Empowering Your Physical Activity: The Role of Self-Efficacy
Being active is not just about having the time or the resources to do it. It’s also about believing in your ability to do the activity. This belief, known as self-efficacy, is a powerful predictor of whether we’ll lace up our sneakers and get running or take find some excuse not to do it.
What is Self-Efficacy?
Introduced by psychologist Albert Bandura, self-efficacy is our confidence in our ability to perform a behavior successfully. It’s the difference between thinking you can run 5k easily and fearing you’ll be winded after a few steps.
Why Does Self-Efficacy Matter?
Self-efficacy isn’t just a feel-good factor, it’s, rather, a critical component of adopting and maintaining healthy behaviors. High self-efficacy leads to viewing challenges as opportunities to get better, setting (more) ambitious goals, and recovering quickly from setbacks. On the flip side, low self-efficacy can result in avoiding challenges and giving up easily.
Building Blocks of Self-Efficacy
Bandura identified four key sources that influence self-efficacy:
Past Performance: Success breeds confidence. If you’ve done it before, you’re more likely to believe you can do it again. Think of the last time you did something that challenged you and how the rest of your day felt after you got it done.
Vicarious Experiences: Seeing someone like you succeed can boost your belief in your own abilities. Sometimes it just takes a little inspiration from your peers to start believing in yourself.
Verbal Persuasion: Encouragement from others can go a long way. A simple “you can do it” might be the nudge you need. Think of this as positive peer pressure. If you train in a group, verbal encouragement can go a long way.
Physiological Cues: Learning to interpret physical signs like fatigue and stress in a positive light can enhance your self-efficacy. You are pushing your body into unknown territory and while it might feel strange and uncomfortable, it will soon go away once the workout is done.
Measuring and Enhancing Self-Efficacy
To support athletes in their journeys, it’s essential to assess and boost their self-efficacy. Tools like the Marcus et al. questionnaire can help measure self-efficacy, while strategies like goal setting, self-monitoring, and problem-solving barriers can enhance it.
The Evidence
Research shows that interventions aimed at increasing self-efficacy can lead to more physical activity. Whether through face-to-face coaching, print materials, or digital communication, boosting self-efficacy has been linked to better exercise habits. The saying “Today’s workout is tomorrow’s warmup” is something that has been seen time and time again with every new generation of athletes.
Once they see improvements they become hungry for more and know that any current discomfort isn’t a danger for them but rather just a physiological response of them pushing themselves harder.
Takeaway
Understanding and enhancing self-efficacy can be the key to unlocking a more active and healthier lifestyle. By focusing on building this inner confidence in our athletes, we can empower them to take control of their physical health and well-being.
You can dive deeper into the topic by checking out the research that served as an inspiration for this post:
EVALUATING AND ENHANCING SELF-EFFICACY FOR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY - PMC - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6003667/
