One Simple Action to Improve at Anything
Glen / 
48 Comments / 
January 7th, 2009 / 
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What would you say if I told you there was one action you could take that would not only help you with your basketball skills but also your productivity? What if I told you this simple exercise can improve all areas of your life and it only has to take as little as 2 minutes of your time? You’d probably think I’m crazy.
Or…you would think I was lucky enough to find a very successful technique and then be kind enough to share it with my readers. The latter is correct. I’m going to explain exactly what I’m talking about.
Success Examples of the ‘Action’ In Place
Before I tell you what action this is, I thought it would be best to share a few examples of success using this technique that has improved certain aspects of peoples lives. The reason for this is not only to inspire you to what is possible, but also to rid any ’skeptics’ who will simply dismiss the idea and claim it doesn’t work before even trying.
An article written in the mid-20th Century by Research Quarterly put together a study on the actions effects in relation to basketball free throws. 3 Groups took part in throwing basketballs for 20 days, measured on their results in the first and last day. The first group actually practiced shooting hoops every morning, the second group didn’t do anything for the 20 days and the third group performed the ‘action’.
The first group improved 24%, the second group showed no improvement and the third group improved by 23%.
A good friend of mine who I’ve just spent most of New Year with used the ‘action’ in order to improve a sticking-point area of his life. He had noticed that he wasn’t much of a social person and lacked any form of decent body language. Within a week, his use of the action had transformed him into a much more outgoing and confident looking person.
The Action
“Okay, enough teasing already”. To be honest, I would rather have simply dived right into this article and showed the examples later. However, I wanted people to see I’m talking about something that is effective and just because you may (or hopefully, may not) have heard of this it doesn’t meant it won’t work.
The action / technique / exercise I’m talking about is this…
First, make clear in your mind exactly what it is you want to achieve. This technique can work for anything from improving your sports skills, increasing your confidence and even improving your productivity. Whatever it is you would like to improve at then imagine that thing vividly in your mind. Now, leave your body. Zoom out of your own body as if you are flying through the air, constantly going backwards, your body stays where it is but your sight is coming from a different place. Keep flying backwards and imagine you have just flown to the back row of a cinema and you are watching yourself on the screen. Your body stayed where it was.
Now, visualize your body where it was but now picture it on the cinema screen and you are on the back seat watching. Do you have that picture in your mind? If so, excellent, you’re ready for the next step. If not, imagine floating out of your current body, close your eyes and relax. Keep floating backwards as if your soul is leaving your body through your back. Your soul also becomes the place you are seeing from, so if you are sitting on a sofa right now, keep floating backwards until you can see yourself lying on the sofa from behind, as if you are watching somebody else. Now you should have that vision in your mind of seeing yourself from a distance. See yourself on a movie screen as if you are acting something out.
What you should see is that you are in control of this character, if you can visualize it then this ‘character’, this ‘you’ can do whatever you want it to. Once you’ve got this, re-imagine whatever it was you would like to improve at from earlier. Spend however long it takes to run your on-screen character (you) through the motions of whatever it is you want to do, in as much detail as possible. Take your time with this. If you want to improve shooting free throws then visualize yourself throwing balls in the hoop successfully. If you miss then visualize yourself correcting your aim and then doing it successfully. If you want to improve productivity then watch yourself sitting down, being organised and writing a blog post or whatever it is you want to become better at.
You can use this for literally anything. Whatever you can conjure up, you can see yourself do, and you can become that person. This technique is exactly how group 3 improved their free throws by 23%. My friend who drastically improved his confidence and body language did so because he envisioned how a confident person would look in certain situations and he seen himself acting them out in exactly that manner. Thoughts become reality.
Why this Works
I’m not usually one to go so deep on a subject that I start talking about levels of the brain and psychology, this time however I think it’s very necessary (and interesting) to see why this works:
Experimental and clinical psychologists have proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the human nervous system cannot tell the difference between an “actual” experience and an experience imagined vividly and in detail. – Psycho Cybernetics
So, the exact reason that group 3 improved in throwing basketballs is because their ‘experience’ through imagination is no different to actual free throwing. Of course, it is to us, but our nervous systems can’t differentiate between the two and the action is very valuable on both levels. The key here is to be able to vibrantly picture something in your mind so that it is as realistic as possible, then you can improve in that area.
Your body constantly remembers things that you do successfully and stores them. It also tries to rid you of ‘failed’ actions so that you don’t repeat them. This is why you aren’t very likely to forget to put your clutch in when changing gear on your car and why you don’t struggle to walk like you did when you were a baby. Whenever you picture yourself doing whatever it is you want to improve at successfully, your brain stores that and it starts to become a natural habit.
Tell me, what are you going to visualize first?
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This is truly amazing technique. I would like to try this one, though it needs some serious concentration and will.
Hey Rajeev, that was quick. Glad you like the idea, be sure to let me know how it goes!
Ya, that was quick, I picked up your tweet
I’ll try this technique at weekend and will definitely update you about the results.
Hi Glen, this post really struck a cord with me! I’m a runner and when I was training for my first ultra marathon I used a similar technique to visualise myself finishing the race. “Watching” myself run over the finish line healthy and without injury.
Needless to say I managed to finish the 89km/56mile race strong and pain free, baring in mind I only took up running about 6 months before the race.
It is amazing what the brain can fool your body into believing it can do because really you are capable of anything – you just have to believe you can do it with every essence of your being, and the result – success in whatever you put your mind to!
Hey, what’s up CandleCakes.
Thanks for sharing that story, another great example of ‘the action’ having a great effect on peoples lives.
Congrats!
Cheers,
G-Dog
Good stuff.
You went over some specific techniques. Are these the specific techniques that those shooting the foul shots used?
Or can one merely just visualize without the instructions you have given?
I think it’s best to visualise as if you are seeing yourself from a distance, I’ve heard of it a few times and it works best for me. Of course, whatever works best for you is the technique you should frequently perform.
Whenever the third group visualised that they had missed (for whatever reason) they were asked to visualise themselves correcting the shots and then getting it in. If that is what you mean?
Pretty amazing stuff, Glen! I’m going to put it to test with my running starting from today.
There is one catch, though… You need to know how to do the thing you’re visualizing. The basketball players knew the theory of throwing hoops, and your friend probably knew how to be social.
But if you have no idea of how to do the thing right, and thus your brain won’t tell you when you make a mistake in your visualization, it won’t learn to avoid those mistakes. If it would, this wouldn’t be science but magic
What do you think? Is that a big enough problem to make this technique unusable for something as complicated as how to make sales or how to grow your blog to 1000s of subscribers? Or is there a way past the limitation?
I guess in certain examples you are going to need to know how to do something first, however we can often imagine doing things we have never done. For example, I’ve never ran a marathon but I’m sure if I had photos of a course or even just an idea of the finish like I could picture myself running through and finishing strongly. This mental ‘training’ is often as good as the real thing, but not always.
Great question, I’m glad to see people are seeing where and how they can apply this. In terms of increasing blog subscribers, I guess it would be best to see yourself doing the specific actions it would take in order to do that. I.e. guest blog posts, spending time to sit down (free of distractions) and writing remarkable content etc.
The only limitation is your creative imagination, as soon as you are unable to visually detail yourself doing something then it won’t have any affect on your performance or actions in that area.
I guess the point is to focus on actions, not outcomes. From your example above “1000 subscribers” is an outcome, not specific action. But others like “guest blog post” are actions.
Glen,
This is a favorite technique of mine. I always prefer the ‘out of body’ experience when trying to accomplish anything. For anyone who does not believe this works, you need to just simply try it. I have found it much easier to criticize myself, and judge my actions when I act as if I am someone else.
Thanks for that Peter, nice to know that you are using it as well!
Food for thought, indeed. I think it’s going to need a bit of practice. When I tried it at first, I found it too easy to get distracted.
Personally I haven’t found it distracting, it can be quite ‘fun’ when you’re seeing yourself from a new perspective. Try and be in a quiet area with no distractions or noises that can put you off.
If you meditate, also try doing that before this exercise. If you don’t, there’s an article I wrote on meditation here: Beginner’s Guide to Meditation
I’ve read that Yo-Yo Ma rarely practices music with an instrument in hand anymore. Instead, he visualizes playing the piece while he’s traveling or before he goes to bed. It works just as well – but he also has an extremely high level of skill, so I wonder if that makes a difference.
Glen,
I was thinking the same thing about the actions it takes to get there. I want to lose a few pounds, do I visualize myself dieting and exercising to get that flat stomach or do I just visualize the float stomach?
(stumbled and dugg)
Personally, I think you should be visualising yourself actually doing the exercise, particularly if you find it difficult to motivate yourself fro the task.
Thanks for the social media love!
Glen,
This is the almost identical to the Fast Phobia Cure’ technique developed by Richard Bandler. I have used it a lot with clients to help them overcome phobias and has a success rate up over 90%.
I have never heard of it being used in this way before, but on thinking about it, I can’t think of any reason why it wouldn’t work!
That’s the beauty of NLP, it’s open source. Nice one.
@ Maria – That will work if you already have the muscle memory of what you want to do in place. It won’t work if you don’t have the skills present. Research suggests it is ALMOST as good as traditional practicing because we tend not to make errors. If you practice anything you’ll make errors, but if you do it in your mind you can circumvent that and get yourself used to being near perfect.
I’m aware of Richard Bandler but haven’t studied NLP yet (I definitely will), although Paul McKenna was a client of mine.
Thanks for responding to Maria, my answer would have been slightly different but also less specific because I feel I need to research this more to ‘have all the answers’
Thanks tim!
I’ve heard of this before, and when I heard of it, I really believed in it.
I still do, but I don’t use it enough.
I can improve my swimming technique, without entering the water.
I can improve the way I study, without getting a book at all.
I can be a better person, towards other people, without leaving my bed.
It is true, I know it. And I have to use it more.
Thanks for the good post!
Stefan/DSK
TheDutchSchoolKid.blogspot.com
All of those things are true Stefan, you just have to put it into practice
You are welcome, thanks for the comment!
Wow, I love this technique.
I am doing so much these days that I really need some tools – this one seems awesome – I am going to try it!
Awesome Maya,
Please do let me know how it goes for you!
Hi Glen,
I never heard this technique, but it sounds great. However, I still don’t understand why it can works just through imagination without real practice. Well, I think it is one of brain’s great capabilities.
Thanks for sharing this, Glen.
I find it interesting (but strange) that our nervous system can’t tell the difference between something that actually happens and something imagined. A test was also done on hypnosis patients who were told to pretend their hand was in a glass of freezing cold water.
Subsequently, their hands temperature actually severely decreased.
Food for thought
Thanks for the comment
Hi Glen;
Thanks for the tip. I have heard something similiar at a seminar from Christopher Howard. He uses this for goal visualisation. The concept is based on NLP and is called timeline therapy.
We use it often with our clients and see great results with it. Thanks for sharing it on your blog.
Interesting, as I said a few comments above I’m definitely going to get some books / eBooks on NLP so I can look into it more.
Thanks for the comment
CALC, that is not Timeline Therapy my friend or anything like it. I’m certified in TLT and it is a completely different process.
TLT was developed by Tad James (from an idea by Bandler) and is a very useful technique for helping release negative emotions. As I said above, this process falls much closer to Bandlers ‘Fast Phobia Cure’
The brain is truly an amazing thing. I’m a neuroscientist and even though I’ve been in the field for many years I’m still amazed by how much we don’t know about how our mind works.
It’s studies like this that make us ask big questions like Arswino and Glen asked a couple of comments above. It’s these sort of questions that gave me the reason to start my site veryevolved.com
I think if we understand more about why techniques like NLP work then it would be like having the service manual to a car – we could tweak and supercharge our brain.
Keep asking the big questions
Patrick
I enjoyed the detail,in which you explained this technique. I’d heard about the basketball groups but hadn’t heard the specifics so well put. Thank you, it’s an image I’ll not soon forget.
Excellent, I’m glad you enjoyed it Tom.
wow I’m impressed about this article,you should submit your articles to my social bookmarking site http://www.rackdic.com
I will definitely have to try it one of these days..
This is amazingly interesting and I am always looking for ways to improve my work and life.
Thanks for writing this!
Hi, I just wanted to let you know I used this technique tonight in combination with one of your other blogs, “How Much of Life Are You Actually Living?” You see, I’ve got a digestive disorder where any time something new happens, anything that might prompt an emotional input (excitement, anticipation, general feelings associated with new activities) I get throbbing stomach and abdominal pains. It usually makes me feel uncomfortable and panicked, but not today. Earlier today I was in the back seat of my friend’s car on the way to the museum and the pains started happening. I felt the panic coming soon afterward, but before I let it really set in, I began seeing myself the way someone would if they were sitting next to me. I saw how nice I looked, and how lovely my friends were and how beautiful the weather was. I stopped myself from thinking of the museum, or who would be there, or what we would see, and I remembered I was just in a car. With two friends. On a warm summer night. I stopped thinking about what if silences came during our conversations, or what if they didn’t have a good time with me, and I just relaxed. The pains went away then. I forgot all about them, living focused in the moment like that.
So what I mean to say is “thanks” I guess!
-Regina
Bro this really is amazing. I’ve always been a shy guy and just socially awkward sincs HS. I’m a sophomore in college now and man do I wish someone just spelled this out to me haha. Some of those tendencies are still lingering but I think you guides can give the skills (Lol I had no other way to say that) to be a little better at conversing.
I guess the first thing I want to visualize myself as is a wittier conversationalist. I read the 21 day plan thing and I’m also gonna make that my goal.
Hey if you have any tips by all means share. Lol I need the help with the ladies. Thanks man
Check out my music blog lol
Hey Corey,
I can relate to your situation, I was just like that as well. I definitely recommend you check out the 21-day challenge here, it will help you a lot.
What is helping me the most right now, by far and away, is the Sedona Method. This course is expensive but I’m sure as a guy in college, you know other ways to get the material.
I won’t say what, as I don’t want to seem like an advocate for that kind of thing. If you can get your hands on it though, the releasing techniques in there, even if just used for a few minutes, will have a massive effect on you.
Hi Glen:
Boy, it was difficult to try to get myself out of my body while reading your post; however, the vivid imagery really gave me the boost I needed. I look forward to implementing this technique towards life, and thank you for sharing!
From,
Herbert
“The person who says something is impossible should not interrupt the person who is doing it.” -Chinese proverb
Hey Glen,
If you can clearly see yourself doing something, then you can do it.
Give yourself permission to be awesome.
Picture yourself able to do something. It’s often the hardest step because you’re convinced you can’t do it – and people around you confirming that fact doesn’t help. But it costs nothing to imagine, so really imagine yourself already doing what you aspire to do.
Once you see yourself doing it, it gets easier to actually start because your goal becomes real. It’s not abstract but a possible (and realistic) reality that you already saw yourself doing.
All the best with picturing–and then realizing–the building of the PluginID brand,
Oleg
man u are a grat and amaizing person to share all of this with the world. thank u and God bless
Awesome way of explaining visualization. “The New Psycho Cybernetics” was the first book that ever introduced me to this idea and it’s changed everything since.
It that we are a lot alike. I dropped out of college to just move to Spain for a year. I’m still building the funds for the trip, which is the reason I started a blog, but I will get there eventually. Your story has given me a great picture of where I want to be at in the near future.
Anyways, I just stumbled across your blog and I just want to say its beautiful. I do a lot of web design and never see blogs this clean. Definitely subscribe-worthy.
Thanks,
Jordan
Excellent ideas that are so very worthy of trying. I was about to write “I plan to use them…”, but then I realized that if I planned to do it, that I would probably end up not doing it. So I’m living in the moment-I’m concentrating on putting your idea forefront in my mind and being. Thanks so much.
Any tips on how to put this to use for say, making a great film? Do I need to break it down into writing a great script, going on the shoot, etc, etc.
Thanks for the post and anyone’s help who’s willing. Keep up the good work.
It’s truly amazing what the human mind can achieve with certain techniques and focus. Athletes use this technique – among many others – to improve their performance. Thanks for sharing.