Mind training is about learning how to take control of your mind to utilise it in ways that enhance performance outcomes. It is based on solid cutting-edge scientific evidence of what makes people consistently perform at their peak. It has its roots in sports performance but has increasingly been used in the business and corporate world.
Forward thinking companies are now turning to mind trainings to improve their bottom line, because research has shown mindset to be the new psychology of success. Fortune 500 companies use positive psychology, knowledge of human behaviour, neural and behavioural sciences to improve the way their employees think and behave at work. As Jamie Crosbie rightly attests: “organizations are like a massive colony of ants”. They thrive or fail based on thousands of moment-to-moment decisions, actions, and reactions. And it really all comes down to the way the individuals in the organization think about themselves and their jobs”.
Within the contest of the current VUCA world of work, and the harsh realities within which employees now must operate, an optimised mind is needed to enable sustained optimum performance. Mind Optimization is about building your intrinsic capacities to survive tough times. To deal with the continuous disruption and high pace of change, people will need to be able to cope and adapt in many ways to be effective; and this requires a balance of different personal and interpersonal competencies. For example, if an individual is not dealing effectively with pressure themselves, then they will struggle to support or lead others.
Here are our top 4 mind shifting and optimising strategies that we recommend to our corporate clients:
POSITIVE REFRAMING: Reframing is a strategy used to help adjust your mindset. It involves presenting an alternative possible explanation, interpretation, or perception of an experience. This new interpretation then facilitates a change such as a more positive emotion, leading to a more positive outcome. One example of reframing is redefining a problem as a challenge. Such a redefinition activates a different way of experiencing. Problem has a heavy quality to it, while the notion of a challenge is enlivening.
VISUALIZATION AND MENTAL REHEARSAL: A form of simulation where a person imagines or envisions themselves going through the detailed steps of a processes or performing a skill, without physically doing it. It can happen unconsciously without pre-empting or can be done on purpose. Visualization breeds expectation. And when you expect the best, you release a magnetic force in your mind which attracts the best to you. The brain is a pattern matching organ, what it visualizes, it wills the body to accomplish. There is a deep tendency to become what your mind pictures, provided you hold the mental picture strongly enough and the objective is sound. Sustained expectation of the best sets in motion forces which cause the best to materialize. Visualization enables you to focus on a future realization. This expectation supplies fuel to the body
SELF-TALK is a psychological skill using the words that we tell ourselves to direct our focus, our thoughts, and our actions to achieve goals or complete tasks. It can be planned or spontaneous, spoken out loud or in your head, positive or negative and developed by practice.
The effect of Positive self-talk on performance is well documented, especially in sports. Motivational self-talk boosts confidence, self-esteem, drive, effort, and mastery. It can also help regulate anxiety and stress in high pressured environments. The body responds to praise by releasing the feel-good hormone: dopamine.
HOPE: Related to optimism, hope is defined in psychology as the ability to plan pathways to desired goals, despite obstacles and the agency or motivation to use these pathways. Hope in this term differs from lay person’s meaning of hope, and is active in nature, referring to the motivation to use the ability to plan. Hope produces a strength of itself. When Cornell University in America conducted a study on the effects of hope, Dr Wolff reported that people with hope can endure incredible burdens and hardships. One group studied comprised 25,000 soldiers imprisoned during World War II. Subjected to forced labour, bad food and filth, many died. A handful showed only slight damage. Interviews with the survivors revealed a far above average ability to hope. When asked how they kept their hope alive, they said they were drawing pictures of the girls they planned to marry, designing their future homes, and organising business management seminars. Hope keeps you going amid debilitating circumstances. Mental rehearsal can help you build hope. Mental rehearsal can enhance your sense of control and ability to find pathways to attain goals. To develop hope, the focus needs to be goal setting and building pathways towards these goals.
Which strategy resonates with you? Which have you used in the past? It would be interesting to know.
