Day 7 of Mental Excellence – Positive Images and Positive Self-Evaluation
A link to the complete 7-day series on mental excellence is here …
Mental Excellence 101: Develop the Mental Skills of Elite Performers
The final two pieces that we are going to discuss in this 7-day blog series on mental excellence are the use of positive images and the importance of positive self-evaluation.
Positive Imagery
There is a wealth of research that has emerged regarding the impact of using positive imagery in developing mental skills, boosting confidence and increasing the ability to perform under pressure. Children, as we know, are highly competent in using their imagination to create rich and vivid experiences. As adults, most of us are still able to tap into that ability, and in doing so – we have a way to “pre-experience” and “re-experiencing” quality performances and situations. Imagery is much more than a visual experience, and can involve all the senses.
Try this little thought experiment…
Close your eyes, and imagine you are holding a lemon in front of you. Imagine feeling the texture of it in your hands, its colour and the smell of it. Then imagine cutting it in half with a sharp knife, and then taking a big bite out of it.
Now, notice what happens.
That’s quite a reaction you had from an imaginary lemon, isn’t it?
As you’ve experienced, the more vivid your imagined situation … the more impact it will have.
So what is the value of re-experiencing and pre-experiencing performance through using imagery?
- Well, firstly, imagery provides you with a means of rehearsing critical performances and tasks. Through imaging positive execution of tasks you can build your confidence in your ability. Your confidence is, of course, underpinned by positive experiences and the knowledge that you can perform competently. Increasing your confidence using imagery in this way is also likely to create positive experiences, so this helps to create a reinforcing, virtuous loop that leads to ever-increasing confidence and ability over time.
- Secondly, confidence also protects you against anxiety and the more confident you feel the less likely you are to experience debilitating anxiety.
- Thirdly, creating positive images of key situations will also allow you to practice establishing and resetting your focus. You can imagine distractions or challenges to your focus, and just picturing how you will use your resetting mechanism to reestablish your focus will actually improve your ability to refocus in the real situation.
- Fourthly, in the mental readiness blog we discussed the importance of being prepared to allow yourself the maximum chance of performing at your best. Spending time imagining scenarios and effectively coping with them in this way will also improve your mental readiness.
Terry Orlick’s research that identified the components of mental excellence drew on the experiences of astronauts, elite surgeons and fighter pilots and found that found that an important characteristic of elite performers was their use of imagery to enhance their performance.
The following quote from an unnamed astronaut paints a particularly vivid picture of the usefulness of imagery:
“When you are parachuting [and something goes wrong], you have an emergency procedure to go through…depending on what kind of failure you have with your parachute. You’ve only got a few seconds to go through that matrix…I spent a great deal of time visualizing the scenarios and it happened to me. And it’s incredible because you’ve got that matrix down flat, you just go through it. And by four hundred feet I had the problem solved and I didn’t die. And so you get down on the ground and you go- I won. You touched death and you won.”
- Astronaut
So, the next time you have an important meeting or presentation … try using positive imagery to radically improve your performance. It’s powerful and it works.
Self-Evaluation and Reflection
To conclude this series on mental excellence we are going to look at the role of evaluation and reflection.
The ability to constructively evaluate and reflect is the final element of Terry Orlick’s wheel of excellence and his research using elite performers identified that they are meticulous in reviewing their experiences in order to learn from them.
As you begin to develop your ability to focus, manage distractions, plan and prepare … you need to be engaged in a continuous process of reflection on action, otherwise you will impede the rate of your development. In the words of Peter Drucker, “Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”
The value of engaging in reflective practice has been acknowledged by professionals in the fields of medicine and education for many years. Reflective observation is the second key stage of the Kolb learning cycle that facilitates the creation of abstract conceptualisation from concrete experience and, in turn, encourages active experimentation (leading to concrete experience thus beginning the cycle of learning all over again).
Reflection and evaluation of experiences therefore enables you to explore and examine a specific event, understand it, learn from your experience and therefore to continually improve. If you are committed to developing your mental excellence then you must also commit to reflecting and learning from experiences. Donald Schön (1983) suggested that the ability to reflect on our actions and engage in a process of continuous learning was one of the defining characteristics of professional practice.
For truly significant learning (and therefore truly significant performance improvements) to occur, this reflection should occur at a deep level. Argyris and Schön (1978) together defined the concept of ‘single-loop’ versus ‘double-loop’ learning. Whereas single-loop learning is characterised by the recognition of error and correction of behaviour or alteration of strategy to avoid further error, double-loop learning involves a critical appraisal and evaluation of the assumptions and principles that lead to the error in the first place. This was a fundamental part of the ideas that Argyris and Schön were to later develop on organisational learning (but that’s a whole other blog).
Hopefully, this blog series on mental excellence has been useful to you. Remember, a key part of learning is all about experience and active experimentation. The best learning you will get will come from putting these ideas into practice, reflecting on them, and altering your approach based on your reflection thus giving you more information on what works for you.
“There is only one cornerstone of the universe you can be certain of improving and that’s your own self’
- Aldous Huxley
Happy learning.
Tags: anxiety, Argyris, confidence, double-loop, double-loop learning, Drucker, experience, focus, imagery, Kolb, learning, learning cycle, Orlick, positive images, reflection, Schon, self-evaluation, single-loop, wheel of excellence
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