How to be at your best

Here’s a simple technique for being at your best that I picked up a few weeks ago at a Solution Focussed Brief Therapy training. It’s a surprisingly simple and effective way of preparing for potentially stressful events such as interviews, presentations and other occasions where you would like to be at your best. The process is simple and straightforward and only requires a little persistence

Decide when you want to be at your best. Remember this a process for specific events, so choose an occasion when you’d like to be able to shine.
Ask yourself, or have someone else ask you: When you wake up that morning how will you know that you are at your best?
Answer the question being specific about what you will see, hear and feel that lets you know you are at your best. For example: I’d feel relaxed, I’d have a good stretch and look forward to the day.
Ask: How would someone else know that you were at your best? What would they see or hear that would let them know that?
Then ask: What else will let you know you are at your best?
Answer the question, again being specific about what you see, hear and feel. For example: When I look in the mirror I’ll see a smiling face.
Go back to step 5 asking: What else will let you know ….. Repeat this process at least five more times. Work your way through the day up to and into the event, building up a clear sense of how you will be at your best during that event.

That’s it. Maybe it sounds too simple to work? The trick is to be as vivid and detailed as possible. One way of looking at this process is as a very detailed mental rehearsal, being at your best in your mind so that on the day you can be at your best in the world.