The Peak Performance Expert

In my last post I wrote about the importance of preparation to ensure feeling and being composed in high stakes situations.  I specifically wrote about how to mange your body’s response to a percived threat.  Today, I’ll touch on mental preparation.

Let’s say you have a big meeting or presentation coming up.  You have to either present your ideas at the meeting or give a talk to a group.  Of course you will jot down your ideas and create an outline or a script.  And, of course you will (or you should!) rehearse (out loud) what you’re going to say.  You will attempt to memorize your key points so you don’t have to refer to your notes (or you should!).

Here’s a technique that helps you learn and retain new material and that will train your mind and body to respond in the way you wish.  It’s helpful to use this for a variety of high pressure situations including preparing for a test, rehearsing a talk, or practicing an athletic move such as putting in golf.

  STUDY/REHEARSAL/PRACTICE ROUTINE 

1.       Begin with relaxation exercise (Can be simply exhaling slowly several times)

2.       Once relaxed, connect with Ideal State (This is how you want to feel, act, be in the actual performance situation)

3.       Say CUE word/phrase to yourself (Cue word is your trigger - a word that connects to Ideal Performance State)

4.       Once firmly in “positive space” begin to study/rehearse/practice

5.        As soon as you notice you are leaving positive space, STOP EVERYTHING, then re-connect with positive space.

6.        Once firmly in positive space again, repeat CUE word/phrase and resume your work.

7.        Study/rehearse/practice ONLY in positive space.

8.        Important to strengthen association between positive space and study/rehearsal/practice.

9.        At time of test/performance, exhale slowly three times and repeat CUE word/phrase to get back into positive space.

By using this technique, you are essentially training your mind and body to respond in the way you wish. You are only “performing” (i.e., practicing) when you are in your ideal state so when you are in the actual performance situation, that is the state you will be in.  If you find yourself diverting from your ideal state during performance, say your cue word to yourself to reconnect with your ideal performance state.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 26th, 2008 at 3:33 pm and is filed under Mental Rehearsal, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.