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Believing in yourself can lead to breakthrough performances. Here’s how to make that happen.

Picture yourself on the starting line of an important race. As you stand there, simultaneously not wanting the race to begin and wishing they would just get things going already, you review your goals for the race. Do those goals seem attainable if you execute your race plan? Or do you wonder what delusional person thought you could do such a thing?

If your answer is more often the latter, you’ll come closer to reaching your potential by improving your self-confidence. As with any psychological skill, you can purposefully nurture and develop self-confidence. It’s not a psychological characteristic you should consider fragile or in a constant state of uncontrollable flux. Instead, by drawing on controllable sources, you can set about building a sturdy level of self-belief.

What is self-confidence?

Even at the highest levels of sport, confidence is considered the most important psychological characteristic required for success. 


What exactly does “confidence” mean in this context? It’s not cockiness, or self-delusion. Blasting off the start line at a pace that’s well outside your physical capacity is always going to end badly, no matter how sure you are you’re up to the task. Rather, self-confidence is a grounded belief that we have the abilities required to achieve a certain outcome. In running, this might be our belief that we can hold a certain pace throughout a race, or place ahead of the runners around us in the second half of a race. In other areas of life, self-confidence might mean believing we can successfully pass an exam, get a job that we apply for, or manage a large work project. 


Before we get to specific ways to improve self-confidence, let’s consider something about confidence that isn’t always obvious. We’re not going to tell you what it feels like to be high or low in confidence—you probably know both sides of that coin already. Instead, what we’d like you to reflect on is this: Feeling more confident isn’t as random as a coin toss. It’s not a quality that relies on luck—something we can’t control, that just happens, or that inexplicably comes and goes. Building confidence can be a controllable process; you can learn to flip the coin in your favor by nurturing your self-belief with the best sources of confidence available. This is what makes self-confidence more controllable than you might previously have considered.

Here’s another potentially surprising thing about self-confidence: The beliefs that underpin our self-confidence have less to do with what we’re actually capable of, and more to do with what we think we can do with the skills we possess. Sometimes we can be crippled by self-doubt, even for tasks that we’re more than capable of completing. You might doubt your ability to answer questions in a job interview, for example, despite having the knowledge and information required to do so. Your doubts might even mean you avoid applying for the role to begin with. Similarly, you might avoid signing up for races because you think you’re not fit enough, even though your training has been solid the past few months.

But the opposite is also true. If our belief in our abilities is higher, then we are more likely to try harder or persist for longer on a task than an equally skilled person with lower self-belief. In this way, our beliefs create a self-fulfilling prophecy. We try harder because we first believe we can accomplish a task. And we ultimately achieve it because of our increased effort and persistence, not just our abilities. Thus, our beliefs are fundamentally important to how we act, and higher self-confidence—without changes in ability or skill level—has been shown to improve performance in both athletic pursuits and the challenges of day-to-day life.

Again, this doesn’t mean we can fake it. We’re not talking about make-believe and fairy dust here! Instead, to build self-confidence—the unshakable kind—we need a solid foundation to start building on.

Specific steps toward self-confidence

Many of the general things you probably already do as a runner will build your self-confidence. These include setting challenging goals and striving to accomplish them, focusing on controllable actions, and talking to yourself in a constructive way. While these are helpful, here are four more-specific techniques for tapping into the strongest sources of self-confidence.

1. Meticulously record your preparation and milestone achievements.
Previous accomplishments, good preparation, and mastery of the skills of running are key to building robust self-confidence. But the process can crumble when you fail to make the connection between the work that you’ve done and the challenge that lies ahead. For many athletes, keeping a diary is one way of logging progress. Doing so can increase feelings of being well prepared and self-confident when an important event nears. Nothing helps to ease worries and dampen doubts more than evidence of the work you’ve done to prepare for an event.

Simply keeping a diary isn’t enough. It’s also important to prominently record the progress and achievements that you make during the weeks, months, and years of preparation. This might be highlighting training sessions that went well, flagging a successful experience like using a new mental tool to stay focused, or celebrating a performance milestone, such as setting a personal record. 


No matter how you choose to record snippets of information about your progress and achievements, the important bit is to draw on them regularly to feed your self-confidence. You might note them in a diary, but you might also attach them to your refrigerator door, or store them in a confidence jar beside your bed. Whatever the format, reading about them—and recalling each event— can help you overcome doubt-filled moments. The key point is that you ensure that your self-confidence is secured to controllable preparation and milestone achievements. These nuggets will provide the strongest sources of evidence as you methodically build and develop that confidence.

2. See it to believe it. 
Mental imagery can serve many different purposes, each of which can improve self-confidence. Athletes use their imagination to rehearse specific skills and routines. You might, for example, visualize yourself in the second half of a race running fast and relaxed. Performing these actions successfully—even in your mind’s eye—can have a positive impact on your self-belief.

Equally, when trying to achieve a goal, you might imagine working toward that goal, step by step, and making good progress. You might also imagine the emotions that accompany a stressful situation, and imagine managing these emotions to remain calm. 


Finally, you might imagine overcoming challenging situations and coping with difficult moments while staying focused and avoiding distractions. This might seem counterintuitive. After all, we often prefer to avoid thinking about things going wrong in the hope that everything works out fine. But imagining negative scenarios—the “what-if” moments—and mentally planning how to respond to each in the best possible way can be a powerful tool in our confidence-building kit. Elite runners regularly do these mental exercises, such as thinking through what they’ll do if they miss their drink at an aid station, or briefly lose contact with the pack they’re running with.

3. See others to believe it. 
Learning from others who have traveled a path similar to the one you hope to follow can raise your belief about what you’re capable of. You might, for example, pick the brain of someone in your running club who progressed from your current PRs to your goal times. What was her training like? Did she steadily chip away at lowering her times, or have a breakthrough after seeming to plateau? You might learn that you’re more ready to reach your goals than you thought you were. Remember, self-confidence beliefs are more about what we think we can do with our skills rather than an objective measure of the skills we possess. 


By learning from others, you might grasp how they cope with setbacks, or how they overcame the same disadvantages that you might experience. Even learning from their failures can increase your belief that you can overcome similar obstacles in your life.

4. Get a good support crew, including yourself. 
Finally, getting a good support crew around you can be helpful to develop self-confidence. Support might come in the form of positive feedback and encouragement from training partners, a coach, even non-running friends and family members who might believe in you more than you do. If enough knowledgeable people tell you you’re capable of reaching your goals, odds are they, and not your inner doubter, are correct.

Most Olympic marathoners spend their youth focused on running. They join track clubs, compete in national championships, and pursue the sport from an early age.

Julia Mayer’s journey was very different.

Today, Mayer is Austria’s marathon record holder, a multiple national record holder on the roads, and an Olympian. Yet for much of her athletic life, running was not her primary sport.

For 16 years, she played soccer.

Then she discovered something that would change her life.

“I noticed that I was really fast in the fun runs and that it was really, really fun,” Mayer said when reflecting on her transition from soccer to distance running.

What began as curiosity quickly became a passion. She eventually made the bold decision to leave soccer behind and focus entirely on running. It was a move that surprised many people around her, but Mayer believed she had found her true athletic calling.

The decision proved to be the right one.

Within a few years, Mayer developed into one of Europe’s top marathon runners. Her steady improvement carried her from local races to the international stage, where she began rewriting Austria’s record books.

She now holds Austrian records in the marathon, half marathon, and road 10K. Her marathon best of 2:26:08 established her as the fastest female marathoner in Austrian history. Her performances in the half marathon and 10K have further cemented her place among the country’s all-time great distance runners.

Her rise culminated with qualification for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Competing in the Olympic marathon represented the realization of a dream. On one of the most challenging marathon courses ever used for the Olympics, Mayer ran courageously against the strongest field in the world and finished 55th in her Olympic debut.

Behind the scenes, success has come through extraordinary dedication. During marathon preparation, Mayer trains twice a day and covers approximately 200 kilometers, or 124 miles, each week. The workload demands discipline, patience, and a deep commitment to continuous improvement. 

What makes her story especially inspiring is not simply the records or the Olympic appearance.

It is the fact that she found her greatest talent later than many elite runners.

In a sport where athletes are often identified at a young age, Mayer’s journey serves as a reminder that potential does not always reveal itself early. Sometimes it takes years of experience, a willingness to try something new, and the courage to follow a different path. 

The former soccer player who once chased a ball across a field is now chasing history on the roads of Europe.

And according to those closest to her, her best performances may still be ahead.

For runners of every age and ability, Julia Mayer’s story delivers a powerful lesson: it is never too late to discover what you are capable of.

From soccer player to Olympian, her journey proves that remarkable achievements can begin when least expected.

Megan Keith produced the performance of her career in Oslo on Thursday night, shattering one of Scotland’s longest-standing distance running records and cementing her place among Britain’s greatest female 3000m runners.

The 24-year-old clocked a sensational 8:28.35 over 3000m, breaking the Scottish outdoor record that had stood for nearly four decades. In doing so, Keith eclipsed the previous mark of 8:29.02, set by Scottish legend Yvonne Murray back in 1988, ending a record reign that had lasted 38 years.

Keith’s breakthrough run was more than just a national record. The performance also propelled her to third on the UK outdoor all-time list, placing her behind only two of Britain’s most celebrated distance runners — Paula Radcliffe, who leads the rankings with 8:22.20, and Laura Weightman, whose 8:26.07 remains the second-fastest outdoor mark by a British woman.

The significance of Keith’s achievement is amplified by the calibre of athletes she now joins in the record books. For decades, Murray’s mark stood as one of Scottish athletics’ most untouchable records, surviving generations of elite competitors. Keith has now succeeded where many outstanding runners have fallen short, announcing herself as one of the leading distance talents in British athletics.

Her time also compares favourably with the best performances produced indoors. Olympic medallist Laura Muir ran 8:26.41 indoors in Karlsruhe in 2017, underlining just how exceptional Keith’s outdoor effort in Oslo truly was.

The run continues a remarkable rise for the Scottish star, whose progression over recent seasons has transformed her from a promising prospect into a genuine force on the international stage. Running with confidence and composure against elite competition, Keith demonstrated both the speed and endurance required to challenge the very best in Europe and beyond.

With the World Championship season gathering momentum, Keith’s record-breaking display sends a powerful message. Not only has she etched her name into Scottish athletics history, but she has also established herself as a serious contender in one of the sport’s most competitive events.

In Oslo, Megan Keith did far more than break a record. She ended a 38-year wait, climbed into the upper echelon of British distance running, and delivered a performance that may prove to be a defining moment in her career.

British middle-distance talent Phoebe Gill took another significant step forward in her return to top form, producing a determined victory over 800 metres at the Meeting de Marseille in France on Wednesday.

Competing in challenging, wind-affected conditions, the 19-year-old demonstrated both resilience and composure as she held off a late charge from Switzerland's Veronica Vancardo to secure the win in 2:00.81. Vancardo finished just three hundredths of a second behind in 2:00.84, underlining the fiercely contested nature of the race.

While the margin of victory was narrow, the result represented another encouraging milestone for Gill as she continues to rebuild momentum following her injury setback. The young Briton showed impressive race awareness and strength in the closing stages, maintaining her advantage despite the difficult conditions that made fast running a challenge throughout the evening.

The Marseille triumph adds to a growing body of evidence that Gill is steadily progressing toward her best form. Earlier in her comeback campaign, she clocked 2:01.50 for 800m in Bydgoszcz before demonstrating her versatility with a strong 4:05.53 performance over 1500 metres at the BMC Grand Prix meeting in Trafford.

Those performances have highlighted not only her improving fitness but also her ability to compete across multiple distances as she carefully builds her season. The Marseille victory now provides further confirmation that the European junior star is moving in the right direction.

Gill emerged as one of Britain's most exciting middle-distance prospects through a series of breakthrough performances as a teenager, earning widespread recognition for her fearless racing style and remarkable maturity. Injury temporarily interrupted that upward trajectory, but her recent results suggest she is steadily rediscovering the form that made her one of the sport's brightest young talents.

With each race, the signs of progress become increasingly evident. Winning in difficult conditions and under pressure from a quality field is often a stronger indicator than a fast time alone, and Gill's latest success demonstrated exactly those qualities.

As the summer season gathers pace, the Marseille victory offers another confidence boost for the British teenager, whose return continues to gain momentum. If her recent progression is any indication, Gill could soon find herself back among the leading names on the European middle-distance circuit. 

The NCAA Track and Field Championships delivered a moment few could have predicted as Ja’Kobe Tharp produced one of the most astonishing performances in the history of sprint hurdling, rewriting the record books in spectacular fashion.

Competing in the opening round of the men’s 110-meter hurdles, the Auburn star stunned the athletics world by clocking an incredible 12.75 seconds, becoming the first athlete ever to break the 12.80-second barrier. In doing so, he eclipsed the long-standing world record of 12.80 set by Aries Merritt in 2012, a mark that had stood as one of the sport’s most revered achievements for more than a decade.

What makes Tharp’s breakthrough even more remarkable is the scale of his improvement. Entering the championships, the defending NCAA and U.S. champion had recorded a season-best of 13.05 seconds. Yet under the brightest spotlight, he unleashed a performance that exceeded every expectation, slicing an extraordinary 0.26 seconds from his personal best in a race that instantly became one of the greatest ever run.

The achievement sent shockwaves throughout the track and field community. While Tharp arrived in Eugene as one of the leading contenders for the NCAA title, few envisioned a performance capable of redefining the limits of the event. Instead, the American hurdler delivered a race for the ages, combining flawless technique, explosive speed, and impeccable rhythm from the first hurdle to the finish line.

The historic run not only secured his place in athletics history but also transformed the outlook of the championship. With the world record now in his possession, Tharp advances to the final as the overwhelming favorite, carrying momentum that could make an already unforgettable weekend even more extraordinary.

For years, the 12.80 barrier appeared untouchable. On a stunning day at the NCAA Championships, Ja’Kobe Tharp proved otherwise, producing the kind of performance that reminds fans why sport remains so unpredictable. In a matter of seconds, he turned a routine qualifying round into a landmark moment that will be remembered for generations.

The world record no one saw coming is now a reality—and Ja’Kobe Tharp is the man who changed history.

A new chapter in middle-distance running may have begun in Oslo after American teenager Cooper Lutkenhaus produced one of the most remarkable performances of the season, narrowly defeating reigning Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi in a thrilling men's 800m contest at the Diamond League meeting.

The 17-year-old sensation shocked a world-class field by crossing the finish line first in a race that came down to the smallest of margins. After an intense battle over the final metres, Lutkenhaus held off Wanyonyi by just one hundredth of a second, producing a dramatic finish that left the packed stadium in disbelief.

From the opening lap, the pace was relentless as the leading contenders positioned themselves for a fierce showdown. As the athletes entered the home straight, Wanyonyi appeared poised to unleash his trademark finishing kick. However, Lutkenhaus refused to be intimidated, matching the Olympic champion stride for stride before producing a perfectly timed lean at the line to secure a historic victory.

The result marks a breakthrough moment for the young American, who continues to establish himself as one of the brightest talents in global athletics. Defeating an Olympic champion at a Diamond League event is a feat many athletes spend entire careers pursuing, yet Lutkenhaus achieved it before reaching adulthood.

For Wanyonyi, the narrow defeat does little to diminish his status as one of the world's premier 800m runners. The Kenyan once again demonstrated his exceptional class and competitiveness, pushing the race to a world-class standard and forcing his young rival to deliver the performance of a lifetime.

Beyond the result itself, the race offered a glimpse into what could become one of the sport's most exciting rivalries in the years ahead. With established stars and emerging talents now pushing each other to new heights, the men's 800m continues to evolve into one of athletics' most captivating events.

On a memorable night in Oslo, the spotlight belonged to Cooper Lutkenhaus. At just 17 years old, he stood toe-to-toe with an Olympic champion and emerged victorious, announcing himself to the athletics world in spectacular fashion.