Keith Barry

If you’re constantly being zapped by the idea that you can’t do something, or that you’re stupid or less important than somebody else, then eventually you’re going to start believing it.

The third group (who had done absolutely nothing) showed no signs of improvement. That makes sense – as we know, you won’t get better at something if you don’t practise.

The first group, who had practised for an hour every day, had improved – in fact, they scored around 24% more. For example, if a player had scored 16 baskets the first time around, one month later they scored 20 baskets.

Again, nothing very unusual about that – Alan expected the group that practised to get better at throwing, and that’s exactly what happened.

But what about the second group? That’s where the big surprise came.

That group had done nothing but IMAGINE themselves throwing the ball into the basket – but they had improved too! In fact, they had improved ALMOST AS MUCH as the group that had practised every day!

Had the group been secretly practising? Was it just pure luck? Was it a magic trick?

Nope, Alan realised, the truth was even more astounding: if we IMAGINE ourselves achieving something, then our brains begin to believe that we have already done it and believe we can do it again!

MICHAEL PHELPS is currently the most decorated Olympian OF ALL TIME. He has spoken countless times about the power of his IMAGINATION – how, the night before a race, he played a movie of his swim over and over again in his head – IMAGINING what it would be
like to WIN again, to SMASH another world record.

Confidence is all about one thing: believing in yourself!

visualise myself scoring goals or doing well,’ he once explained of his visualisation technique. ‘You’re trying to put yourself in that moment and trying to prepare yourself, to have a “memory” before the game.’

But visualisation is not just for artists, sports

asked them to concentrate on making their imagination as vivid as possible. He wanted them to see the court and feel the weight of the ball in their hands. He asked them to hear the swoosh of the ball as it dropped neatly through the net.
The third group were told NOT TO PLAY basketball for a whole month.
At the end of the month, Alan got the team back together and recorded their accuracy again, just as he had done before.
The results were astounding.
The third group (who had done absolutely nothing) showed no signs of improvement. That makes sense – as we know, you won’t get better at something if you don’t practise.
The first group, who had practised for an hour every day, had improved – in fact, they scored around 24% more. For example, if a player had scored 16 baskets the first time around, one month later they scored 20 baskets.
Again, nothing very unusual about that – Alan expected the group that practised to get better at throwing, and that’s exactly what happened.
But what about the second group? That’s where the big surprise came.
That group had done nothing but IMAGINE themselves throwing the ball into the basket – but they had improved too! In fact, they had improved ALMOST AS MUCH as the group that had practised every day!

The second group were told to simply IMAGINE throwing the ball every day. Alan

Nope, Alan realised, the truth was even more astounding: if we IMAGINE ourselves achieving something, then our brains begin to believe that we have already done it and believe we can do it again!
MICHAEL PHELPS is currently the most decorated Olympian OF ALL TIME. He has spoken countless times about the power of his IMAGINATION – how, the night before a race, he played a movie of his swim over and over again in his head – IMAGINING what it would be like to WIN again, to SMASH another world record.
‘I VISUALISED TO THE POINT THAT I KNEW EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED TO DO: DIVE, GLIDE, STROKE, FLIP, REACH THE WALL … THEN SWIM BACK AGAIN FOR AS MANY TIMES AS I NEEDED TO FINISH THE RACE.’
MICHAEL PHELPS

Instead of allowing a bad comment to drain your confidence, just imagine yourself coming across a golden confidence-booster ring and rushing straight through it, sending your confidence SOARING. Then imagine yourself finding another ring and smashing into it, topping your confidence up to the maximum. Then have a smile and give yourself a pat on the back, because even though they don’t know it, this person is actually helping you to BUILD your confidence, not flatten it

Instead of allowing a bad comment to drain your confidence, just imagine yourself coming across a golden confidence-booster ring and rushing straight through it, sending your confidence SOARING. Then imagine yourself finding another ring and smashing into it, topping your confidence up to the maximum. Then have a smile and give yourself a pat on the back, because even though they don’t know it, this person is actually helping you to BUILD your confidence, not flatten it.
When I told my granny about that first disastrous magic show with the piranha-children, she listened carefully. I told her that maybe I wasn’t good enough to be a magician. She gave me some really great advice (which she was very good at doing).
She said: ‘Well, that’s life, Keith. Sometimes things don’t go as well as you’d planned. We all find ourselves in situations where we feel out of our depth and that we don’t deserve to be there. The thing you need to learn is that everybody feels like an imposter sometimes, just pretending to be good enough. The trick is to never give up and to keep doing the things you love until you realise you ARE good enough – or at least as good as anybody else.’
WE ARE ALL IMPOSTERS
We are all imposters.
Now, don’t suddenly launch yourself at your teacher and try to pull off their mask to expose them as a bank robber or a 20-foot man-eating MONSTER. I’m not talking about that sort of imposter (though do take a very close look at your teacher, just to be safe).

An imposter can be anybody – it just means that someone is pretending to be something they’re not. And doctors who study the human brain (while it’s still inside your head) have come up with a name for that feeling of low confidence.
That name is: ‘imposter syndrome

But you did deserve to be there. You just didn’t believe you did