Recently, I finished a book "The inner game of tennis" by W. Timothy Gallwey. This is the first book of his INNER GAME series. Basic idea is that we have two selves, the self one and the self two when we are learning and playing games. The self one is the concieousness mind, is good at giving instructions and guidances. It is just like to CEO of a company. The sefl two is the unconcieous mind, is good at executing the instruactions. If we use the computer as a metaphor, the self one is just like the programmer, and the self two is just like the computer logic, circuit. The self two is goal seeking. If the self one set the goal and let the self two to seek for the goal, the self two will be able to do a excellent job. The interference of the self one on the self two will deterierate the performance.
The communication of the self one and the self two is very important to perform a game. If the self one trust the self two, the confidence is built up. If the self one has doubt with the self two, we will have doubt of ourselves.
It also talked about relaxed concentration. When we want to learn, our body need to be relaxed and our mind need to be in a state of relaxed concentration. I have been using those inner game in my learning of skating and swimming. It is very relavent. I would like to apply it to my speaking to gain more self confidence.