It’s go time. This is where you need to perform at your very best. Your team is counting on you. Even you’re counting on you. But, you’re not exactly sure you can do it. Sure, you’ve practiced more than ever before and you really want to do well, but there’s always a chance you’ll fail. You’re nervous. So, what do people tell you? “Be confident!” And you probably respond with something like: “Perfect! That’s exactly what I need: to be confident. Awesome... but, how do I be confident, exactly?” There are actually many ways to build your confidence. As you’ll see in this video from TED-Ed, confidence is built upon body language, having the right mindset, and turning optimistic thoughts into courageous action. In on...

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Seconds tick by on the clock like hours.  It feels like the game is already over.  You’re down – both in score and morale.  So what’s the point?  Why bother?  Why keep playing?  Well, as Yogi Berra once put it, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” Thanks Yogi, but we all know how difficult it can be in these moments to maintain optimism and enthusiasm – especially when no one else around us is doing it either.  So what can we do about it? In any given event, our emotions are going to get triggered.  It’s natural to have an immediate knee-jerk (emotional) reaction.  In these situations, we tend to get hooked and caught up in the emotions themselves rather than focusing on what’s happening in the present moment and our stake in the outcome.  However, those who focus more on their personal control within the situation, and hence, their outward reaction and response, tend to outperform those who focus on the neg...

Phil Hansen was going to school to become an artist when he discovered something that he thought would end his career before it even began. He had developed a shake in his hand from using pointillism—a painting technique in which small dots are applied in patterns to form a single image. Because he could no longer create art through his preferred method, he decided to drop art school and art altogether. However, years later he decided to return to art and saw a doctor about his condition. The doctor changed his life with a single question: “Why don’t you just embrace the shake?” Hansen’s TED talk describes his inspiring journey to find his new calling through art: “And I realized, if I ever wanted my creativity back, I had to quit trying so hard to think outside of the box and get back into it.” Athletes can mirror this idea by spending time going back to the beginning and thinking about what aspects of their sport made them fall in love with it in the first place. Mor...