3 tips for practicing the art of mental rehearsal

Peak performers relax and rehearse to get great results. “My best performances come after preparing properly,” said one person. “The times when I have messed-up – and failed to deliver the right results – have been when I didn’t relax or rehearse properly.” Here are three steps you can focus on for practicing the art of mental rehearsal.

* You can relax.

Start by looking ahead to a challenging situation. You may want to perform at your best when giving a presentation, playing a football match, solving a conflict or whatever. Starting from your destination – the date when you will enter the arena – build-in time to conserve your energy ahead of time. Get enough sleep, otherwise you may feel edgy. Different people relax in different ways. Some set aside quiet time to plan; some lie in the bath rehearsing the day ahead; some arrive an hour before a customer appointment to sit in the car park gathering their thoughts. What is your method? Try completing the following sentences.

Looking into the future, the challenging situation where I want to perform at my best is:

*

The specific things I can do to make sure I rest and relax properly before entering the situation are:

*

* You can rehearse.

Looking ahead to the situation, ask yourself:

"What are the real results I want to achieve? What is my picture of perfection? What are the actual words I want people to be saying after the session?"

"How can I do my best achieve this result? What are the three key things I can do to give myself the greatest chance of success? How can I put these things into practice?"

"What are the many possible scenarios? What is the best that can happen – and how can I build on this success? What is the worst that can happen? How can I prevent this happening? How can do my best if it does happen? What are the difficult questions people may ask? How can I answer these questions in a good way?"

Settle-on your chosen strategy – then practice what must be done to achieve the goals. Keep practicing and ‘practice until you can forget.’ Try completing the following sentence – then relax before the next stage.

The specific things I can do to make sure I rehearse properly before entering the situation are:

*

* You can do your best to get the right results.

Relax and re-centre. Refocus on the results you want to achieve – the picture of perfection. Peak performers often have an individual ritual they use to snap into ‘alert mode’ before entering the arena – be it going onto the football field, making a customer presentation or whatever. You will have your own ritual. Be fully present. You can then give your full attention to the situation, person or challenge. Take a final moment to gather your thoughts. Go into the arena and follow your chosen strategy. Be fully alert and use your antennae to be aware of what is happening. Take these things into account and, if necessary, be prepared to change tack - but also keep your eyes on the goal. If you hit a setback, buy time to re-gather your thoughts, then pursue your chosen way forward. Keep giving 100%. Do everything possible to deliver the results. Flow, focus and finish. Try completing the following sentence.

The specific things I can do to do my best to get the right results in the situation are:

*

You can find many more tools for making full use of your talents at:

http://www.thestrengthsway.com