you want to accomplish.
As you are doing these things you are taking responsibility for yourself. That is
empowering! Also give yourself credit for all that you do. Are you a good brother
or sister? Are you a good son or daughter? What could you do to be a better one?
You laugh, but it feels good. It will also let you answer that question with a
yes. What question? Am I good enough? It is the question we are all battling with.
The answer is yes, and we've got to get better at giving ourselves credit. You can
apply it to sports and to life. When you answer that question with a yes you are
building your belief in yourself.

Trust the hard work that you do. When faced with the nerves of an event or game.
Understand that that nervousness is your body getting ready. It is supplying you
with so much energy it is tough to sit still. Sometimes it feels like butterflies
in your stomach. This is a good thing! It means your body is ready to give its best.
Now that your body is ready, rely on the work that you have done. Trust that you
are as ready as you can be at that moment and go for it. There is no more time
to worry about "Am I ready? Am I good enough?" Have faith in yourself! Answer the
questions with a yes. Believe that you can be successful, and you give yourself
the best chance to be just that.

Finally, don't compare yourself to others, or wait for success to make you confident.
Simply strive to be better always and give yourself credit for that. If you compare
yourself to those around you, you can get lazy or depressed. Remember that whether
you are the best or the worst, get better! You can't always win. If you wait for
success to give you confidence, then what will you do when you lose? What will
you do when you are not in first place? How will you become confident in the face
of the biggest odds? Michael Jordan missed more last minute shots than he hit, but
all we can remember are the ones that he hit! Be the same way! Be confident always.
It feels good.