MT article waving the magic wand within

Mind Transformations
Exclusive Article
03 April 2012

Waving The Magic Wand
Within
Alleviating Performance Anxiety with Simple NLP
Techniques
Cordelia Quah
Mind Transformations’ NLP Practitioner (Sep 2011)

Summary:
A recent NLP graduate shares her story on how she overcame her performance
anxiety through breaking a habitual pattern, altering her mindset, and
mapping out her 8-step coping strategy.


Waving The Magic Wand Within

Performance Anxiety

Butterflies in your stomach. Cold sweat.
Sweaty palms. Pounding heart. Have you
ever felt these just before you are about to
start a presentation? Or perhaps just before
a job interview? Whatever the event could
be, we have been there before, wishing
there could be an easy way to deal with the
nervousness and anxieties. You might have
also wished that those associated symptoms
that manifested in your body would just go

“poof!” with a magical wand. Will you believe
me if I told you that the magical wand is
within you?

peers in facilitating this session. I found my
stomach wringed in knots – who am I to
lead? Why would anyone follow through on
this with me?
My mind raced to find a quick-fix solution
– I needed to wiggle myself out of this.
Call Barney (our trainer) to lead instead.
Run away. Hide behind a tree. I would do
anything to get myself out from the situation.
As miraculous as it sounded, I decided that
I could fall sick to escape this situation. It
sounded like the perfect plan. I would not
need to stand fearful in front of my peers to
lead something I was not confident in, and
I did not have to feel embarrassed if I did a
poor job.

Performance anxiety is no stranger to us. We
all encounter them at some point in time and
we often wished that time would pass quickly
so that we can get
through whatever
Knowing what I know now from the NLP practitioner
stressful situation
course, I wanted to create a different experience from this
we are facing.

However, we usually
situation. It was the perfect moment to inject a pattern
encounter quite the
break. How different am I from my past if I still choose
very opposite: time
to fall sick as a way out from a stressful situation? While
trickles extremely
slowly as we are
I could have given that excuse, I would also have robbed
fixated on trying to
myself of a valuable learning experience...
get through these
dreaded moments.
After my NLP practitioner course, I came
face to face with a situation that I very much
wished I could wiggle myself out from. It
all started with a post-course picnic which
turned into a semi-PCAP (Post Course
Action Plan – a follow up sharing and
coaching session for goals set during the
NLP course). Instead of the simple tasks of
coordination and arranging logistics for a
picnic, I found myself tasked to lead and my
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My “perfect plan” brought to mind an
example shared during the NLP Practitioner
course in which some students choose to fall
sick in order to avoid dealing with exams.
Wait… there is familiarity in this theme. This

was the same pattern that I had embraced for
years whenever I was faced with a stressful
situation. It had always felt “good” to relive
in the misery of the sickness to provide the
comfort, respite and self-consolation. Since it


Waving The Magic Wand Within

has always been a companion to me, why not
continue to enjoy its presence and linger in
its “sweetness”?
At the same time, I felt as though I was
brewing a concoction that would eventually
explode someday. Knowing what I know now
from the NLP practitioner course, I wanted
to create a different experience from this
situation. It was the perfect moment to inject
a pattern break. How different am I from my
past if I still choose to fall sick as a way out
from a stressful situation? While I could have
given that excuse, I would also have robbed
myself of a valuable learning experience had I
stayed hidden in my hole.

Pattern Break

No doubt the challenge ahead appeared
insurmountable, yet it only takes a small
belief that we have that magical wand

within us to make the perceived mountain
transform into manageable pebbles. “People
already have all the resources to act effectively.
They just need to believe it first.” This was
the timely reminder that transformed my
attitude towards the task on hand. I am
reminded of the story of David’s battle with
Goliath described in the Bible. David must
have held on to at least a tiny ounce of belief
that he can defeat Goliath. That small belief
set the outcome apart from what others
had perceived it would be - seeing David
squashed.
As the fairy godmother from the famous
Disney’s cartoons would say, “Sometimes you
have to believe before you see it”. This NLP
presupposition speaks a lot – we create our
own magical moments when we actively wave

our magical wands – believe we have all the
resources we need within us, unleash the
resources and exercise them accordingly.

© Disney

Having this belief allowed my mind to
settle and relax, which in turn allowed me
to look for alternative approaches to deal
with the performance anxiety towards the
task at hand. Familiarity builds confidence

- by going through with the Mind
Transformations team and my fellow NLP
practitioner course mates how the PCAP
would flow on the day itself, I slowly “saw”
how the picnic would unfold.
Eventually the following steps became my
strategy for dealing with the associated
performance anxiety towards the picnic
event:
1.
Set Intention
Intention setting provides the direction that
helps me navigate the process of the event.
The intention here was to provide a platform
for the graduates to re-connect, have fun and
learn one another’s progress.
2.
Getting into the Right State
State management is the key to getting
through performance anxiety. “State precedes
excellent performance.” Recall in Kung Fu
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Waving The Magic Wand Within

Panda 2, in one of the final scenes, Po the
Dragon Warrior faced off against fire cannon
balls. What did he do? He summoned the
state of inner peace to produce the “excellent

performance”. In my case, bringing forth a
state of calmness, relaxation and confidence
helped me source for alternative solutions to
my perceived “issues”.
3.
Visualize the Process, Visualize the
Outcome.
This allows the mind to build on familiarities
which in turn encourages confidence. I
mentally rehearsed in my mind steps 1, 2,
3 etc. and if something new or unexpected
popped up, I went back to rearrange the flow
until I could see my outcome achieved. Do
this several rounds until we feel comfortable.
4.
Map Out Key Elements into a
Rough Structure to hold in mind.
While the details in Step 3 would have been
the perfect master plan to follow, more often
than not, we get lost in the details. After
mentally rehearsing the required steps to
achieve the outcome, start to filter out key
trigger words or pictures that best outline the
entire process. This creates a rough structure
of the flow of events.
5.
Test the Rough Structure
Ensure the key elements produce the process
in Step 4. TOTE (Test, Operate, Test. Exit).
Mentally rehearse with just the trigger words

or pictures. Can we see the outcome?
6.
Let Go. Surrender.
There will always be more things to do and
sometimes our minds go about trying to spot
the missing parts. Do the best we can but it is
equally important to let go. Trust that
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© Disney

Celebrate all victories no matter how big
or small because they eventually add up to
something big – your very own resource pool.
everything else will take care of itself.
7.
Give Thanks & Reiterate Intentions.
Gratitude opens up our hearts. Being
thankful for the learning experience will
allow ourselves to acknowledge that “the
learning is in the doing”. Things may not
always turn out perfect – but the intention is
not about reaching “perfection”. There is no
failure, only feedback.
8.Self-Acknowledgement
It took courage to confront our own fears
and to overcome performance anxiety.
Acknowledging ourselves in this step seals in
the moment of this little “victory” which in
turn will add to the library of “resources” that

can be called upon in future when we ask
ourselves, “Is there an event in my past when
I have overcame performance anxiety?”

The Picnic

On the morning of the picnic, I woke up
feeling refreshed having “let go” of the
outcome the night before. As I set my


Waving The Magic Wand Within

intention for the day, I chose to allow myself
to flow with the moment. After preparing
the picnic food, we arrived at Botanic
Gardens and were pleasantly greeted by
the gentle cool breezes and some clouds the weather was perfect for a picnic. I was
thankful that the joint intentions of the
group for good weather manifested into such
beautiful weather and that was a good start
to the event, where we mingled with one
another, munch all the lovingly prepared
dishes and simply enjoy reconnecting where
we left off since our course ended. We
were also very blessed to find the “perfect”
spot where we had sheltered space to store
our food while having ample space nearby
amongst the greenery to lay our ground
sheets.

Finally the moment arrived and the group sat
down on the ground sheets to start the PCAP
session. Although a pre-frame email was sent
out before the picnic, I still felt apprehensive
to broach the PCAP for fear that it would
sound like a “party damper” on a fun-filled
event.
As I sat down on the ground sheet, the
visualized process started to fill my mind
and I willed myself to go with the flow. I

thanked everyone for coming, explained the
primary intention of the picnic and slowly
paced and lead the group to the purpose of
having a mini-PCAP session, as the picnic
was held at a midpoint between the end of
our NLP course and the upcoming postcourse webinar session. Surprisingly, every
one responded well and we started to share
among ourselves where we were currently
with regards to reaching our outcomes and
what needs to happen to reach a scale of 10.
By the time the 3rd graduate started to
share her progress, other graduates were
spontaneously jumping in with the NLP
questioning! “On a scale of 1 to 10, where are
you right now with regards to achieving your
outcome?” quizzed one graduate. “So what
do you need to do to move to a 10?”, asked
another.

This dynamic of peer coaching caught me
off-guard and I realized that the beauty
of having a group of NLP practitioners
together is that no one is really alone. We are
a support group, a geese-like community of
like-minded folks bonded by days of learning
NLP together. The nurturing and supportive
environment extended even to a picnic
setting where we came together to uplift one
another. I realized that I wasn’t alone and that
my role was simply to start the ball rolling,
and the other graduates would keep the
momentum going.
Suddenly, the “burden” that I had carried
with me just seemed to fall off as I marvelled
silently at peer coaching live in action. I
didn’t have to actively lead the session – going
with the flow has allowed a beautiful scene to
unfold right before my own eyes.
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Waving The Magic Wand Within

Unexpected Takeaways

Looking back at the picnic, I had started out
wanting to “do something” for my fellow
NLP practitioners but the task of “doing
something” weighed heavily on me. Yet the

surprise was on me - the greatest takeaway
from organizing the picnic was learning
about my own fears and new approaches
to overcome my perceived limitations. It
wasn’t so much about finding courage to do
something. It was finding courage within me to
believe.
Performance anxiety doesn’t cripple our
abilities. Our limitations often lie within
ourselves and our perception of the situation.
If I am to do this again, instead of stressing
myself out, I will choose to wave my magical
wand earlier and trust that my little belief is
the key to unlocking my own true potential.
As for my performance anxiety, I thank it for
giving me the opportunity to summon my
state of calmness and entering a state of…
Zen.
----Most of the skills Cordelia used in her 8-step strategy are taught in our 12-Day NLP Practitioner
Certfication Course. More importantly, the course also imparts the skills to distill successful
performances into concrete steps that can be replicatedm which Cordelia has done.
If you would like to find out more, please visit us at: www.mindtransformations.com
To contact us for feedback or information, you may email:
Or call (+65) 8186 7508.

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