Considering the psychology of golf, making golf confidence a habit is at the top of the list . Almost all golfers need help with confidence more than any other part of the mental game. Most golfers looking for confidence don’t even think about the possibility of creating confidence as a habitual way of thinking . It is, no doubt, because they do not understand the psychology of golf .
Lets consider two topics, confidence building and formation of habit. Confidence building is made up of two dimensions, trait confidence and state confidence. Trait confidence is the dimension of confidence that most people are familiar with, which is the level of built-in confidence that one has on a daily basis and has been developed through trials, tribulations, experience, circumstances, self belief, self perception, etc.. . This is the confidence that a person owns when they get on stage or they don’t own and are bashful. This is the confidence that is tied with ego and is very much existent on a subconscious level. This level of built-in confidence that we all have, whether it’s high, low, or average, actually is already so much an underlying thought, that it is often a huge project to increase this sort of confidence.
Thankfully, state confidence is different and easier . State confidence is available to everyone at any moment in time and is based on a choice and a conscious thought. State confidence is the confidence one feels immediately after a positive result. For example, you just hit a golf shot that flew perfectly, felt effortless, and went exactly where you wanted it to go. Immediately, you will experience a level of increased confidence for the next shot. In fact, very often the confidence is increased, and the golfer swings harder on the next shot to produce the same sort of long distance result, which leads to a loss of balance and a result that is not as good .
Then where is the confidence? It differs for everyone , however, there still might be some hope to find that perfect shot again. Whack, the next shot is seldom as good as that one perfect shot, and slowly but surely, the confidence is back to zero. Does this sound familiar? The point here is to recognize that state confidence took place immediately after seeing and experiencing the good result. You must realize that psychology and science understand that an image in the brain and subconscious mind is the same, whether the image is from a short time ago, or a year ago.
Hence , before hitting a golf shot, you can trick your body into feeling confidence by resurrecting a positive image of a golf shot you made in the past . In fact, what’s even more exciting about state confidence, is that it does not matter what you imagine yourself doing well, (it could be anything) your body will be in a confident state which has been scientifically tested to increase strength, and lower heart rate!
Now that we understand that state confidence is readily available to everyone , as long as they choose to think of a positive image of themselves doing anything, the question is how to make it a habit? There is only one answer to forming a habit and that is repetition . In order to make golf confidence a habit, you must repeatedly think of something that you do well before every golf shot. It can be the same thought. This is not going to make you a scratch golfer over night However, it will impact your game once it becomes a habit. How does it make sense to be in any other state of mind other than a positive one that empowers you? It simply doesn’t . So start forming the habit. It will take many days of effort . The easiest way to get it formed will be to drop it into your pre-shot routine, which should be habitually repeatable. If you do not have a pre-shot routine, make this conscious confidence way of thinking the first step that you do every time you approach a golf shot. It’s the best start to a routine.
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