Chris Larsen who coaches elite sports stars and business high fliers on why self-belief is key and how Jude Bellingham illustrates the power of being comfortable with who you are.
Watch a PREVIEW of the chat with Chris Larsen below:
Watch or listen to the FULL CHAT with Chris Larsen below:
You are amazing – believe it
Growing up on a council estate Chris Larsen didn’t have a lot – or a lot of reasons to think he was worth a lot. But somewhere on the road to becoming an elite mindset coach he realised the key was creating a positive inner voice that nurtured self worth.
Larsen works with professionals, world champion boxers and business high fliers and says consistent excellence stems from a positive self regard.
Case in point, an experience he had at Forest Green Rovers FC.
“I said ‘right guys stand on your feet if you know that you’re amazing.’
“Only two people stood up.
“And I said to them, ‘wouldn’t you rather be in a team full of 40 people who felt amazing because that means we’re riding this wave of confidence, that we believe in ourselves, we trust each other?’”
How do you talk to yourself?
Most of us respect confident people and want to feel confident. Larsen says confidence comes from three internal habits.
“Performance is always going to be on the back of these three things: Do you have self love, do you love the person you are?
“Do you have self worth? Do you value your impact and do you create boundaries for how you expect to be treated?
“And the biggest one is how do you speak to yourself? If you’re talking negatively to yourself, then guess what? You will not be mentally fit.”
Resting isn’t lazy
Larsen isn’t focussed on firing up athletes and business execs to work harder and harder. He says sometimes high performance comes from having the self-awareness to step off the accelerator.
“A boxer I’d been working with for a long time called me and they were crying.
“I said describe the last month. And it was like ‘I haven’t seen my kids or my family, I’ve been training three times a day and eating like a sparrow. I’m starving.’”
“And I said ‘well maybe the best thing for you to do is to go home, pick your kids up from school, just today. Do that reset and don’t feel guilty.’”
Be like Bellingham
Larsen believes England’s standout player at the recent World Cup is a powerful example of the importance of being yourself – regardless of the pressure.
“Jude Bellingham is now a national legend. And a lot of that just boils down to him being completely comfortable with who he is.
“When he was told Tuchel had said they needed to play better he said ‘whatever,’ which was another way of him recognising he’s got a responsibility to support his teammates and not give a politician’s answer.”
Imagine it going wrong
The fear of failure can be paralysing. But Larsen says fully envisaging the worst case scenario can be liberating and allow you to give a challenge a real shot.
“There’s this notion with boxers, we’ve got to be super aggressive and super confident and ‘we’re going to win!’”
“But with every single one of my fighters I get them to think of being knocked down, of getting beat, of being in a tough fight because that way when we end up in that situation we’re not in shock.”
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