Confidence

I have read a lot of books and am thorough with repertoire but in school tournaments I either lack confidence giving me a negative mentality or either i become over-confident, mostly ending up in blowing a winning position. I am unable to find a balance between the two. Any help?

I would think that practicing some mindfulness and visualisation techniques could be helpful.

 That too. :-)

 I was responding to 'ghostof pushwood'. Not Chessbae49.

 You've taken an important first step by identifying a problem with your thought process: you are either thinking negatively or you are over-confident. The next step is reflected in your question, how to find a balance. There is no easy answer (easy answers don't exist in chess), but the basic problem seems to be that you are allowing emotion to guide your play. Success in chess requires that you evaluate every position objectively -- what are the actual conditions on the board, and what are they telling you to do. 

Over time, gaining chess knowledge and experience should help a lot. Keep studying and playing. In the near term, remind yourself of this problem during your games and talk yourself into overcoming it. After your games, analyze them and identify places where you fell into that kind of thinking; that will help you learn to avoid it in the future.

Confidence has little to do with "psychology", instead it is built on the repetition of success.

Also, do more tactics.

Confidence has a lot to do with psychology. And whilst being successful will help give you confidence, it's not the only way. Nobody starts off successful. They have to work at it, and many talented people fail through lack of confidence, and have to learn to think in a confident manner. That's why good  psychologists are becoming more and more popular with elite sportspeople. There's a need for them.  But you're right when you say that you need to practice and study tactics. Confidence alone won't help you if you haven't put in the work. Nor will simply reading chess books help.

I've been ranging from extremely good at certain things in my life to very mediocre at many others and confidence from the former never translated in anything in the latter.

There is no such thing as "generic" confidence in my opinion (backed by experience).

Control of emotions, while being important, is a separate issue.

It is like the story of the samuraï from Japan (can't remember where I heard it):

Does he project confidence because he could kill me in a blink, or could he kill me because he is confident? 

There is no way that a highly overconfident 1700 chad beats up a shy, highly inhibited 2300 FIDE master (unless he attempts chaotic stuff held in high contempt in this site like gambits and so-called "hope chess"- and even then his odds would be tiny, instead of zero like if he tried d4ish slow game where he would be crushed boa-constrictor style by the superior positional play of the fide master. )

Psychology is always secondary with respect to technical skill contrary to what a fashionable widespread idea. When people have comparable skill maybe it can balance things but that's all.

read the amateur's mind by silman

I'll check out that book, thanks !I've got Silman's chess course which he wrote for the Great Courses Company. He  says that psychology plays a huge role in chess. 

There is a sport psychologist called Doctor Bob Rotella who has written lots of books on the psychology of golf. But even if you've never played golf, the book is full of insights about how our minds work when we're learning something new or competing in an activity whether you're an amateur or a pro. 

sure and experts beat GM's. doesnt make it common

OK, thanks. Where can I get this series?

That's great. Thanks again!