TO: You & The People!

FROM: Your Pal Dan aka Cool Heat

RE: GROWTH SPURT- Self-Efficacy

LINK: Listen Here!

Gang,

I can’t believe this is the 5^th Functional Strength of the Self installment, and I’m just laying out my first Rocky Balboa quote. Sorry to keep you waiting so long.

I take you now to the latest movie in the series (Creed) when Rocky points towards Adonis’ reflection in the mirror.

“You see this guy staring back at you in the mirror?”

Fists up, taking his boxing stance, “Yeah,” Adonis quietly answers as he focuses intensely on his own eyes looking back over his knuckles.

“That’s your toughest opponent. Every time you get into the ring, that’s who you’re going against. I believe that in boxing, and I do believe that in life.”

The tiny hairs on the back of my neck stand up in the truth of that mother fucking line.

In previous rounds of the Faction, we’ve discussed the phenomenon of social comparison and its potential to throw us off course when it goes unchecked. To counterbalance the natural tendency to compare ourselves to others, we landed on a succinct axiom: compare yourself to your own best efforts.

Today, we take the fire from that Rocky quote and shine more light deeper on the path to understanding what makes up our own best efforts.

WHY? Because in order to instill confidence in our clients to achieve their own best efforts, we need to know what that is made of and how to keep it nice and strong within our own damn selves as well, yes?

THE CENTRAL THEME: SELF-EFFICACY

Within the Social-Learning Models of Development, there is a key concept that can help us understand how to build confidence on the training floor and in life.

Self-efficacy:

1. a) Confidence in one’s own ability to achieve intended results.
2. b) The belief that we can perform some behavior or task.

Clearly, it’s not just about the definition. Psychologist Albert Bandura’s work is attributed to the refinement of how self-efficacy can be strengthened or weakened, and those components will be the raw material for us to work with.

The Four Mechanisms Affecting Self-Efficacy:

1) Experience– The experience of Mastery (empty praise won’t do, un-earned trophies won’t either).

2) Modeling– Vicarious experience. Witnessing someone doing what you’re setting out to do. ‘If they can do it, I can do it.’

3) Social Persuasion– Direct encouragement from another person who believes in us.

4) Physiological Factors– One’s response to physiological factors (emotional arousal, ‘nerves,’ anxiety, butterflies in the stomach, etc.) can be telling of their level of self-efficacy. Ex. A person with a higher confidence level may view butterflies as normal and not as an indicator of low ability levels.

(Note: Inverted, these 4 factors can also work to squash confidence like a wee little grape. For example- 1) Experiencing repeated failure, 2) Witnessing poor/heinous role models, 3) Direct discouragement, 4) Interpreting nerves as a precursor to certain failure.)  

So…let’s assess, fill in the damn gaps, and keep building some confidence levels shall we?

HABIT REHAB

There is a lot of convergence between these concepts and the Na$ty lesson Todd just laid on us in A New Coaching Paradigm (finding bright spots, cueing in context, celebrating successes). That is expertly tailored for implementing on the training floor & serves the same end result of building client’s self-efficacy. The following steps are to support meeting your own needs so you can pay it forward and keep your coaching on point.

The Action Steps: Put it on Tape!

1. Assess each of the Four Mechanisms Affecting Self-Efficacy

1) Experience– Big or small, what experiences did you have this week that fed your confidence? What did you do to earn that experience? How can you build on those?

2) Modeling– Big or small, what examples of positive role modeling did you experience this week? People behaving in ways you’d like to behave. Doing the cool shizzle you’d like to be doing more of?

3) Social Persuasion– Big or small, where did you receive encouragement from this week for something meaningful?

4) Physiological Factors– Big or small, how did you handle any nervous energy, anxiety, butterflies, etc. this week that came up before or during anything challenging?

1. Build & Fill

Build on what’s working & fill in the gaps!

1) Write out your top 3 examples of what’s working AND any noticeable gaps in the four mechanisms.

2) Pick 1 small way you can build on 1 success example and fill in 1 gap this upcoming week.

3) Write your 2 action steps into your calendar.

Get in touch if you want to strategize!

Maintain freshness my friends,

Dan Frantz

Personal Growth Ambassador

Agent of Good Will

p.s. Think SMALL STEPS (RPE 6 at first and build up from there)

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

Viktor Frankl