160 Part III: Opening the Toolkit
speak in public! Apparently in the US, public speaking is the number one fear;
in the UK, it’s in second place behind a fear of spiders.
We regularly work with clients who suffer performance anxiety, which shows
itself in hot sweats, loss of voice, and stomach cramps and upsets. When
dinner guests are invited to give after-dinner speeches, they often fail to
enjoy the meal, because of the prospect of entertaining the audience with
their wit over the coffee, petits fours, and brandy.
If ever a reason existed to use anchoring to get back in control, public speak-
ing is it!
If you have had a particularly bad experience of public speaking, ask an NLP
practitioner to do a fast phobia cure with you to desensitise the memory. (See
Chapter 3 for an explanation of the NLP fast phobia cure.)
Using the circle of excellence
The NLP circle of excellence is a technique to help you summon up the confi-
dence to perform a skill. You can use it when you have a fear of public speak-
ing or when you want to boost your confidence to play your best shot in
sport, as well as in many other instances.
The circle of excellence is the classic NLP technique to practise with a part-
ner when you’re providing the after-dinner entertainment. It works best if you
enlist a buddy or NLP practitioner who takes you sensitively through these
steps while maintaining rapport with you, and not rushing.
Think of the situation in which you have to perform, and imagine a circle on
the ground in front of you about one metre in diameter. Then follow these
steps, which describe the step-by step instructions that take you in and out of
your circle, telling you what to do at each stage, with the help of a partner:
- Stand outside the circle with your partner.
Identify your best state. Tell your partner what that state is in your own
words. Your partner says: ‘Remember a time when you were [insert your
exact words]... get back to it strongly... see what you saw then, hear
what you heard.’
- Step inside the circle.
Relive that experience. Make it vivid, be there in it with all your senses.
Feel what your hands are doing and hold or anchor that state with a
hand movement at the point when the memory is most vivid.
- Step outside the circle, back to your partner.
Repeat the exercise with a second experience of your best state. In
order to prepare for the future event, your partner says: ‘Think of a time
when this state will be useful.’
