Seve Ballesteros - motivating a genius.

It was sad to hear last week about the death of Seve Ballesteros at the age of 54.  Ballesteros won 87 tournaments around the world, including three Opens and two Masters and a record 50 victories on the European Tour alone. In the process he became the leader of a pack of golfers who changed the face of the game.  As well as being brilliant he could also make mistakes and recover from them by playing unbelievable shots and that endeared him to golfers at all levels.

I am always interested to know what motivates top sportsmen and women because being successful at that level takes thousands of hours of practice. His caddy, Dave Mosgrove, talking on BBC Radio 4, said that Seve hated losing at anything.  As a young player, if he lost a game, he would go to bed and read a book and not eat.  The pain and anguish he inflicted on himself for not succeeding drove him to win.

Now, some people are motivated by moving towards pleasure (the carrot) while others are motivated by moving away from pain (the stick).  It would seem that Seve was an 'away from pain' person who did not take so much pleasure from his amazing successes. 

Whether you are a 'carrot' or 'stick' person, the important thing is to keep learning from your experiences.  There is always more to learn from the times that don't go so well but even in success you can still think "What have I learned?"  What will I do better next time?"  That is a real motivator.

So what motivates you, the carrot, the stick or the learning experience?

If I can, you can

I have just spent the weekend on a Winning Mind Coaching course taught by Trevor Silvester of the Quest Institute.  I knew it was going to involve juggling and, as someone who has trouble with coordination, balance and catching a ball, I knew it was going to be a challenge.

Winning sports performance depends on so much more that physical fitness.  Top sports men and women also have to pay attention to their mental  and emotional fitness.  Most traditional coaching approaches are based on goal setting and planning to achieve those goals.  This is important because we tend to get what we aim for and also the achievement of goals releases ‘happiness hormones’ into our blood stream.

The cognitive hypnotherapy approach to sports mind coaching considers the issues that can support or stop us from achieving such as motivation, resilience, self-belief and focus.  It can also help with improving physical performance through accelerated practice, modelling excellence and visualisation.

So, did I manage to learn how to juggle over the weekend.  Well, I was officially the worst performer at the beginning of the course and had to start from learning how to throw one ball from hand to hand – and catch it!  By day 3 I was throwing and catching two balls with some consistency.  More importantly I had let go of the limiting belief that I couldn’t catch a ball and I was enjoying the experience of learning.  I will definitely be carrying on until I master 3 balls.

Successful Revision

When I was at school (cue violins!) not much was known about individual learning styles.  As a result, we were all taught the same way, sitting at desks, looking at the blackboard and listening to the teacher.  The only experimentation that went on was in the science lessons, dissecting cow’s eyes and constructing milk bottle xylophones.

So much more is known now through advances in neuroscience.  We know that we all receive information through our five senses but what varies is that we will favour one sense above the others.  If you favour visual information, the blackboard and book approach will be ok.  But if you if your preferred input is kinaesthetic, ie what you touch and feel, you will learn better by experiences and experiments.

Our learning is also affected by our personality traits.  Some people like ‘big picture’ information while others learn better from detail.  Extraverts like group discussions and making presentations while introverts prefer individual study.

If you are revising for exams at the moment, here are some tips to make your study more effective:

1.      If you have been revising and the information isn’t sticking, try something different.  If you are very visual, mind maps will be useful.  If you prefer sounds to images, try recording your revision notes and listening back to them.  If you are kinaesthetic, try walking with your notes or tracing key words in the air with your finger.

2.      Exercise first thing in the morning to increase your brain power.  Exercise increases levels of hormones that are important to neurotransmitters and generates new brain cells.  Study the subject you find most difficult after exercise.

3.      Have some peppermint or rosemary essential oil in your revision room.  Both scents have been shown to stimulate the brain.  If you find it helpful, you can put some on a tissue to take into the exam room.

4.      Baroque music is frequently used by trainers as background music to aid learning.  You can try playing Bach, Handel or Vivaldi while you are studying.

5.      Have a laugh!  The Von Restorff Effect predicts that material that is outstanding in some way is easier to remember.  That distinctiveness can come in the form of humour or by making something bizarre or funny.  So if you are having trouble remembering something see if you can put it into a joke or cartoon or make a humorous mnemonic for it.

Good Luck!

Archers to Ashes

Buffy Davis who plays Jolene

Regular listeners to the Archers will know that Jolene, the landlady of The Bull, is trying to give up smoking but is not doing very well.  Part of the problem is her motivation – or lack of it.  Her new boyfriend, Kenton, is the person who wants her to give up and is bribing her with a trip to Monte Carlo.

It’s not enough for someone else to want you to give up smoking.  To be successful at becoming a non-smoker, you need to be self-motivated.  Motivation comes from your values, the things that get you up in the morning.  Good motivators can be connected to your health, your family, your finances or your future plans.

Once you’ve got your motivation sorted out, you need to think about your beliefs.  Some beliefs are enabling and help you to achieve your goals eg “I can do this because I’m a strong person” or “I’ve done difficult things before and I can do this now”.  Other beliefs are limiting and don’t support what you want to do eg “Nothing has worked in the past so it won’t work now” or “I’m weak-willed so it won’t last”.  You can change your limiting beliefs for positive ones or you can choose not to believe them.  The first step is becoming aware of them.

So come on Jolene, you're a strong woman, what will motivate you to stop smoking?

Happy Easter!

The weather’s lovely, there’s a long weekend to enjoy and I can start eating chocolate again!  Every year I give up chocolate for Lent and, as I love chocolate in all its forms, it is a real trial.  I did have a piece of chocolate cake on my birthday but I think that’s allowable.  The first mouthful of Easter egg will be fantastic.

As an NLP practitioner and a hypnotherapist I do have some techniques that help to control the craving.  I could use an aversion technique, which is very effective, but I want to eat chocolate in the future so I won’t do that.

A really useful technique for controlling any sort of craving is ‘spinning’.  Feelings often start in the tummy area and move upwards in a circular motion.  If you reverse that motion you can reduce feline.  Follow these steps the next time you have an unwanted craving.

1.       As you start to experience the feeling of craving, notice where it starts and how it moves in a particular direction.  Connect the end to the beginning so that you have a spinning circle. 

2.       If that feeling had a colour, what colour would it be?

3.       Move that spinning circle outside your body and notice the speed it spins at.

4.       Now, slow down the spinning and reverse the direction of the spin

5.       Change the colour to the colour of calmness.

6.       Bring that calm circle back down into your body.

7.       Notice how the feeling of craving has reduced or gone.

Have a Happy and Peaceful Easter

Mind over Matter

Exercising arthritic joints can be very painful -
something this tecnology may help combat.

Last week the BBC reported a remarkable new piece of research being carried out by Nottingham Trent University into the treatment of arthritis (Mind tricks may help arthritic pain).  The technology, called ‘Mirage’ started off as a research project into the way our brains put together what we see and feel happening in our bodies but, after a woman with arthritis reported relief from the symptoms, the scope of the research has been extended..

“For the illusion to work patients place their hand inside a box containing a camera, which then projects the image in realtime onto a screen in front of them.  The subject then sees their arthritic fingers being apparently stretched and shrunk by someone gently pushing and pulling from the other side of the box.”

Twenty volunteers diagnosed with arthritic pain in their hands and fingers were recruited by the University to test out the process.

 “Before starting the test they were asked to rate their pain from 0-20, with 0 indicating no pain and 20 representing the most unbearable pain they could imagine....The study showed a marked reduction in pain - on average halving the discomfort for 85 per cent of volunteers.  Some reported greater reduction in pain for stretching, some for shrinking and some for both. 

The pain reduction worked only when painful parts of the hand were "manipulated" and for a third of the volunteers it temporarily eliminated the pain altogether.  Anecdotally, many volunteers also reported an increased range of movement. The results will be reported in the next edition of the medical journal, Rheumatology.” (Anthony Bartram, BBC 2011)

Our minds find it hard to differentiate between what we physically experience and what we see or visualise.  There are a number of NLP and hypnosis techniques that work on this principle.  Using visualisation as part of a therapy, I can help clients to change their experience of pain and improve their physical performance.

All of this is exciting news for the 10 million people who suffer from some form of arthritis, particularly those who don’t like taking drugs or don’t experience any pain relief from them.

Visiting Japan

Last October I was very lucky to have a holiday in Japan.  It was somewhere I had wanted to go for many years and I decided not to put it off any longer.  I had always thought I would go there for cherry blossom time in the Spring but, after I read an article about how beautiful the Autumn colours are in Japan, I changed my mind.  In the light of recent events it was a very fortunate decision.

The trip far exceeded my expectations.  The gardens and temples in Kyoto were awe inspiring.  I had never heard of the island of Miyajima, just off of the coast of Hiroshima.  It was so beautiful, the mountains, the forests, the wild deer in the streets and the floating Torii gate.  I also went to Iga Ueno and did some ninja training, really, I have the certificate!

I was surprised how easy it was to use public transport and navigate around the cities and the countryside.  Japanese people in restaurants, shops and on the streets were generally helpful, polite and charming.

It has been shocking to watch the news reports of the earthquake and tsunami.  Although the areas I visited were not affected, the scenery and houses look very familiar.  I can’t even imagine how you start to clear up and recover from that sort of devastation but I think everyone has been impressed by the calmness and dignity of the Japanese people.

 I hope to go back Japan sometime and visit some new places but in the meantime my thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected.