Confidence

I have a friend whose name is Lim Kok Heng. He was really good in snooker but not anymore. hahaha. He had good accuracy, good placing, good form, confident, etc I remembered when I was around 14 or 15, he beat me without any fight. And he was really full of confident.

Recently, he started talking about getting back into the game after a break from snooker. He played with another friend, whose has less skill and experience. But the result was shocking! He lost the game. Reason for his lost was he lost his confidence. Totally lost it, even though he is facing a weaker opponent.

Confidence and poise comes with proper preparation. It is earned by the athlete with thoughtful training sessions. Confidence is earned. It is not given. Even for those with gifted athleticism, one will still have to train effectively to perform well.

Julian Dean

Let's study his mistakes and not repeat 'em if you wanna be a successful athlete/person. When you're full of confidence, you'd perform better. You'd be more calm and with that, you'd be able to handle the competition stress, etc. So how do we build confidence? With reference to the above quote;

1. Proper preparation
2. Have a thoughtful training sessions
3. Acknowledge that confidence is earned not given
4. Talent alone is never enough, train effectively

Based on the quote, it's all about training, training and training. Training makes us familiar with the 'stuff' that we do. It will then turn into a habit, from habit to confidence, from high level of confidence, a higher probability to succeed/win.

Back to Mr Lim's case, I did try motivate him and encourage him by boosting his confidence level. End result, he performed better, feel good about himself and manage to beat the same person in a rematch. =)

[this is based on a true story]