Psychology of High Performance - Session 1 - Page 4

There are many scientific studies in which someone is hypnotised and then told that an everyday object, such as a pen, is exceptionally heavy and impossible to lift.

When the person is brought out of a trance, he or she finds it impossible to lift the pen. Electronic measures show that one part of the body – the person’s biceps – are expending energy to lift the pen. However, another part of the body – the triceps – are unconsciously working harder to stop the pen being lifted. This is because the hypnotist has planted a belief of being unable to lift the pen. There is a strong unconscious drive to behave consistently with our beliefs.

Beliefs and performance

Case study

This case shows how our beliefs influence our thoughts. Often our beliefs will stop us from trying certain things or they affect our results in a particular way.

For the purpose of this course and your performance coaching work, we now have an excellent model:

In later sessions, you will learn how beliefs influence a person’s feelings, perceptions and what they say to themselves. All these factors influence performance.

You will also learn many simple techniques that can help people to change their beliefs and thoughts permanently. By doing so it is possible to achieve permanent improvements in performance. These techniques come from complex areas of study such as Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), Gestalt Psychology and Self-Image Psychology. They are all based on factors that change belief to improve performance.

Exercise 4

Now do some more work on observations by completing Exercise Four.

Change your beliefs

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