This is a guest post by Matt Coast.
I first learned about the importance of certainty from my mixed martial arts coach. He spent a lot of time at the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs, CO.
One of the most fundamental behaviors that he picked up while he was there was the use of mental certainty.
He found that the athletes training there would put themselves into a state of absolute certainty before they performed their sport.
This internal certainty would help them overcome obstacles, plow through fearful situations and give them an edge while they were executing difficult maneuvers.
Certainty Is a Powerful Tool You Can Use
My coach learned how to create his own mental routines of certainty and then shared that knowledge with me.
But being in a state of internal certainty isn’t only useful for high-performance athletes.
I use these learned routines of certainty anytime I need to perform — from speaking in front of large audiences to preparing myself for tough conversations with friends and family members.
If you have internal certainty, you’ll become better at everything in your life.
You’ll be more willing to take a stand when you’re confronted with obstacles.
You’ll take bigger risks when you need to because you’ll no longer allow fear in your environment to dictate your actions.
When you become certain within yourself, you’ll influence the people around you much more readily.
I have a friend who always says, “She who is most certain always wins.”
This describes how she sells people on the ideas and programs that she’s a part of. And she’s VERY good at it.
How to Immediately Become Confidently Certain
The great thing is, you don’t have to be born with internal certainty in order to have it in your life. Like a performance athlete, you can actually create it, anytime that you need or want it.
The skill of creating certainty within yourself can actually be learned. And, over time, it can become your dominant state of mind.
So how do you create a routine for internal certainty? I’m glad you asked.
Here’s how I learned to become instantly certain of myself:
1. Recall a Time When You Felt Absolutely Certain
This needs to be a specific event. Even if it was a really long time ago, recall a time when you were supremely confident. It could be anything. As long as you felt confident and certain, it will work. Usually, the best situations to use are when you were prepared for something and new you were going to do well and did so. Even better are ones when you were performing really well at a sport or an instrument or on a stage.
2. Relive That Experience In as Much Detail as Possible
If it was a time when you played a musical instrument, recall playing it as if you’re doing it right now. Visual the whole experience in your mind and try to recreate the same level of thought and emotion. How did you feel? What emotions were you experiencing? You want to do this until you are in the exact same frame of mind as you were when you were performing so confidently. Relive that state of certainty in as much detail as possible.
3. Create a Physical Trigger to Remind You of That Experience
You need some type of physical action that will remind you of this emotional state — a trigger to help you quickly replicate this internal level of certainty. A very simple one would be clenching your fist. All you need is something that will remind you. Some people have natural triggers that already represent this emotion for them. These sometimes consist of things like throwing their arms in the air or jumping up and down. Find one that you like to use and stick with just that one.
4. Rinse and Repeat
The key here is to repeatedly practice using your trigger to instantly recreate your emotional state of certainty. So, you’ll want to visualize the event, feel the emotion, and perform the physical action over and over until your mind links them together. This could take you five minutes, fifteen minutes or a lot longer, depending on how good you are at getting yourself to reach the emotional state of certainty that you desire.
My suggestion is that you practice this every morning for five minutes. That will start your day off with some certainty. If you get into the habit of it, creating internal certainty will be as easy as performing the physical action that servers as your trigger.
Improve Your Life With Absolute Certainty
Imagine how much more success you will create in your life when you know you can instantly become absolutely certain of yourself in any circumstance.
- How much better will your relationships be if know you can be confident when it matters?
- How many more opportunities will you jump at knowing you can be perfectly confident when faced with a tough situation?
Trust me, you can do this. Follow the steps above and choose to win more often at the game of life. It worked for me and it can work for you too.
When you decide to live your life with certainty, what will you create?
About the Author
To learn how to inspire and motivate yourself towards creating more in your life, visit Matt’s website at http://www.livewithpassionnow.com/. You can also visit his internet show, Inspired by Life, at http://www.youtube.com/user/InspiredByLifeShow.