Musicians and Golfers do you need 10,000 hours practice

Musician

It has been accapted for a while now through research by best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell that to achieve mastery in a subject or discipline 10,000 hours of study or practise is the magic number that will help bring the requisite rewards. However a recent study as outlined in Time has come up with new research that doubts whether this is the whole picture. Of course even if we take the 10,000 hours as read then there are obviously factors such as physical and practical suitability and genetics that would be taken onto account.

However further research by Zach Hambrick and colleagues at Michigan State University have found that the10,000 hour rule really only applied to between 30% and 34% of musicians and chess masters that they studied. In fact they found that two thirds of the difference was unrelated to practice with massive differences in the time it would take one person to reach an elevated level in their field as against another in the same area of expertise.

So, as most professional musicians, golfers or anyone developing high level skills will know the whole issue is extremely complex as the researchers testified.

As someone who has trained to a high professional level in music (violin) with copious amounts of practise I have always taken a great interest in what is the difference that makes the difference in successfully achieving goals? Since I work helping professional golfers, sports persons and musicians get closer to discovering their own personal formula that will help bring out their best potential it is fascinating to actually be using my insider knowledge to help develop my own skill sets and pass that information on to my clients.

Some of the key strategies include:

• An intense desire to achieve a successful outcome
• A discipline ethic that will carry one through even when things are tough
• An ability to convert that work ethic into a pleasure so that it no longer becomes work but something you just can’t stop doing
• A linking of the creative mind with the analytical that produces a synthesis of artistic and technical skills.

Now there is much more to this but knowing how to take our skills to the next creative level is a skill in itself. However once we can tap into this whole process it can hugely accelerate our progress and maybe we won’t need 10,00 hours after all? Or maybe we will use much more than 10,000 hours because nobody can stop us since we enjoy developing our skill so much.

If you are ready to move to the next level I can help you. Using Hypnosis, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) plus a fascinating range of techniques that my own knowledge in this area has helped me develop you really could find yourself in another level of expertise and pleasure in your chosen skillset.

For more information just call me on 07970218451 or email rogerfoxwell.therapy@gmail.com or visit www.rogerfoxwell.co.uk

How these voice tips and hypnosis can help you speak confidently in public.

Public Speaking

Public Speaking with confidence

In my hypnotherapy sessions I work with a lot of business people who are having difficulties with public speaking and giving presentations. Hypnosis and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) are ideal vehicles to help make powerful and lasting change very effectively and rapidly. However when dealing with these issues an important part of a session will almost always include some simple voice projection exercises. In my opinion these are vital to giving a confident and well projected speech. We may have all the confidence in the world but if no one understands or hears clearly what we are saying then our message will not get across. Now I am not a voice coach and voice coaching could well be something worth following up but I do offer in my sessions as a bonus some very simple voice exercises that will really help get your message across in any situation. I originally began looking for some simple but effective voice development techniques at a time when I felt my voice could be more assertive in certain situations. It is one thing having the ability to produce a smooth and soothing hypnotic voice but trying to order a drink in a crowded bar or give a presentation to a hundred people is another!

To give you a taste of some of these simple exercises try pointing to your nose and saying “this is my nose.” Then do the same thing with your lips, your throat and your chest. Interestingly you will probably notice a change in voice tone that bears a resemblance to where you are pointing especially when you point at your nose. As you become more aware of this you can begin to develop the resonance and timbre in your voice that is required to command attention when it is needed. I soon noticed once I started practising these techniques was that as my own voice developed in resonance and the actual feedback I was getting inside my head from my voice helped add to my speaking and personal confidence.

How rapidly we speak and how much variation in tone and pitch are also important for best results. Remember you know what you are saying but people listening will need extra time to process it. Speaking just a little slower will help this and also give you more time to organise your thoughts. Every positive change you make will add to your confidence whilst diminishing the anxiety and this will help you achieve the results you are looking for. Like a lot of things in life once we know where to start and which techniques to use it really is possible to make positive and lasting changes very quickly. Yes, you really could be getting your message across clearly and confidently in just a few weeks.

If you would like to develop your confidence, your presentation and public speaking skills with the help of hypnosis and the power of your own mind please call me on 07970218451 or you can email to either book an appointment or to find out more.

I haven’t got time!

No Time

How often do you find yourself saying “I haven’t got time”? We all do it don’t we. Life and Success Coach Bob Proctor says “Everybody gets exactly the same amount of time and that’s all there is.” Time won’t change but we can “make time.” If we wait for another year we won’t have a minute more or a minute less.

If you would like to know how my unique and empowering hypnotherapy and EFT techniques can help you reorganise your life and personal confidence just call me on 07970218451 or email and I will be very happy to chat through whatever issues you would like to work on.

Flying Phobia

Flying Phobia

One of my posts deals with Flying Phobia so it is always nice to get a text back from a recent client when they arrive home from their holiday and no phobia. A recent client wanted to go to Spain with her friends but was absolutely terrified of flying and had already backed out of a previous holiday for that reason.

We had one initial session a few weeks before she was due to fly and she immediately found that she really was not worrying about it anymore at all. However as the date got closer she began to experience some of the old feelings so thought she had better come and see me for a back up session.

It is interesting working with something such as flying since the conscious mind is often not quite sure whether any change has occurred. Until you experience stepping onto the plane you don’t know consciously if the therapy has worked. Although our conscious mind knows that our fear is irrational and unfounded it is interesting that when our unconscious allows us to let go of the fear the conscious often still needs proof and is still not always totally convinced. This is where we need to trust this creative part of ourselves and avoid too many internal questions as the positive change becomes a natural experience.

Hypnosis allows us to bypass our conscious questioning and that is exactly what we did in the session just a couple of days before her holiday. It also allows us to visualise a sequence of events in such a way that they become, in a sense, real. Visualising the flight and other important details whilst connecting it to feelings of relaxation and calm can, according to research, be as powerfully compelling as experiencing the real thing.

Oh yes, and here is the text she sent me when she got home:

“Hi Roger just bk my hol was absolutely fab i was gr8 on plane was a bit nervous at 1st then completely went away quite enjoyed it defo do it again i even fell asleep on the way back … thanks very much”

The initial “bit nervous at 1st” is an example of the conscious mind still not quite believing that it really can feel safe. However when the unconscious has been reprogrammed powerfully enough the conscious mind is then able to take a back seat and just relax.  Somewhere within us we really do know how to make these changes and by allowing that part to do what it needs to do and change what it needs to change  the new feelings will naturally become fully integrated into our actual live experience.