You may have heard of Pavlov’s dogs or conditioned response. Something happens and it makes you feel a certain way. Stimulus followed by response. For example if, out of the blue, a colleague says “You are doing the presentation to a thousand people” how would that make you instantly feel? Excited, eager, proud? Or scared, fearful and worried? (If it’s the latter you might like to sign up for one of our workshops).
The point is how can you use this in built stimulus and response mechanism to your advantage, in a planned way, next time you want or need to feel really good? I suggest you find a piece of music that you already associate with a really happy time in your life. Something that every time you hear it just makes you feel great. Stick it on your iPod or a CD and play it just before you need to perform. I know from speaking to former diver Leon Taylor and other top flight sportsmen and women most use this simple but incredibly effective confidence trick to help get them into a resourceful state (The All Blacks ‘Haka’ is an extreme example).
By the way in case you are wondering mine is a wonderful piece of Northern Soul called ‘Better Use Your Head’ by Little Anthony and The Imperials.
