I’ll share one of my secrets with you.
As I was flying over to Melbourne for a shoot – in a Virgin Australia flight – a sense of dread and fear descended upon me.
Why?
Because my brain started thinking about all those uncertain elements of the shoot that I had to do the following day. It’s the fear of the unknown.
This is one of those times when I use my ANTs to PETs technique.
Automatic Negative Thoughts to Performance Enhancing Thoughts.
The first step is to identify them for what they are.
Fear of the unknown? ☑️
Negative? ☑️
How could I turn that into a PET?
I started visualising the shoot in my mind’s eye exactly the way I wanted it to happen.
Positive? ✅
Performance Enhancing? ✅
Of course, on the day, the shoot was just the way I planned it despite the fact that it was a brand new location and everything about it was new.
I needn’t have worried. Negative thoughts aren’t inherently negative. They are just thoughts.
You can find out more about the ANTs to PETs technique in “Coach Yourself” by Anthony M. Grant.
