February 2020 - 16

vicious cycle. Designed by psychologist Ruth Kanfer,
here is a simplified mental framework to help change a
negative mindset, train the brain, and develop more selfconfidence.
Once
you've set your target goals, you need to manage
your mind and regulate your emotions. " Monitor,
Evaluate, React " is a three-step action plan that
guarantees you aren't leaving confidence to chance.
Monitor
The key to changing any behavior is awareness.
Without self-awareness you cannot make progress or
realize you're even making progress. By having more
self-awareness of specific failures and achievements,
you're in a better position to take the next step toward
evaluating, and more importantly, labeling what has
just happened. Most of us skip this step and go straight
to judgment. We judge our performances as generally
" bad " or " good. " That gets us nowhere.
By skipping the " monitor " step, we
relinquish control over the label we give
our performance. Think of this as
a mental pause, albeit brief, that
can have an enormous long-term
impact. If we're able to take a
breath and monitor our actions,
we can apply a more positive and
constructive label to it, leading
to a more precise evaluation
of our performance. Now we
can recognize the things we
are doing well and target specific
areas for improvement. This is more
manageable for our brains and less
overwhelming. As a result, we feel more
confident about what we're able to do.
Throughout the day - in practices and games - take
some time to monitor your behavior and become more
aware of your thoughts, especially after experiencing
small levels of success or failure.
Evaluate
When we don't train our minds with intention, this
is typically the first step in our mental framework.
We skip awareness and make an instant judgment on
our performance. We become results-oriented, which
is a dangerous and limiting mindset. However, when
we stop to monitor our behavior, we can evaluate our
performance much more accurately.
The key is being specific when evaluating. The more
specific the label, the more effective the evaluation.
Now, instead of being a " failure " at something, we can
evaluate the specific reasons that we failed. Instead of
feeling helpless, we feel empowered and are more likely
to take action. We've made failure tangible, manageable
and less intimidating. Similarly, we won't merely be
great when we succeed, instead recognizing the reasons
why we were great. Instead of success happening by
16 FEBRUARY 2020
chance, we will be able to identify the actions we took to
be successful. We then can repeat these actions through
intentional practice, gaining more confidence as we
improve.
Evaluation after monitoring allows you to compare your
performance more specifically and accurately with your
target goal. This is a more productive way of evaluating
your performance, which leads to better habits, higher
self-confidence and more consistent success.
React
Once we can better monitor our behavior and more
accurately evaluate it, we need to control our reaction.
There are two general ways in which we react to our
performance: satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The higher
the expectations, the more powerful our response will
be when we succeed or fail. If we succeed under high
expectations, we will react with higher satisfaction, and
vice versa. Based on this reaction, we then formulate
expectations and judgments about our ability
to attain our goal, which ultimately affects
our self-confidence. Simply put, how
we feel about what's just happened
affects how confident we feel about
succeeding in the future.
It's no secret why the best
athletes in the world, regardless
of their performance, have the
most consistent body language
and exhibit almost no emotion.
They're always in control.
You can't always control your
results. You certainly can never
change the past. But you can control
how you react. Furthermore, if you
are consistently monitoring and effectively
evaluating your behavior, you will have greater control
over your reaction. With a greater sense of control
over your fate, your confidence will soar. If you cannot
effectively control your reaction to things that happen
in your life, you feel helpless to make changes and your
confidence will suffer.
Each of us has a unique set of personality traits and a
distinct mindset, which impacts our confidence levels.
Some of us have a high self-confidence, while others
low. However, we can all take more control over our
self-confidence by implementing the " Monitor, Evaluate,
React " framework into our daily lives and routines. By
taking control of this powerful motivator, we are well on
our way to reaching our full potential.
Vito Chiaravalloti is a former Division I college AllAmerican
and professional baseball player who played in
the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles organizations.
He is now a high school coach and athletic director at
Christian Brothers Academy (New Jersey), where in 2011
he was named NFHS Coach of the Year. Find him on
Instagram and Twitter at @CoachVito44.
February 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2020
