Beliefs are judgments and evaluations that we make about ourselves or about the situations we experience. It is what we consider to be true so we ‘believe’ it to be so. Beliefs are formed through education, experiences, past situations, or the creation of thought models which lead to a common denominator in the relationship with the world and with others. They are directly related to our own abilities, limiting or extending our skiing evolution. They make us believe that we are or that we are not capable, giving importance to some things and not to others. These subjective value judgments have a certain real verification but always in a partial way which can limit as much as expand our behavior, capacities, and identity.
We cling to our beliefs in order to perform in the environment in which we act. When we believe in something it is because we consider it to be true, and this works as a perceptual filter that makes it difficult to change because what we do and think repeatedly reinforces our beliefs. As we think that our beliefs are ingrained postulates, we tend not to question them which leads us to make the same mistakes systematically.
When criticizing, evaluating, or giving an opinion about another person or situation, we tend to use ‘common sense’ to support our own convictions, when in reality it is our own beliefs that lead to the conclusion about how the reality of things should be. Thus, as our opinions about others or about a given context, we also defend externalized criticisms believing them to be constructive. In general, this is not always the case but we criticize in order to confront our own point of view with that of others, thus affirming our own beliefs.
Although it can be conscious or unconscious, our mind is constantly paying attention, monitoring, and interpreting what is happening at every instant when skiing, then we interpret the meaning that the situation has for us and rely on it to know how to act. Our beliefs influence the interpretation of the situation: if it is exaggerated then we will react by generating states of anxiety and anger if the interpretation is negative, or calmness if it is positive.
In the Attribution theory, social psychologist Bernard Weiner argues that beliefs about what generates success or failure have an influence on our motivation. When we attribute our mistakes to our own lack of ability or skill, perceive it as something we cannot control, and feel ashamed or uncomfortable, we may experience a decrease in our effort with the consequent deterioration of our performance. On the other hand, if we attribute our errors to a lack of effort and believe that we can control it, then we feel guilt, causing an increase in effort to improve our performance.
Having a healthy belief system favors the organization of the way in which we interact with the mountain environment. To believe is to accept, which does not necessarily mean to be credulous but to admit what is believed. What we believe in directly affects what we want to achieve in our own skiing. Our own beliefs determine the skiers we want to be. If it is based on our genetic heritage, then we will believe that we have a limitation in any action we undertake and will tend to identify with the outcome of the new activities we tackle, i.e., if we fail we will believe we are a failure.
If we do not believe in our abilities, we are prone to ski defensively, to avoid challenges, to give up easily, and to feel our self-esteem threatened by observing the success of others. On the other hand, if we believe that our traits are modifiable, we will take them as qualities that can be improved. By not identifying ourselves with the results, we do not consider ourselves a failure for not achieving the goals in the first attempts but rather we constantly learn from our mistakes, which contributes to the formation of positive beliefs.
Self-limiting beliefs are established when we are exposed to new contexts in which our first experiences are unpleasant. If a single negative experience occurs, then it will be difficult for a self-limiting belief to form but if continuous unpleasant experiences continue to occur, it is very likely that we will begin to doubt ourselves. If this doubt increases, it could reach a level where it becomes a solid judgment about ourselves, becoming a self-limiting opinion that is part of our identity. At this point, we may become a slave of our own beliefs, which unconsciously act to the detriment of our evolution.
Self-limiting beliefs can be modified by adopting others that denote hope, capability, and self-worth. One way to suppress them is to identify them and proceed to remove them on the basis that they are false. Another way to eradicate this type of beliefs is to look for a valid argument related to the situation we are facing, as well as to de-dramatize the situation by determining that it is not as exaggerated as we believed it was. Therefore, if we wish to achieve the proposed ideas, we should change the limiting beliefs for those that give a sense of confidence in our own endeavors, a feeling that we are capable and a sense of deservedness and consideration.
In general, the following limiting beliefs are observed:
- We tend to believe in our self-limitation in that the desired goals are not attainable (hopelessness); that they are attainable but we do not have the capacity to achieve them (helplessness); or that we do not deserve to achieve them because of who we are or what we have or have not accomplished (absence of merit).
- Our own beliefs generate most of the conflicts. Negative thoughts and feelings such as the instructor/coach thinks that we are unskilled, that the lesson or the training session will not be successful, or that we will not ski better are beliefs that usually occur unconsciously but it is possible to pay attention and modify them.
Having limiting beliefs, we only pay attention as soon as the instructor or coach informs us of the outcome, right or wrong, of our performance. On the other hand, if we believe in our own abilities, we pay attention not only to the evaluation but also to the information we receive and use it to learn something better.
The consequences of ski instructors and coaches’ beliefs
Beliefs affect our predisposition with respect to the learning process. Perhaps, the most observed is the one that conditions positively or negatively ourselves believing that we can learn to ski or, on the contrary, that we do not have the ability to do it. In both cases we will be right: whether we can or not is due to our own belief and will be so until we do not change it. We may believe that success in learning to ski is based on certain innate abilities. Instructors and coaches contradict this false belief by encouraging effort and learning. If we believe that what is about to learn is important, then we will learn. The mission of these pros is to make us see how important what we are about to learn is to our skiing: we must believe that it is essential and it is not enough that we hear it once in the initial explanation but repeatedly.
The beliefs, positive or negative, of instructors and coaches have a considerable influence on our success. They operate as filters of reality and generate a vicious or virtuous circle. Negative beliefs on the part of the pro influence the expectations of the learner, low expectations generate a decrease in motivation and each frustration confirms the initial belief of the facilitator. Conversely, if they positively believe that we will improve, we will generate expectations of achievement, which promote timely motivation.
We conclude this topic saying that each belief has the power to make each decision and each decision generates the skiing behavior that we believe to be attainable.
