Powerful visualisation = performance? Here are seven letters to imagine your way to victory in reality
I’m not a fan of any “Law of Attraction” concepts. “Believe it, achieve it” mantras may give you a short-term motivational boost. Yet what techniques do performers use, and what can we learn from sport and performance psychology¹?
Imagery is a crucial psychological skill for higher performance. This skill has an array of published studies suggesting imagery’s efficacy. This efficacy applies to enhancing motor skill performance. Leading fighters like Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson needed (and got) a mental edge. Fighters have used imagery as part of their ongoing training: golfers, entertainers and business executives too.
Imagery is not the “be-all-end-all” though
Sport psychology considers imagery as a staple intervention. Yet not all sports psychology researchers believe imagery as the “be-all-end-all” of interventions ². Visualisation research has strong ties to sports contexts. Yet what is the primary audience for Human Factors and Change? Project professionals or executives. There’s not a lot of research on imagery for this group that I’ve come across. So with this critical lens in mind, you might still find practical benefits from imagery. So let’s look at a helpful model to aid your imagery practice.
You might think about where in your life you need sustained high performance. You may need to remain calm in the face of an intense discussion at work. Core beliefs around your leadership prowess or creative potential may need challenging.
You may need to persevere with an underperformer in your team or sustain resolve in tough times. Imaging a more resourceful, adaptive you — your imagination is a powerful coaching tool.
Chances are you’ve done this before. You may already use imagery. Have you mentally rehearsed awkward conversations? Or used your imagination to think through complicated performance routines?
How do you know if you’re “doing imagery” right?
Paul Holmes and David Collins devised the PETTLEP model to help us ³. They saw a need to integrate psychology theory and practice via an easy-to-use model. This model can serve as your “imagery guideline”.
Holmes and Collins make two extra recommendations about the content of your imagery:
- Content should be appropriate to your skill level
- The content should also sit well with your personal preferences
The place where you perform your imagery exercise should be as similar as possible to the performance environment. Thus imagine a routine or challenge at work. This imagery should be realistic for your circumstances, resources and ability.
PETTLEP for better imagery
Here’s a breakdown of the PETTLEP model.
- Physical. Imagine your body language, stance, clothing and anything you will be holding or near during your performance.
- Environment. Start your imagery exercise in the environment you aim to perform in. This is ideal.
- Task. The task you’re imagining should be the same as the task you want to perform well in—for example, a difficult conversation or a competing in amateur boxing.
- Timing. Aim to complete your imagery in real-time. It should take the same amount of time to complete as if you were performing the task.
- Learning. A novice may imagine the “basics” of competition or challenge. An emerging expert will imagine patterns, principles and nuanced techniques. An expert may imagine faults, quirks and emotions in their opponent—the more your skill advances in what you want to perform well, the more complex your imagery.
- Emotion. Any emotions associated with performance should be part of your imagery. It’s OK to feel scared or any range of emotions during your imagery sessions.
- Perspective. You can imagine yourself from both an internal and external perspective. The former is imagining your performance through “your eyes”. The latter is you imagining seeing your performance from an audience’s point of view.
In short, aim to engage your senses and choose your environment to seek as vivid an image as possible. If I’m going to present to a large audience, I will aim to turn up at the physical location one to two days before. I perform literal “dry runs” of my presentation in this location. Imagery is a mental “dry run” of your performance, so make your efforts count.
References
Quinton ML, Cumming J, Gray R, et al. A PETTLEP imagery intervention with young athletes. Journal Imag Res Sport Phys Act. 2014;9(1):47–59. doi:https://doi.org/10.1515/jirspa-2014-0
Carlstedt RA. Mental Imagery — Visualization Training. In: Evidence-Based Applied Sport Psychology: A Practitioner’s Manual. Springer Publishing Company; 2012:373–374. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.une.edu.au/lib/une/reader.action?docID=1069782.
Holmes, P. S., & Collins, D. J. (2001). The PETTLEP Approach to Motor Imagery: A Functional Equivalence Model for Sport Psychologists. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 13(1), 60–83. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200109339004
