Mental Practice VII

The Mental Practice book series evolved out of Dr. Chandon's experience coaching athletes. He found that athletes develop in their mental games in predictable stages. The speed of their development depends on how vigorously they apply themselves in their mental practices, physical practices and competitions. When motivated athletes are open to learning, practicing the right things in the right sequences and in the right ways, they rapidly progress.

The Mental Practice series reflects the ideas of progressive development modeled by the martial arts. Mental Practice I-X have different color covers to signify that they are modeled after martial arts development and the wearing of different color belts. The different color belts in the martial arts indicate mastery levels of the students and teachers.

The Mental Practice book covers are yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, brown, black and red. As you develop in your mastery of each book, you earn that color “belt” in Mental Practice. You’ll find that as you progress through the books, you’ll be challenged to use your imaginative and creative abilities more. Imagination and creativity are key components of a well-developed mental practice.

Mental Practice VII includes a description of the phases of learning from unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence and how mental practice helps you move from state to state. Mental Practice VII also includes a chapter on unconscious competence. Further, the book includes the "kingdom" mental practice technique and updated mental practice retreats.

There are no legitimate short cuts to take in mental practice development. The learning is sequential and developmental. It’s like climbing over a series of hills. You can only see what’s over the next hill by climbing it and the next hills after that. Commit yourself, do the work and you’ll progress in accordance with your effort level.

Although there aren't shortcuts to take in mental game development, improving your mental game is a shortcut to high performance compared to athletes who don’t work on their mental games.

Now you can have a simple and effective way of mentally practicing. You have a way of discovering and correcting the ways in which you are limiting or sabotaging yourself. You have a way of learning to know what you don't know. You can start to practice mentally in as little as 15 minutes per day.

This book is for athletes who are serious about fulfilling their potential. Development of a strong mental game takes practice and persistence. Development of a strong mental game is similar in scope to the development of physical skills in sports. Think of this book as working out. You’re working out your mind and training yourself to perform your best.

The individual mental practices are grouped by topics and chapter.

• Unconscious Competence
• The Zone
• Mental Toughness
• Developing Mental Skills
• Being a Champion
• Handling Challenges
• Planning for Success
• Being Healthy
• Training Well
• Confidence
• Motivation
• Being a Leader
• Being a Free Spirit
• Designing Your Kingdom
• Mental Practice Retreats

Each mental practice has some reflections for you to consider and unique "Power Words" after the reflections. Power words are a simple sentence, phrase or individual words that you use to engage your imagination and help you focus as you mentally practice, physically train and compete.

See how good you can be.