In almost every session we run, someone will raise their requirement for empirical evidence or “solid proof” before they will commit to applying the tools and techniques that will bring them benefit.

Beliefs are similar to values in that they are part of our personal guidance system. Beliefs often inform values, and values in turn re-inforce our standing in regard to our beliefs.

Beliefs are a critical part of what makes us who we are, but there is a distinction that I find helpful. A belief is something that we have no tangible, undeniable evidence to support. It is impossible to measure beliefs. We simply believe this to be so. Values, on the other hand, are measurable and quantifiable in some form – this does not make them all tangible, but the very fact that we place the word ‘value’ on something means that we can measure it in relation to other values. It is true that you can value your beliefs, and you can believe in your values (if you didn’t you wouldn’t hold them!)

I don’t want to lose anyone here, so bear with me as we delve briefly into the world of quantum physics. Have you ever heard someone, perhaps yourself, say ,”I’ll believe it when I see it”. Whatever this is about, from the belief in God to the belief that someone will do as they have said they will do, matters not. According to quantum physics, we have to believe it before we see it.

Let me take a short detour here. You believe that you exist right? You believe that what you see in front of you right now exists, right? Can you prove it? I hear of chorus of “of course I can!”, go on then, prove it!

…

You see, I can prove that you are in fact made up of more space than of matter (or rather there are many very clever scientific people who can prove it), so do ‘you’ exist, or are you merely a collection of atoms that appear to have a tangible presence. So when you ‘miss’ the ball on a swing, you can rightfully state that you chose to move a few lighter atoms but you have in fact struck the air above the ball with great accuracy and that air is now exactly where you wanted it.

Now, you dream, right? You’ve had dreams that are very real to you. How do you know that they were the dreams and this is reality? You believe it!

Why am I saying this? Because you cannot see something that you don’t believe in!

You cannot prove something if you don’t believe first! I am constantly asked for ‘proof’ that this or that works, that this is THE way to improve your golf, or that this is THE right way to develop your leadership. The problem is that, until you believe it works, you won’t see that it does work.

Those in the know about this already know that we work from victory not for victory.

Let’s take another small example? you watch television I assume, and you’ve grown up knowing that television works – that radio waves containing a signal are transmitted from a TV station, are picked up by your television through the air, or through cables. Have you ever actually seen a radio wave? No? You believe they exist though.

‘Yes, but the evidence is seen on the TV’.

OK, little voice of disbelief, turn the TV off. Do radio waves still exist?

It’s a little like the question ‘If a tree falls down in the woods and nobody is there to see it, does it make a noise?’. When you were a child, you climbed into the fridge to see if the light stayed on when the door was shut? No, that’s just me, you are wiser than I – by the way, it goes off.

Why is this important? Well, your belief in yourself and using these tools and techniques is critical to their success. Your belief informs your unconscious mind about any particular shot – and this will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
You step up to the tee on your least favourite hole on the course. You prepare for the shot, you utter to yourself “I will make this drive, this time it will be different, this time, I will strike the ball square on, the ball will soar through the air, and following a graceful arc it will land right smack in the middle of the fairway exactly where I’m aligned”. Your unconscious mind is informed by this belief and promptly provides you with a swing that will support your belief.

How do you train yourself to do this? You spend several practice sessions building a new belief about your ‘nemesis’ hole (any hole for that matter). You visualise making the stroke, sending the ball to exactly where you want it. You do this in your mind’s eye, calmly, cool-ly. Not only have you seen what you will see with your own eyes, you’ve heard what you will hear with your own ears, you’ve felt how you will feel having made the shot, you’ll taste victory and smell success, exactly as if you had achieved it. I’ll repeat that, exactly as if you had achieved it. Let this be true, and it will be so.

By doing this, you are stepping into the future and acting as if you had conquered the hole and provided your unconscious with new images and new neural pathways to access now and in the future.

This is altering your belief. With practice, you will indeed step up to that tee and your unconscious self belief is of someone who has conquered that hole and will do so now.

In order for us to improve ourselves, in any field of life, we must reach beyond our senses – those of our conscious mind – to what we can be and do with the vast, often untapped, capabilities of our mind. I’m sure that you have seen or read the metaphor of the mind being like an iceberg. What we see above the surface, the readily experienced part of our mind is a tiny fraction of what lies beneath normal awareness. If you consider that our conscious mind makes up only about 5% of our total awareness, we all give a disproportionate power over our lives to our conscious mind – and it our conscious mind that prevents us from reaching our full potential.

This is why, in visualisation, we go beyond simply ’seeing’ a picture of our success to the full range of senses – building a rich, realistic, high fidelity experience as if it were real. This is stepping into the future. And you all know that it is much easier to look back into the past and see what happened to get here than it is to see the future. Hindsight is 20/20 – and stepping into the future provides you with just that. Now that you believe in the tangible, real, success of winning that competition, striking that perfect drive, chipping that perfect lie onto the green and sinking that 50ft put – you can look back and see how you got there – that’s your training plan!

Let’s begin with an exercise:
Read through these instructions and then take 5 to 10 minutes on this activity.
Get yourself comfortable, in a chair, or lying down or for some, sitting in the lotus position or any position that is comfortable for you.

Take several slow, deep breaths. Concentrate at first on your breathing, inhale for 4, hold the air in your lungs for 5 and then exhale for 6 or 7, keep repeating this. Then close your eyes and whilst continuing to take deep, slow breaths, focus on your heart and slowing the beat along with your breathing. Continue this until you feel relaxed and at ease. You’ll be able to continue hearing everything that is going on around you and can safely ignore those distractions, knowing that if anything needs your attention, it will make itself known. So now, as you focus on your slowing heart beat and deep, slow breaths, you feel at ease and relaxed.

as you become gently relaxed, you’ll find that you’re mind can develop clear pictures, so place yourself on your favourite golf course on your first tee, you know this tee well, you know the fairway, you can see the lie of the land, the trees, the bunkers, the green the pin. Notice how you can change the weather to be anything you like, perhaps  a beautiful sunny day, one of those days when it’s so great to be alive and out on the course, playing your favourite sport. with your best friends with you and a feeling of complete ease and tranquility. Oh, it’s good to be alive. and now as you prepare for that first drive, you can feel the wieght of your chosen club. You know exactly where you want to put this ball, you align your self with your target and allow your beautiful swing to make perfect contact with the ball and watch the flight exactly how you planned it, soaring through the air perfectly on target. The ball drops to the fairway, exactly where you want it, ideally placed for the second shot up to the green for a birdie 3. You collect your tee from the ground, and turn to look at your friends as they continue to stare in admiration of your drive. They break from their reverie to offer their words of admiration, ‘great drive’, ‘nicely done’, whoa, fantastic. You accept their compliments with grace, smiling inwardly and treasuring the feeling.

Take this feeling, and stroll around the whole course. What do you see each time you take that perfect swing, and ht that perfect shot. What do you feel? Where is that feeling, physically within your body? Is it large or small, moving or static? What word do you use to describe that feeling? What do you hear when you make that shot? The swish of the club, the ‘thwack’ of the club on the ball? The admiring comments and expressions from your buddies, your own inward or outward yell of triumph? What do you taste or smell? Some people have the ‘sweet smell of success’ or the ‘taste of victory’ what is it for you?

At first, use this technique to help you develop your visioning of your goals, take it gradually, just practice using your ‘mind’s eye’. We will use this technique more and more in the programme.

So, how do you feel? If you’ve just completed the exercise above, you’ll have a lingering positive feeling. Whatever you want to call that feeling is OK, this is entirely for you. And if you teach anyone else to do this, and I wholly and entirely and completely support you in doing so – for anybody to achieve anything – it doesn’t have to be golf – and when you do teach someone else, let them call their feeling whatever they want to. This word, as you’ll discover, becomes a personal trigger.

Now, why would you want to do this?

Well, why do you want to do anything?

Nick Faldo spent a couple of years restructuring his swing with his coach David Leadbetter. He struggled with the changes, but had accepted that things were allowed to get worse before they got better. By the time he entered the British Open at Muirfield in 1987, things hadn’t been seen to be much improved.
The evening before the tournament began, Nick walked to the 18th green at 10 in the evening – still with daylight on this warm Scottish summer evening. He stood there staring at the large yellow scoreboard. He imagined that it was late Sunday afternoon and the stands were filled with spectators. He saw the name Faldo on top of the leader board. He stared at it and smiled and knew he was home. Nick spent several minutes seeing himself the winner, sensing deeply the thrill of winning the British Open.
Faldo won the tournament. This is what vision is all about, not just seeing the end, but seeing the end at the end, with your own eyes, with your own ears, feelings, smells, tastes. You see the target, now step into the future having achieved your goal.