I am loving the insights from The Chimp Paradox by psychologist Steve Peters at the moment. Here's a cracker from the book:

You can instantly gain 100% confidence with one change of mindset.

We all assume confidence is the result of success. And you can certainly gain confidence in this way. It's what Mark Garaway calls "robust confidence" because you have proven your ability to yourself.

But what if you are not 100% confident in your ability?

Let's face it, it's very hard to achieve that confidence, and while you are striving for it you can fall into the trap of believing you will never be good enough. That given the chance you will mess up because your skills are lacking and the opposition are better.

The negative cycle can end in cricketing disaster as you pile pressure on yourself. It stops the game being fun and starts the process of wanting to do something easier and less stressful.

The solution?

Switch your focus of confidence onto trying your best.

Suddenly you can be 100% confident because you have total control over whether you try your best. You may still fail - we all do - but if you can say to yourself afterwards that you put in your best effort then you can't possibly say you have no confidence.

Naturally, you still need to work on your game. Yet, while you are developing, you can deal with the mental side of cricket by saying to yourself "however the day goes, I will try my best then get back to practicing hard".

For more on this, pick up a copy of The Chimp Paradox. You won't regret it.