The other day at practice, one of the players was being challenged to a series of complicated set ups and after he completed the drill (and exceeded the expectations of his coach, I might add), I overheard him confidently say, “I know how to make shots.” His tone…his matter-of-factness displayed a different level of confidence. One of those try Jesus, not me moments. It was unshakable. It was like she was 100% sure of his capabilities and he understood that not succeeding once or twice at the drill was not indicative of his overall gifts, talents, work ethic, and track record.
As soon as I heard it come out of his mouth, I stopped everything I was doing. It immediately made me think, what does it take to exude this level of confidence? How do we get to this point? My learnings in being affiliated with basketball for just a few short months…
Shooters SHOOT.
Regardless of what happened on the shot before, they keep shooting. We should be the same way in our career confidence. We work our butts off to get to certain points and yet this thing called impostor syndrome always finds a way to creep in. It causes us to draw doubt on how great we really are and calls into question whether or not we truly deserve to be in the rooms we occupy.
My solution – create a WIN LIST. You can track it weekly, monthly, quarterly. I use the notes app in my phone to add to it when I do awesome things. Awesome things, by the way, is up to your discretion. It could be as simple taking a self care Sunday, to something magnificent like creating a new program at your job that received A++ ratings. You define your own success levels. I know this has personally allowed me to SEE just how great I am at times.
It is also important to understand that one failure or lesson does not define your entire existence. We should approach such situations as learning moments. What happened in or before the moment that could have been altered to provide a different result? Readjustment is key. Journaling these moments is also a great tactic to allow oneself to truly think through the process. The art of reflection is sometimes a lost one. It allows you to not only learn from mistakes but also gives you perspective.
In short, it’s important to know what you are capable of, and/or dream big enough to know what can come into fruition because you have put in the work. Write it down in places you can visibly see. Own that shit. Sometimes the only person rooting for you, is YOU. We owe it to ourselves to be that person. At the end of the day, we should all EXPECT TO WIN.
LCJ.