It's All In The Mind

By Martin Avis

How hard do you practice to be good at what you do?

Golfers swing clubs for hours on end. Tennis players knock endless balls across the nets. Business people rehearse presentations over and over.

We all take physical action to improve our skills.

Yet there is hard evidence that another kind of rehearsal can be even more effective.

When Olympic athlete Steve Buckley sprained his ankle, practicing his javelin throwing skills seemed impossible. But he put his time to better use. Over the next few weeks, he imagined himself throwing the javelin at every major stadium in the world.

He didn't just idly dream. He used the power of his imagination to actually experience every step he took in the run up, every heft of the javelin, every muscle as it smoothly worked to help him perform perfect throws. In fact, in his mind, he achieved over 1000 perfect throws.

When he returned to real-world practice, when his ankle was healed, his body remembered the feelings his mind had created and he promptly beat his own personal best.

Top golfers do the same thing. Before they swing the club to tee off, they mentally picture the ball arcing through the air and landing in the precise spot they want it to.

The better the imaginary rehearsal, the better the golfer.

A study was done with basketball players a few years ago. A group of players were split into three. One set were asked to practice throwing baskets for an hour a day. The second group were told not to practice at all. The third group were instructed to keep away from the court, but to sit quietly for half an hour a day and imagine themselves throwing perfect baskets.

At the end of two weeks the players were all asked to shoot baskets in real life. Their abilities had been measured before the tests began.

The players who had not practiced at all showed a decline in ability of 10%.

The 'real-life' practice group improved by 25%.

But the group who had throw baskets only in their minds had improved by an astonishing 20%!

Somehow their minds had taught their bodies how to score.

Nobody is saying that imaginary practice is the only way to go. Clearly, the group who had thrown balls had still improved the most, but combining mental and physical effort must be the best strategy.

How can we use this phenomenon in out lives?

The first thing to do is to make it a rule that you should never start something until you've finished it in your mind first.

A builder wouldn't build a skyscraper unless an architect had already built it. The architect has imagined the structure, seen every step of the construction process, mentally painted the walls and cleaned the windows.

Without the architect's imagination, the builder would have trouble constructing a garden shed, let alone a fifty-story office block.

Imagine a building as beautiful as the Taj Mahal. See it in your mind's eye and realize that it existed in the mind of the man who built it long before a single piece of marble was cut.

Whatever you do, whether it is a book you want to write, or an presentation you need to give, or a garden you want to plant, it will be better, happen quicker and leave a lasting effect on other people for longer if you have mentally rehearsed.

This article has been running round in my mind for several days. I had effectively written it long before I sat down to type. So when I did sit down, it flowed right out of my fingertips.

Mental rehearsal makes easy tasks a breeze and difficult tasks easier. Impossible ones just take a bit more imagination.

Martin Avis is a management and training consultant.

He publishes BizE-zine, a free, weekly newsletter packed with articles, quotes and opinion on business, Internet marketing and personal development.

His website is filled with articles and free downloads at BizE-zine: business made personal.