Anchoring is a way of drawing on past experiences in which you felt confident to
help you cope better in the present. It’s another powerful weapon in your confi-
dence armoury.
An anchor is any stimulus that consistently triggers an emotion. To use an anchor
you have to:
■ Generate in yourself the particular set of feelingsyou wish to recreate.
■ Programme your subconsciousto associate those feelings with specific words
and gestures.
■ Use those words and gestures to trigger the desired feelingswhen required.
Sportsmen and women use anchors continually. For example, tennis players
bounce the ball repeatedly before serving to calm themselves; most runners go
through an elaborate routine to centre themselves, much of which is not strictly
necessary to the actual performance; and the mighty All Black rugby team go
through a series of rituals before each match to intimidate the opposition and fire
themselves up.
You constantly anchor feelings in the nervous system whether you like it or not,
so why not learn to use this to your advantage? Using anchors you can feel calm
and confident, or energisedand confident whenever you wish.