Reps remove doubt

I watched a talk given by Alex Honnold (a crazy guy who free solos mountains – i.e. climbs them with no safety equipment). Fear, he said, is a death sentence on the mountain. Can’t allow it to creep in. Makes sense. So what does he do to prevent it? The key for him was realizing that doubt is the precursor to fear. If you have doubts about your ability to do the thing then you’ll have fear when you’re actually doing it. How does he remove doubt? Preparation. Reps remove doubt.

If you’ve got doubts, figure out where the skill gap is and go attack it. Prepare harder. Get more reps. Rep it out until you can do “it” in your sleep. Whatever it is. When you’ve got a deep well-spring of reps to draw on, you simply remind your brain of that fact if and when doubt or fear starts to creep in. You’ve done the work, now you can trust it.