Positivity & Confidence – Real Deep Dive
Many highly successful individuals place their perceived high level of positivity as a significant factor in achieving their success (whatever success to them looks like). Some further describe their positivity as a sort of ‘thrum’ or a radio station that plays constantly deep inside them – not as a tool to drag out when it’s really needed. Successful individuals often present their confidence levels as also playing a key role. While confidence and positivity are related, they are not the same. Positivity can influence levels of confidence – such as toward the achievement of a new goal – yet we can also be confident toward a negative outcome toward a new goal. It’s important when working with our subconscious to consider distinction between the two.
Positivity is a foundational building block for high-performance and professional sports endeavours, and one might imagine any trait of such influence would be more formally studied and understood, but we have a long way to go. It’s almost ‘simply psychology’ and while it feels good when it’s all around us, it has not yet become widely academically or formally considered or challenged. Conclusions from studies to date do though support the notion that positivity is absolutely a positive thing and “positive self-talk is to be encouraged over negative self-talk”. In many respects it is considered a foundation for overcoming challenges, and a baseline for new goal achievement and life improvement, and step one to ‘sort my life out’. One might say, without positivity, all is lost.
It’s also worth noting for whenever finishing a task which we know requires revisiting (from sports practise, through to baking a cake) it’s always good to ‘end on a high’. Why? Well, before next returning to the task, we are likely to remember or remind ourselves of its approach, and if we previously ended that task on a negative, it’s possible that may sabotage our motivation toward next starting the task, and then also influence the mindset we find ourselves in when we (finally) do. Coaches are often heard calling out as practise finishes, ‘make the last one a good one’.
See it, have it.
While future short- or long-term dreams and goals are for some significantly influenced through a training of the mind to believe in an objective having already been successfully achieved, we still need to consider whether that technique has potential to be of benefit, by first taking a look at confidence, positivity and the state of current internal dialogue, and baseline levels of an individual’s ego and self-image.
So, we are more likely successfully achieving our objectives or goals (including the successful undertaking of specific steps, efforts, or attempts associated with achieving those goals) when holding a more positive disposition (or at least forming an opinion of that positivity’s influence on the outcome) prior to, or throughout any attempt. This applies to allactionable efforts – some which may not be time-relevant or accurately measured, such as the difference between wider-life goals (such as one day having a family or living to a ripe old happy age) v’s ‘task focussed’ goals (such as getting to work on time or making that basket before the final netball whistle).
Confidence is much more a deep, individual thing, and which is strongly influenced from our experiences with effort-based outcomes – being successful or not! Take for example a sports player; after every practise or game a perceiving a variance in performance levels from their most immediate performance and that of previous performances levels. This helps drive confidence, yet we can either be positive or negative we will regain our confidence – should confidence levels point downward. Separately then any approach to any new target or goal attainment is influenced in much the same way. Our confidence and positivity levels are also influenced by external factors, such as the opinions or commentary of others. And to a larger degree, by our own internal self-chatter. Most of the topics we cover have significant interplay and cross over, and it does become increasingly difficult developing a connection and understanding to our subconscious (our ‘Sub’) to treat each as mutually exclusive, so best one buckles up for the ride. But when it’s all said and done, it’s surprisingly straightforward.
These links help us further understand why things like our internal dialogue (self-chatter) and self-statements when repeated over and over (such as affirmations) can make a difference – both negatively, and positively. Or, to put it another way, events which are viewed as already having happened become part of our perceived previous experiences, which in turn increases confidence levels – shown of course already to help yield more positive outcomes. While to some working with affirmations might seem tantamount to ‘fooling the mind’ or even brainwashing, the overarching consideration is that we use positivity and negativity almost like a computer uses binary code – in every function performed, of every minute of every day – and night as well!
Greasing the wheels
We can expedite the effectiveness of ‘having already achieved an outcome’ using some surprisingly simple tools – such as our internal dialogue (self-chatter) talk, use of repetition, tone, visualisation, and managing other internal and external environmental influences.
Here’s a commercial example of an ‘assumed (positive) outcome’. For over two decades my sales role required heading away on one to two-week distributor trips. These usually involved a combination of air and road travel, motel stays, and a steady flow of evening takeaways. Here’s the thing… at least once on every trip the office would call me to report excitedly of a sales-win. Most often a significant win, every time away from the office, and usually related to long-shot prospecting initiatives, many being cold-cases. That’s not to say every surprise immediately turned to gold but usually the sales wheel was significantly advanced. Just a co-coincidence some might say. Well, not over the number of years involved. And while it might sound kooky, the individuals involved were always those who oozed with positivity. After several attempts and finding nothing of underlying significance to explain what was going on here, the office just assumed and expected them – and they were. Who knows how this worked, but it did. Staff would often make crazy predictions as to where the news might come from.
After reciting this story, it’s not uncommon to hear others recount their own similar uncanny experiences – usually in a manner quirky enough which hinted their occurrences as being shrouded in mystique. These sorts of occurrences remain supportive of the philosophical entertainer Alan Watt’s rather obscure publication of the ‘Backwards Law’ (or The Law of Reversed Effort) which proposed the more we pursue something, the more we achieve the opposite. Or the harder we try, the less we succeed. On the flip side, when we stop trying too much, we’ll end up getting what we want anyway, or even more. When our Sub is in the right headspace it feels easy to see the connecting benefits – our ‘soul’ being reinforced with positivity then helping manage challenges and goal achievement. When we communicate steadily and with purpose, anything is possible, but should it take longer than expected to fully appreciate our below-the-waterline existence, that’s ok – effort will not go unnoticed. Best efforts in the right way, in the right place never do.