Self-efficacy is one of the most important concepts in the world of performance psychology. Most of us understand this idea as "confidence" but it's actually more specific than that. It means:

"Self-efficacy refers to an individual's belief in his or her capacity to execute behaviors necessary to produce specific performance attainments."

Now you might have a lot of questions:

• How can we better prioritize our mental fitness so that we believe in our abilities?
• What are the sources of self-efficacy so we can draw from them during training?
• How can we use mantras for running to our advantage?
• Are there strategies for building confidence training (or self-efficacy training) into our running?

To help us answer these critical questions, I invited Dr. Amber Shipherd onto the podcast.

Dr. Amber Shipherd is an assistant professor and performance psychology program coordinator at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. She's also a certified mental performance consultant and owner of Next Level Mind Consulting.

She is a member of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee Sports Psychology Registry and an Executive Committee Member with the Association for Applied Sport Psychology.

And thankfully for us, she's an expert on self-efficacy!

She joins us on the Strength Running Podcast to discuss the intricacies of confidence:

• Why confidence is not nearly as valuable as self-efficacy
• Strategies for building self-efficacy while running
• Mindset traps that sap confidence and leave you doubting yourself
• Best practices for incorporating imagery and personal affirmations in your running

Links & Resources from the Show:

• Follow Amber on Twitter
• Visit Amber's website
• How to thrive during adversity
• My favorite mantras