Hyper-Performance by Korn Errol & Pratt George

Author:Korn, Errol & Pratt, George [Korn, Errol]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Psychology & Consulting Associates Publishers
Published: 2012-01-16T16:00:00+00:00

5

Mental Fitness ™ and the Executive Superskills

O ver the past decade more and more Americans have been very concerned with keeping their bodies in good condition, for both cosmetic and health reasons. Certainly we endorse the health aspects of physical fitness and hope that it continues. At the same time, we have seen a great body of evidence that shows that mental conditioning can be effective in combatting the ill effects of stress―and stress, as we discussed earlier, can be linked to many serious illnesses that afflict us.

Through numerous studies conducted over the last few decades on athletes it has been shown that mental imagery provides a powerful boost to physical prowess, coordination, stamina, and preparedness. What has also been found more recently is that the same skills of end-result imagery and mental rehearsal are equally effective in enhancing almost any other activity we can engage in, including business and professional functions.

The two basic forms of imagery we have found most effective, and comprise the “I” and the “M” of the A.I.M. program, are end-result imagery and process imagery or mental rehearsal. End-result imagery was popularized by Maxwell Maltz in Psycho-Cybernetics, and consists of various mental images of your desired goal as having already taken place. Mental rehearsal, on the other hand, is made up of imagery of the actual or possible actions by which a desired objective could be accomplished.

Imagery and mental rehearsal have been demonstrated to have a positive influence on performance, and create bioelectrical responses in the human body. In the early 1930s Edmund Jacobson demonstrated that an individual's mental rehearsal of physical movements registered minute electrical stimulation of the exact muscles that would be used if the action had physically taken place. Other studies have provided evidence that imagery and mental rehearsal of a physical task, such as making free-throws with a basketball, can be just as effective and perhaps even more so, than actual physical practice. This is accomplished by daily, regular imagery of the task successfully completed. This is imagery of the end result―the basketball through the hoop.

We have found in our own work that hyper-performers―new workaholics―frequently use end-result imagery and mental rehearsal in their pursuit of high-level performance. The fundamental reason that imagery works is that you are planting a target that your unconscious mind will continually work toward.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.