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By Steve Wells

Step 1 to Peak Performance: Decide!

Decide to be a peak performer. Realise that you do have the power. Commit yourself to the achievement of some high goal or ideal. Only high goals will inspire you to reach for your true potential. Barry Cable (one of my early heroes on the football field) said at age 15 he "decided to be a football champion". He didn't decide to do as well as he could, he decided to be a champion."

What would you decide to do, be, and become if you knew it was possible for you? What's holding you back?

Step 2 to Peak Performance: Break through the Barriers

Overcome your limiting ways of thinking about what is possible for you or your business.
Take control of your mental focus, self-talk and internal imagery. Focus on what you want and concentrate your power in that direction. Design positive self-talk and statements which keep you focused on your ultimate outcome, and repeat these statements to yourself on a regular basis. Visualise yourself having actually achieved your goals, and feel the feelings of success.

Learn EFT - Emotional Freedom Techniques - and use it to eliminate the emotional barriers to your success (www.emofree.com). These powerful new psychological acupressure techniques can propel you towards success by eliminating tensions and stress related to high performance, and getting you over barriers such as nervousness, lack of confidence, and much more.

Overcome fear of failure and fear of success. Can you envisage yourself successful and feel totally comfortable with those success images? If not, you need to check your values for conflicts, and your beliefs for barriers and work on eliminating them.

Identity is the Key

"You will never perform consistently in a manner which is inconsistent with how you see yourself" --- (Zig Ziglar)

Step 3 to Peak Performance: Goal Setting

High achievers are goal setters. Set goals that will inspire you to reach for the best. Focus on your ultimate goals. Where do you ultimately want to go?

Set BIG goals - Make no small plans.

SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-based) are dumb! Only really big goals will inspire you to move beyond your limits.

Step 4 to Peak Performance: Values Clarification

Ensure that your goals will help you to achieve your most important values. Many people set goals that they think will bring what they want and spend their whole life climbing the ladder of success only to find its been leaning against the wrong wall!

As Mark Victor Hansen writes, failure to achieve your values is real failure. Don't let it happen to you. Work out what is most important to you and spend most of your time, money, and energy on those things.

Step 5 to Peak Performance: Organised Planning

Be prepared to prepare. Training and preparation is what separates those who are committed from those who are only interested. Develop an initial plan or blueprint. Map out the way ahead even if it's a little unclear at first. As you go you can modify your plans.

Identify Role Models and Mentors and model their success. By modelling their success strategies you can accelerate your own success.

Surround yourself with successful people. They have an energy that "rubs off".

Step 6 to Peak Performance: Commitment

Your goals must progress through several levels of commitment:

I wish.
I want to.
I plan to.
I will.

All achievement starts with a dream, a wish. You must decide that you want this enough to take the next step and plan for it to happen. Real commitment though comes from the decision that you will do whatever it takes to make it happen.

Step 7 to Peak Performance: Consistent Action!

Get started - Do the first thing first. Take action towards your goals - don't let another minute go by before you take a step, no matter how small. Then persist - This is the quality of true champions. © 2003 Steve Wells

Attend a Peak Performance Workshop with Steve Wells and learn how you can break through the barriers to your success.

To view Steve's current international workshop schedule, click here

Motivating Quotes:

"When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either." --- Leo Burnett

"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar." --- Helen Keller

"You see things as they are and you ask "Why?" But I dream things that never were and I ask "Why not?"" --- George Bernard Shaw

"Two roads diverged in the wood, and I - I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference." --- Robert Frost

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now." --- Goethe

Applications of EFT for Enhancing Sports Performance:

By Steve Wells

It is generally accepted that at the top levels of sport the major differences between players and teams is their level of "mental toughness" and focus. This is easily evidenced when an athlete produces excellent results one day and dismal results the next. The athlete has the same physical ability but cannot access that ability - due in most cases to negative associations. These negative associations, once identified through a comprehensive assessment, can be easily treated.

I have found EFT to be excellent not only for assisting with emotional blocks to performance, but also for enhancing performance. I've now used it successfully with athletes from several sports, including baseball, basketball, BMX bike riding, golf, netball, tennis, and triathlon.
There are many potential points for applying EFT to enhance performance in sports. These include:

   1.   Releasing tension/anxiety associated with performance - Have the athlete visualise the situation beforehand and apply EFT to any anxiety that comes up. EFT can be especially useful to sort through any particularly difficult situations or scenarios.

   2.   Releasing the negative emotions and effects of past failures. These can be systematically identified and addressed with EFT. It is important also to seek out any negative beliefs that may have developed out of these failures and address these also.

   3.   Addressing the athlete's self-image/identity, and eliminating any negative self-beliefs which could hinder peak performance.

   4.   Identifying and strengthening positive self-beliefs and beliefs about performance by having the athlete say these and applying EFT to any resistance which comes up.
Energy techniques can be used very successfully in combination with other techniques - I have productively incorporated techniques from NLP and Provocative Therapy into this work. Of particular use are techniques of anchoring for strengthening positive associations and building peak states.

To find out more about the Exam Anxiety (stress management) Session click here