The truth is that many athletes are in search for the magical piece of equipment, clothing, or stage that will give them confidence and spark their performance. Just today, I was working with one of my personal mental coaching students. He is a good amateur golfer; I’ll call him John. We were talking about the psychology of great putting.

He confessed to me about how many putters he had bought over his career. He loves to buy putters. Oddly enough, he thought that he would come across a perfect, magical putter that would somehow unlock his putting confidence. Until recently, John tore through 20 or more putters and was unable to unlock his putting talent. But we started to talk about the psychology of great putting.

He realized, after a recent successful putting round, that the "magic" was within himself and not a function of a magical piece of equipment. He understands now that confidence in oneself is massively more powerful than confidence in a magical piece of equipment. However, this example goes way beyond golf and applies to any sport.