THE CONCEPT: HOW WE “SHOW UP” HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH WHAT WE ACHIEVE.
Think about a time you showed up to your game and just owned it. You felt in peak physical condition, you were well-practiced, well-rested, and primed for competition. What did it feel like? How did you play?
Can you think of a time in your life outside of your sport when you showed up the same way? What happened? What was the impact?
There are several components to presence, but this lesson is about physical presence (check out topics two and three where we’ll learn about mental and emotional presence through mindfulness and pause).
Often times, Next Play athletes will come to us saying, “I wish I could feel the way I do on the field/court in the rest of my life.”
In your sport, you might feel confident, powerful, trained, resilient, and focused. But maybe in the classroom, boardroom, or other places in your life, you tend to shrink, to hold back.
It’s a common problem, and it has a simple solution: train your body to stay large.
If you could literally train your body to take the same shape it takes when you’re playing at your best in the other places in your life where you want to succeed, your mind and body would not only feel confident, but exude that confidence to the people around you.
Amy Cuddy presents a popular TED talk on this topic (over 46 million views!) where she encourages people to “Fake it till you become it.” What she means is, when your body takes the shape of confidence – in other words, you show up in a confident posture – even when you’re feeling unsure, you will naturally be more at ease, more likely to take calculated risks, and more likely to project confidence to the people around you.
TRY IT!
Click on the image below to download this topic’s worksheet. It will help you practice staying large and teach you to embody a confident physical presence.
