Overcoming Doubt & Building Confidence

Overcoming Doubt

Building Confidence

If you’re overwhelmed, shift your fear to curiosity. Enjoy the process of learning and improving. Start slow, start easy, start with something you know you can do in an environment you feel comfortable in.

If you fear looking stupid, getting made fun of, getting criticized, or embarrassment, this is a real fear. Begin with controlling what you can control. You might begin to lift at home, listening to your favorite music, with exercises you know you can complete. Look to free how to videos to ensure your form is passable. Build the habit and develop the supportive environment.

You can also control your reactions to others. If someone comes up and explains how you SHOULD do something, tell them you have a coach. Maybe lift with headphones. Fake the confidence. A coach or at least a lifting partner you trust who can support you makes a big difference here.

Resurgent Fears

More advanced lifters, or lifters who may have a history of training and are coming back to it may have other fears and concerns. If you’ve dealt with injury, you may have a very tangible fear of reinjury. Similar to being afraid of driving after a car crash, you fear a reoccurrence. Trainees of all levels of experience deal with overcoming doubt and confronting fear.

Similar to a novice, start with something that doesn’t scare you. You may adjust exercises to avoid the specific exercise. You also need to address whether you want to push that exercise again, or whether you’d rather work around it (at least for now; priorities change). Again, having a competent coach really helps here.

Similarly, if you see a picture of yourself from an earlier time, how do you react? There’s really two considerations here.

One is, you may be confronting the reality of who you are, what your body is, and some limitations. For some, stubborn fat seems to always be there, despite intense efforts and even achieving lean bodyfat percentages.

The other thing you’re facing is your recent choices. You might realize that you’re not happy with what you’ve done the past 6 months or 6 years or 6 decades. You can’t change the past, but you control your decisions now. Don’t let this discomfort cause a spiraling downward, but embrace the discomfort and help it motivate you to change.

You can do it. Control what you can control. Begin with a support environment, with things you know you can do, but begin.