Do you feel like you’re sometimes overwhelmed and have little confidence in your own ability to deal with challenges?
When someone comes to us and wants to get fitter and stronger, we help them break it down into smaller stages instead of looking at everything all at once. It can be the same when it comes to building your confidence and abilities to deal with challenges…
Ryan Holiday famously wrote the book ‘The Obstacle Is The Way’ and we lean on that as we try to frame challenges that come along as opportunities for growth rather than as something scary to run from. Change is not always a threat and challenging situations do not automatically lead to failure.
How can you work on your confidence to tackle challenges?
- Start small and think about situations that you find challenging. For some people they wouldn’t be challenging at all. But that’s not going to help you much until you realise that some situations that you don’t struggle with at all cause some people to shake with dread. It’s all a matter of perspective and no one is judging you.
- Pick one thing this week where you’d like to expand your comfort zone – something that you know will challenge you. This can become a little project for the week. And the best part is, there’s no hard and fast deadline so if it takes longer than a week, then so be it!
- Break the project down into small steps and chip away at the first one. Remember the old adage: the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Focus on the thing that’s small, manageable and right in front of you rather than the big task that you’ve committed to.
When someone joins and wants to focus on all the new skills and movements they’ve found in a CrossFit gym, we go through the same process with them and guide them to focus on a couple of smaller things at a time rather than let them get overwhelmed by looking at everything.