How do athletes, and others who take performance very
seriously, bring out the best in themselves?
Athletes began to use leading-edge techniques like mental
rehearsal and focused concentration years before the general public had even
heard of them. Jack Nicklaus, for example, said that he would "watch a
movie" in his head before each shot.
These days, thanks to many researchers, we know more. Peter
Fox and his colleagues at the University of Texas monitored people's brain
activities as they performed various body movements and also as they imagined
performing the movements. They found that the actual physical movement
consistently involved the interaction of several specific areas of the brain.
Imagining the movement activated those same areas of the brain.
In other words, mental rehearsal of an
action puts the mind through a neural workout that is very much like the real
thing.
So whether you're trying to break your own personal best
record in a sport or sell a new car to an ambivalent customer, mental
rehearsal, or visualisation, can help you prepare for peak performance by
walking you through successful strategies and potential pitfalls.
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