Hello , hope you have had a good enough week? Today we are continuing our trawl through some ways in which neuroscience can help us in our daily lives. We'll be looking at the power of visualisation and how to harness it for the changes we want to make. Plus my usual research snippets, a book review and an update on what's going on round here.
This is also known as mental imagery or rehearsal, and it can supplement actual physical practice - strange but true! You may have heard of it applied to sports and athletic performance; it's also been found to improve physical rehabilitation, as
well as aspects of dance, music and even surgery. It's all in the detail, and in powerfully imagining the activity you want to improve. Here are the basic steps, - imagine yourself successfully carrying out
the activity (giving a presentation, improving your front crawl technique, playing that extra hard Bach piece...)
- Add in what you'll see, hear, feel, how you'll move
- Create and add details to a script (see here for lots of detail about how to do it). You might even record it so that you can follow it
- Rehearse every
day for a short while
- Do the actual practice as well!
Where might this be useful in your life?
Today's recommendation follows on from what I've been saying about habits in recent weeks; it's a fascinating look at how small changes can have big results, on a grand
scale.
It's called 'Inside the Nudge Unit:
How small changes can make a big difference' and tells how a group of behavioural psychologists identified how small tweaks led to big changes. For example, in tax reminders, adding the simple sentence 'most people pay their taxes on time' led to a significant increase in revenue collection. Another change - asking people to opt out of a pension scheme rather than opting in - led to many more
people enrolling in pension schemes. Which is probably a good thing. The focus in this book started with how to improve government administration, which might worry some of us, but the principles still apply, as we can become more aware of the techniques of persuasion, for good or ill. There's much more to the book and I'm now motivated to give it a full re-read now I've looked at it again. Perhaps I have been Nudged by the sight of it in my Kindle!
In my latest look through research that can help us in our daily lives, I came across this via the BPS. It's a meta-analysis (looking at lots of studies on the same topic) about how effective different types of rest are, in
different circumstance. It's quite detailed and involved, as research studies usually are, but one of the main findings was that even short 'micro-breaks' between tasks, of about ten minutes, can be helpful. When I do this I find it refreshes the mind and resets the attention (although I try not to look too much like
the hippos). You can read about it here. Where could you incorporate this into your day?
What's going on at This Coaching Business
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- With my colleagues at Synergy Performance Associates, I am involved in some work with teams and individuals in the NHS, using Harrison Assessments. This is a comprehensive system based on enjoying your work (how radical is that!!) which can investigate the whole of the employment life cycle and beyond, showing how your strengths need to be balanced and what is need for you
to flourish best in your work. I have a dedicated website and a new package in my Coaching Shop based on Harrison Assessments. You can get in touch for a free call to find out more, on the booking link at the end of this email. I work mostly with individuals
(especially around careers) and my associate colleagues at Synergy Performance Associates do the bigger projects. I've been sharing some of the brochures in recent weeks and you can now see them all on this link. You can even see how you too can be accredited with Harrison too; it's one of the most enjoyable courses I've done.
- I am still taking individual clients and my coaching packages and downloads are all in my Shop. See here for full details. Many combinations are possible, depending on what you need now. I usually work remotely these days, on Zoom or Google Meet, although if you are local it's often good to meet in person at least
once. I'm now back in the UK so it may be easier to find a slot now!
- You can explore my website here, with various free goodies, especially the Personal Life Analysis, which gets you started with the best places to make changes in your life. You can use it as often as you want, perhaps to track your changes over time. I'm aware that there was an issue with the graphic displaying. This has now been fixed, so do have another go if this affected you.
There is now a new one, linked to my work with Synergy Performance Associates, and it looks at your leadership capabilities. We also have a new pinned post in Linked In giving more detail about our work, and we invite you to follow us if you would like to.
I always do a free 15-30 minute intro online call to make sure coaching is right for you before starting work with you. You can check my availability on the button below. (If it isn't right for you I'll try to signpost you to something that is.) And if you can't see a suitable time, contact me anyway and I'll
find one for you.
That's it for now, - hope you have a great weekend. I'll be in touch again in a couple of weeks or so, All best wishes, Barbara
P.S. if you like this update and you got it elsewhere, you
can get your own personal regular copy by subscribing safely here. Please feel free to share it with anyone you think may like it; just keep the attribution to me. You also get a free email course on sign up that will help you increase your well being, effectiveness and resilience. |