In the show Ted Lasso, Ted Lasso, a former college football coach, is hired to coach a soccer team in the UK. Although Ted knows nothing about soccer, he begins to succeed where others have failed because of the positive mindset he brings to his team.
The show became a cultural phenomenon and gave rise to the “Lasso Effect,” a style of leadership that encourages coaches to shower positive energy, empathy, and belief in the teams that they lead.
“I believe in believe” is an oft-repeated catchphrase from the show. So, why is belief important – and what can you do if you’ve lost it?
During a halftime speech that has become one of the show’s most-watched scenes (see it here),
Lasso said, “You wanna know what I want to mess around with? The belief that I matter.” He added, “What about the belief of hope? That’s what I want to mess with, believing that things can get better, that I can get better, that we will get better.”
This belief that you can get better and that things will get better is at the very foundation of taking the necessary actions to achieve the things you want from life. The power of self-belief is critical in many ways – here are three:
Building Grit: We will inevitably all have failures in our lives. Having self-belief allows you to frame those failures as temporary and not permanent. This attitude allows you to move through the adversities and challenges that come your way. It helps make you gritty.
Handling Pressure: Getting thrown into a tough moment can cause stress that prevents us from handling the adversity or performing at our best. Self-belief allows you to trust your ability to navigate the challenging situation and better handle the stress that comes with it.
Taking Action: Many people don’t try things because they don’t believe they can do them. Self-belief provides you with the ability to take that important first step in learning something new or completing a task that seems daunting.
So, we understand that self-belief is important. For some, that self-belief seems to come naturally, but for most of us, it is something that can be challenging. What if you’ve lost belief, or never had it in the first place? What can you do?
Let’s go back to Lasso and his words on how negative self-talk is often the biggest contributor to stealing our self-belief. He said, “The only problem is we have so much junk floating through us. A lot of times we end up getting in our own way. Crap like envy, or fear, shame.”
Building stronger self-belief can be accomplished by doing the work to greatly reduce negative self-talk. It takes consistent practice, but if you commit yourself to basic strategies, you can start to rewire your brain’s mental patterns away from negative thoughts and toward self-belief. Here are four things you can do:
Advice to a Friend: If your friend told you all these negative things about themselves, you probably wouldn’t agree and say, “Yeah, you suck.” Instead, you would point out the positive counterpoints to all their negative assertions and remind them what is great about them. Do that for yourself. Talk to yourself like a friend.
Pay Attention and Challenge the Evidence: Often negative thoughts about ourselves will float into our mind, and we will simply accept them as truth without a second thought. Don’t do that. When a negative thought arrives, tell yourself that you are noticing the thought and challenge it. Oftentimes our negative thoughts are irrational fears or inaccurate assessments. Don’t simply accept something negative about yourself without challenging the evidence.
Forgive Yourself: Many times negative self-talk is made up of a highlight reel of mistakes that you have made. When this starts to happen, forgive yourself for your mistake and focus on how you will learn from it and do better the next time.
Build a Positive Cycle: A great way to combat negative self-talk is to replace it with positive self-talk. Getting into the habit of reminding yourself of your talents and skills and celebrating the small victories releases dopamine that can motivate you to keep trying to get better and build stronger self-belief.
Self-belief might be the most important ingredient to your success in life, but as Lasso told his team, “Belief doesn’t just happen because you hang something up on a wall.” It can start to happen when you decide it’s worth doing the work to help make it stronger. Believe.
