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Playing The Mental Game Of Self-Coaching
For Anyone Who Presents
Bill Cole, MS, MA
Top performing professional speakers regularly look for help
from coaches, gurus, peers, books and other sources. But all
the information in the universe won't help if it's not translated
into useable form. This is where self-coaching takes center
stage. Self-coaching is the ability to combine knowledge about
yourself with outside information to make meaningful, positive
changes in your life and to perform well when you need it
most.
No one can teach you anything. Ultimately, only you can take
information from a teacher or coach and transform it into
your personal power. Savvy speakers take responsibility for
their own learning and devise strategies and systems that
put information into action.
Here are five mental game success secrets that peak performing
speakers can use to improve their self-coaching skills.
- Be Willing To Grow. If you are reading this article
about self-coaching it means you want to grow as a human
being. This desire is manifested by your seeking experiences
that help you improve personally, as well as professionally.
The self-coaching speaker realizes that to grow professionally,
personal growth is a must.
- Cultivate A Beginner's Mind. The Zen tradition
says, that to learn, we must be an empty vessel. If we know
it all, we can't be very open to new knowledge and experiences.
The self-coaching speaker realize that an open, seeking
attitude allows new experiences to come into our consciousness.
- Benefit From Mistakes. Peak performers respect
mistakes and use them to learn. Poor performers tie themselves
up with negative emotion after every mistake. When we view
any mistake as failure, our self-destructive emotions mask
the valuable feedback around every mistake. The self-coaching
speaker welcomes all feedback.
- Develop High Self-Awareness. Self-awareness is
not about what should be-it is about what is. The self-coaching
speaker places a high priority on becoming self-aware and
realizes that self-knowledge can be about the past or present.
Self-awareness is the master skill.
- Deconstruct Your Personal Experience. Peak performers
use self-reflection to deconstruct their experiences. They
know that the unexamined life fleets by out of control.
Only by reviewing personal experience do we gain some degree
of awareness over what we have done and over who we are.
The self-coaching speaker embraces this process so new realities
and realizations can be consciously created out of that.
- Develop A Mental Game Plan. Take these three questions
as a start in developing your self-coaching action plan
this week.
a. What systems can you develop to increase self awareness
about yourself? Can you write in a journal? Speak your thoughts
into a tape recorder?
b. Who can you partner with to assist you in your self-coaching
quest?
c. How will you translate what you learn about yourself
into immediately useful action?
To learn more about how presentation coaching can help you
become a better, more confident speaker, visit Bill Cole,
MS, MA, the Mental Game Coach™ at www.PresentationSkillsCoaching.com.
Copyright © Bill Cole, MS, MA 2005, 2011 All rights reserved.
This article covers only one small part of the mental game.
A complete mental training program includes motivation and
goal-setting, pre-event mental preparation, post-event review
and analysis, mental strengthening, self-regulation training,
breath control training, mental rehearsal, concentration training,
pressure-proofing, communication training, confidence-building,
breaking through mental barriers, slump prevention, mental
toughness training, flow training, relaxation training, psych-out
proofing and media training.
For a comprehensive overview of your mental abilities
you need an assessment instrument that identifies your complete
mental strengths and weaknesses. For a free, easy-to-take
66-item presentation skills assessment tool you can score
right on the spot, visit http://www.presentationskillscoaching.com/presentation_skills_assessment.html.
This assessment gives you a quick snapshot of your strengths
and weaknesses in your mental game. You can use this as a
guide in creating your own mental training program, or as
the basis for a program you undertake with Bill Cole, MS,
MA to improve your mental game. This assessment would be an
excellent first step to help you get the big picture about
your mental game of speaking and giving presentations.
Bill Cole, MS, MA, a leading authority on peak performance, mental toughness
and coaching, is founder and President of the International Mental Game Coaching
Association, https://www.mentalgamecoaching.com.
Bill is also founder and CEO of William B. Cole Consultants, a consulting firm that helps
organizations and professionals achieve more success in business, life and sports.
He is a multiple Hall of Fame honoree, an award-winning scholar-athlete, published
book author and articles author, and has coached at the highest levels of major-league
pro sports, big-time college athletics and corporate America. For a free, extensive
article archive, or for questions and comments visit him at www.MentalGameCoach.com.
Article Source: www.PresentationSkillsCoaching.com
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