Has a setback dropped your confidence?
It’s normal, and is a part of the normal process of climbing to higher levels. Think about it: if something has got you down, or it seems daunting, that means that thing Is Hard to Do. If you aspire to become your best, then this cannot be accomplished by doing easy things, since anything of value will require energetic input, hard work, and effort to achieve. In your quest to reach high goals, it will invariably require you to learn to do new things that are challenging and which may suck, and which will push you beyond your comfort zone. Embrace this. If you were already good at it, then you wouldn’t need to learn it (though you should still practice it).

By the nature of something being difficult, it will guarantee that there will be some tough moments along its road to success. Don’t lament this, but seek it. Olympic Champion Jordan Burroughs had several mantras leading up to his Gold Medal, once of them was ‘embrace the grind’; when you’re in the midst of a grind – be it in sport or in life- see it as a sign of progress on the way to something better because you’re doing the right things needed to get better (e.g.: you could ensure 100% that you would never fall down if you always kept the training wheels on your bike). Embrace this grind so that you can use it to grow. As you may imagine, this feeling of being down, daunted, or overwhelmed is only temporary if you can reach deeper to push further towards your goals.

Stew Smith is a former US Navy SEAL who has trained hundreds of people to successfully navigate their famously difficult training program that forges some of the most famously confident men on earth. His advice to guys before entering the gauntlet: “Doubt Yourself”. This seems odd at first, but then he explained it to mean that not only is it normal to doubt yourself at some point, but it is actually inevitable that it will happen if you push yourself hard enough to – might as well get it over with and get past it. You realize that the task is actually manageable to do it, and the rest, as they say, ‘is gravy’. The idea is that you are going to end up doubting yourself at some point in the process anyways when things get really tough, so that when you later get to that point again of things getting so tough that others contemplate quitting, you simply soldier on to get through it with a confident grin because you have already resolved that doubt will not stop you; you can even laugh it off when it tries to get you again because you have already beaten it. From here, you develop that outer and inner armor which protects you from the negative doubts and distractions, and you thus become a hardened machine committed to achieving your goal no matter what obstacle or adversity may try to interfere. So get ahead of the game: Doubt yourself early, and then Dispense with it. You become unstoppable.

If you’re endeavoring to do hard things, sometimes setbacks will occur and on occasion you’re going to feel overwhelmed. Don’t sweat it. Know that it is normal, and that you shouldn’t succumb to it. It’s part of the process of getting better, so take encouragement in it and don’t let it get you down. In fact, if things have been coming too easy to you for too long, it may be time to find ways to push yourself to new challenges in order to keep your competitive edge. In time you will develop a supreme confidence with the knowledge of having persevered through a tough time and that there is nothing that is too tough to accomplish, built on the foundation that you know you took on great challenge and that it could not break you, but built you.

Winners Pull the Trigger

By Steve Fraser

July 29, 2014

The day I started realizing that “going for it, all out” was one of the biggest keys for me to compete at wrestling’s top level was the day I started to dramatically improve my skills, my physical conditioning, and thus my success in the sport of wrestling.

I remember the day. It was a cold, dark morning, around 6:15 a.m. in the month of December, 1981 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I was struggling to get out of bed, tired and sleepy, not wanting to get up. I was so not a morning person! I remember thinking, “What am I doing here? Almost everyone I knew was still sleeping comfortably and warm under the blankets of the cozy, snug familiar place they called their bed.”

Here, I was scheduled to meet my boss, the Washtenaw County Sheriff Thomas R. Minick, on this frigid cold winter morning at the department for a workout together. We would regularly run outside and then end up lifting weights at the department’s work-out facility, prior to starting our day on the job.

Sheriff Minick, who was a tough and rugged man, was in great shape and always kept a great workout regimen. He was the “top dog” in the county, respected fiercely among his peers and county officials. He was the ultimate example of what a Sheriff should be like. And I was in awe of him.

He had hired me at the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Department to run their County Jail “Community Work Program” (an alternative jail sentencing program) with the idea that I could also continue my quest and training for the 1984 Olympic Trials and Games. He allowed for some flex in my eight-hour work day to still train and make my afternoon practices at the University of Michigan, where I wrestled daily.

Sheriff Minick was doing me a great favor in supporting my Olympic wrestling goals while employing me. Needless to say, I did not want to disappoint him in any way. Thus I had no choice but to get my behind up out of bed and go to meet him for our workout. Now keep in mind there were many mornings when he did not show, for various reasons, but I did not ever want to guess wrong and not show up fearing that he would.

It was this morning, as I contemplated whether or not he might show, that I came to a realization and decided that I had to totally commit to this whole idea of training like a mad-man and pulling the trigger 100 percent. I decided that I was not going to second guess myself or my training and I was going to “go for it! All in! Both barrels a-blazing!” Tom Minick was the catalyst that helped me determine this.

I think it comes down to making a conscious decision in life. Am I going to do this thing or am I going to keep holding back?

I don’t know what holds us back sometimes; fear or failure, past experience, over analyzing, doubt that we can actually succeed? Whatever it is, we must realize that all great champions have the same issues. The great champions become great champions because they don’t let these emotions keep them from pulling the trigger. They take action regardless of their fears. Action is the main ingredient that moves athletes and people forward.

I remember thinking that I was going to “act” no matter how many setbacks, failures, and obstacles got in my way. I took the attitude that I was going to exhaust all the mistakes I could possibly make, until there were no mistakes left to make. The only thing left would be success!

I took the approach that I would pull the trigger, shooting first, and then aim later. Too much aiming (analyzing) was holding me back. I thought better to “shoot first and aim later”, and yes, I was going to make some mistakes but at least I would be “all in.”

Few people might think that a hitter who struck out the most times in baseball history would be thought of as a good player, much less a Baseball Hall of Famer. Tell that to Mr. October, Reggie Jackson.

Let’s go for our dreams, all out, no hesitation, no holding back! Pull the trigger each and every day and our dreams will become reality.