One simple step to make you perform better

Do you know that just rating yourself makes you better?

Reflection and self-appraisal are key to success.

How often do you take time to stop mid-journey and reflect on your capabilities and rate yourself?

Did you know that there is evidence that this process alone improves performance?

Even before any detailed appraisal, just merely stopping and rating your self-efficacy has been proven to lead to better performance.

In this study students reflected on and rated their self-efficacy halfway through a test. Their mid-test self-efficacy review was associated with subsequent improved performance, beyond prior performance.

That’s right – just by stopping, and rating yourself, you improve through the process.

Why is this the case? A contributing factor is likely to be that, even sub-consciously, we know that we are holding ourselves accountable for what we are doing. We know we are rating ourselves, so we want to rate ourselves positively. We want to please ourselves and we make an effort to perform better.

These finding have implications for sports performance and coaching. They have implications for your own performance, in addition to the performance of those that you work with.

Do you stop to rate yourself? Do you self-appraise? Do you consider what you are doing well, and not doing so well? Do you include self-appraisal as a matter of process for your team?

Self-appraisal and reflection are a key component of Coach’s Companion. It is an integral component, for you to be able to set appropriate development objectives and determine your key goals and activities that you need to achieve, to satisfy these objectives. You want to get to your goal, but you need to know where you are now to ensure you know if you are improving on your journey towards achieving that goal.

Rating or appraising yourself not only helps you to identify where you are in your current journey of development, but it also enhances motivation and achievement.

So, if you don’t to this already, I want you to try this yourself  – for the next 2 weeks. Work out one thing that is important to you – it might be in your sport’s coaching or performance, it could be something you want to achieve at work, or it could be with your family or personal relationships.

Make a note of the 3 important activities that you need to be doing to improve in the key area you have chosen. It could be the same thing each and every day – or it could be something that is progressive: a different step each day along the way. Give yourself a rating at the end of each day.

Record your result each relevant day. It is literally 1 minutes’ work. If you don’t contribute to what you are seeking, you need to rate yourself accordingly. Why wait to improve yourself? You deserve it now.  Start as soon as you can, and continue for about two weeks.

I can’t guarantee what your results will be. I don’t know if you will have more positive than negative results on any given day. What I do know is that you are only likely to get better at the end of the two weeks. The likelihood is that if you rate yourself at the end of each day, you are likely to try to improve yourself and you will achieve more than if you didn’t make a start.  Ultimately you are the most important person you need to please. Try it – define your objectives and your plan today. This is a step on the road to your personal success.

As I finish this post, I am watching the Australian Super Netball Grand Final and it is a break in play.  The Sunshine Coast Lightning coach Noeline Taurua encourages her players. “We can let the world go by, or we can do something about it.” Briony Akle, coach of the NSW Swifts has some advice for her team too – ‘Step up on that – don’t wait’.

Take advice from these super-coaches. Don’t let the world go by. Don’t wait.

Step up to improve yourself.  Rate yourself today.

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