Peak Performance

Peak Performance is not an accident. It is usually the result of a powerful vision and a workable plan put into action over a period of time. However, there are some definite strategies and mental/emotional patterns which can accelerate your success and leverage and enhance your performance. EFT and SET are two of the newest and most exciting tools to be applied in the area of peak performance, and Steve Wells was one of the first to systematically apply these tools to the performance area, both in business and sport.

Steve Wells has conducted over 28 years of research and study into high achievement, and spent the last 14 years researching Energy psychology methods and applying these to peak performance. As a result he has developed a new integrative approach called Peak Performance Energy Psychology. This approach integrates the newest Energy Psychology methods with enduring principles and processes for success.

EFT and Peak Performance

To listen to an interview with Steve Wells on EFT and Peak Performance click here

Read the notes from Steve's seminar "The Psychology of Peak Performance" where he outlines the key thinking patterns and success strategies of high achievers. This is a literal blueprint for success - Read it and follow the steps Steve has laid out and you too will be counted among the ranks of the elite performers. Click here.

To read how EFT can enhance a Peak Performance development program, click here.

To read testimonials from athletes and business people who have used EFT successfully to enhance their performance, click here

To read how a business owner used EFT to move his business to the next level, click here.

To read articles on applying EFT to achieving your goals and enhancing your results in business, sport and life, click here.

• Click here to find out more about "Steve Wells on Peak Performance using EFT" from EFT Specialty Series 2 DVD

100% YES! (TM) Business Consultation

Steve Wells conducts consultation sessions worldwide for business owners and corporate managers using the 100% YES! (TM) Peak Performance System to create transformational change in your business results. If you would like to find out more about how a 100% YES! (TM) consultation can accelerate your business results, please contact our office by email: 100yes@eftdownunder.com

For information on Steve's current workshop schedule, click here.

"Watching Steve Wells conduct a workshop on Peak Performance at an international energy psychology conference in Las Vegas, was to be in the presence of a major workshop leader and teacher as well as a keenly intuitive therapist. His comments were brilliantly targeted, his handling of participants' issues masterful, and he was often delightfully witty. I cannot recommend emphatically enough that you reserve one of the valuable spots in one of his workshops before they are filled!"
--- Dr. Patricia Carrington, Ph.D., USA

Carol Look interviews Steve Wells on Peak Performance:

Voice America The Psychology of Peak Performance with Steve Wells

Host Carol Look interviews Steve Wells from Australia about the Psychology of Peak Performance. Steve discusses how he effectively uses new psychology methods such as Emotional Freedom Techniques to break through barriers to success and set big goals. Once these blocks are removed, there is room to clarify your values and make decisions about your life, your goals and your future. Join Carol and Steve in a lively discussion about how to use EFT to remove blocks and barriers so you can see your life’s path clearly and plan your success. Duration: 1 hour. To download and listen to the interview using MP3, click here

Achieving the Vision: The Psychology of Peak Performance

By Steve Wells.

Step 1 to Peak Performance: Decide!

Decide to be a peak performer. Realise that you do have the power.

Commit yourself to the achievement of some high goal or ideal. Only high goals will inspire you to reach for your true potential. Barry Cable (one of my early heroes on the football field) said at age 15 he "decided to be a football champion". He didn't decide to do as well as he could, he decided to be a champion."

What would you decide to do, be, and become if you knew it was possible for you? What's holding you back?

Step 2 to Peak Performance: Break through the Barriers.

Overcome your limiting ways of thinking about what is possible for you or your business.

Take control of your mental focus, self-talk and internal imagery. Focus on what you want and concentrate your power in that direction. Design positive self-talk and statements which keep you focused on your ultimate outcome, and repeat these statements to yourself on a regular basis. Visualise yourself having actually achieved your goals, and feel the feelings of success.

Learn EFT - Emotional Freedom Techniques - and use it to eliminate the emotional barriers to your success (www.emofree.com). These powerful new psychological acupressure techniques can propel you towards success by eliminating tensions and stress related to high performance, and getting you over barriers such as nervousness, lack of confidence, and much more.

Overcome fear of failure and fear of success. Can you envisage yourself successful and feel totally comfortable with those success images? If not, you need to check your values for conflicts, and your beliefs for barriers and work on eliminating them.

Identity is the Key

"You will never perform consistently in a manner which is inconsistent with how you see yourself"
--- (Zig Ziglar)

Step 3 to Peak Performance: Goal Setting.

High achievers are goal setters. Set goals that will inspire you to reach for the best.

Focus on your ultimate goals. Where do you ultimately want to go?

Set BIG goals - Make no small plans.

SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-based) are dumb! Only really big goals will inspire you to move beyond your limits.

Step 4 to Peak Performance: Values Clarification

Ensure that your goals will help you to achieve your most important values. Many people set goals that they think will bring what they want and spend their whole life climbing the ladder of success only to find its been leaning against the wrong wall!

As Mark Victor Hansen writes, failure to achieve your values is real failure. Don't let it happen to you. Work out what is most important to you and spend most of your time, money, and energy on those things.

Step 5 to Peak Performance: Organised Planning.

Be prepared to prepare. Training and preparation is what separates those who are committed from those who are only interested.

Develop an initial plan or blueprint. Map out the way ahead even if it's a little unclear at first. As you go you can modify your plans.

Identify Role Models and Mentors and model their success. By modelling their success strategies you can accelerate your own success.

Surround yourself with successful people. They have an energy that "rubs off".

Step 6 to Peak Performance: Commitment.

Your goals must progress through several levels of commitment:
I wish.
I want to.
I plan to.
I will.

All achievement starts with a dream, a wish. You must decide that you want this enough to take the next step and plan for it to happen. Real commitment though comes from the decision that you will do whatever it takes to make it happen.

Step 7 to Peak Performance: Consistent Action!

Get started - Do the first thing first. Take action towards your goals - don't let another minute go by before you take a step, no matter how small. Then persist - This is the quality of true champions.

© Steve Wells

Attend a Peak Performance Workshop with Steve Wells and learn how you can break through the barriers to your success.
To view Steve's current international workshop schedule, click here

Motivating Quotes:

"When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either."
--- Leo Burnett

"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar."
--- Helen Keller

"You see things as they are and you ask "Why?" But I dream things that never were and I ask "Why not?""
--- George Bernard Shaw

"Two roads diverged in the wood, and I - I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference."
--- Robert Frost

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now."
--- Goethe

Applications of EFT for Enhancing Sports Performance:

By Steve Wells

It is generally accepted that at the top levels of sport the major differences between players and teams is their level of "mental toughness" and focus. This is easily evidenced when an athlete produces excellent results one day and dismal results the next. The athlete has the same physical ability but cannot access that ability - due in most cases to negative associations. These negative associations, once identified through a comprehensive assessment, can be easily treated.

I have found EFT to be excellent not only for assisting with emotional blocks to performance, but also for enhancing performance. I've now used it successfully with athletes from several sports, including baseball, basketball, BMX bike riding, golf, netball, tennis, and triathlon.

There are many potential points for applying EFT to enhance performance in sports. These include:

1. Releasing tension/anxiety associated with performance - Have the athlete visualise the situation beforehand and apply EFT to any anxiety that comes up. EFT can be especially useful to sort through any particularly difficult situations or scenarios.

2. Releasing the negative emotions and effects of past failures. These can be systematically identified and addressed with EFT. It is important also to seek out any negative beliefs that may have developed out of these failures and address these also.

3. Addressing the athlete's self-image/identity, and eliminating any negative self-beliefs which could hinder peak performance.

4. Identifying and strengthening positive self-beliefs and beliefs about performance by having the athlete say these and applying EFT to any resistance which comes up.

Energy techniques can be used very successfully in combination with other techniques - I have productively incorporated techniques from NLP and Provocative Therapy into this work. Of particular use are techniques of anchoring for strengthening positive associations and building peak states.

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Testimonials:

Testimonial from the Australian Baseball League Pitcher of the Year - Pat Ahearne

{Note from Gary Craig: If you are familiar with baseball statistics you will find the following "before and after EFT" statistics below very impressive. Pay particular attention to the "Earned run average." This is the main yardstick by which pitchers are measured. The lower the better. Rarely do you find any pitcher, anywhere, get as low as 0.87.}

As anyone who has competed in athletics can say, the difference between the average athlete and the elite player is much more mental than physical. In an effort to bring my mental preparation for baseball to the same level as my physical preparation, I was introduced to EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) by Steve Wells, a psychologist based in Perth, Australia. Before working with Steve, I was able to perform well in training and some of the time in games, but I wanted to access my best performances more often and in the most pressure filled situations.

Steve and I worked together using EFT to lessen or eliminate the mental and emotional barriers preventing my consistently producing my best games as a pitcher. The results were astounding. I had more consistency, better command of my pitches, and accomplished it in big games with less mental effort. There is clear evidence in the numbers when you compare my Australian Baseball League season statistics before EFT and after EFT:

W-L	Innings	Hits	Earned runs	Walks	Strikeouts	Earned run avg.
4-2	46	43	17	18	35	3.33
3-1	41.1	15	4	7	37	0.87

Using EFT, I found the mental edge that raises an athlete from average to elite. I used the techniques to capture the MVP of the Perth Heat and the Australian Baseball League Pitcher of the Year awards.

I am so amazed with the effectiveness of EFT that I've made it as important a part of my baseball routine as throwing or running or lifting weights. The title "Emotional Freedom Techniques" certainly does fit.

EFT and how it got me through the toughest part of my sporting career

By Catherine Cox

{Note from Steve Wells: The Australian Netball Team are world champions, a position they have held for 15 years. In her email, Catherine describes how she used EFT to move from a point last year when she was in an absolute performance slump and she was dropped from the Australian team through to her eventual reinstatement and gold-medal winning performance at the Commonwealth Games in a double-overtime (read "intense pressure") thriller against New Zealand.}

"Being an athlete and spending your whole life trying to be the best you can be in a sport you love is gratifying. My name is Catherine Cox and I am a Sydney TAB Swift and Australian Netball Representative. As you may or may not know netball is not a professional sport so to be able to commit so much time and dedication into something you really have to love what you're doing! And I do......... Now!!

Netball had always been something I loved. I loved the feeling of being out there on the court enjoying my skills and the skills of the team around me! It was always something I was extremely confident about until I made the move to a new team that needed a bookend, a focal point! A team that was relying on me to pull them through the dark times and create some wins. Being on court in front of this new crowd and new team I felt an unbelievable amount of pressure! I HAD to be a superstar or these new people will wonder why I'm here! I HAVE to get some wins on the board for my new team to show I AM having an impact here!

It was the start of the 2nd year that this pressure and building up lack of confidence came to a real problem point and as a shooter it was obvious. I had always been a player that went out there and just played and all of a sudden I was made to think about every move I made and every thought I was having. I started to over examine myself constantly and lose confidence even more drastically. Thoughts like 'I have to get this shot in or people will think I'm not good enough' or 'I don't want the ball because I don't want to have to shoot it. I could miss'. My shooting percentages dropped significantly but what's worse is that I no longer wanted to be on the court playing the game I loved. All confidence was lost!

The final turning point after weeks of telling myself the feeling would go away came in an International Test match against New Zealand. I had been given the opportunity to start the game which showed a lot of belief in me by my coaching staff. The feeling I had however was sickness. I couldn't think of anything worse than being out in front of a crowd watching the 2 best netball teams in the world going head to head. What if they think I'm not good enough and that I shouldn't be there? I returned home prepared to do whatever it took to sort myself out or I was going to have to give up the sport I used to love so much.

I had never, ever been a fan of sports psychologists and when someone mentioned this new technique called "Emotional Freedom Technique" that a man named Steve Wells specialised in I was more than sceptical to say the least! My first meeting with Steve I was truly at the bottom of the barrel in terms of confidence and couldn't believe that my fear of never playing and enjoying the game again would ever go away! It was weighing me down so much it couldn't possibly just go away!

To be honest my first experience with EFT was horrible because it was all about confronting my fears head on and saying them out loud! Something I had yet to do! It was bad enough thinking about them! I remember crying so much and struggling to breath thinking to myself this Steve man is in way over his head! Surely he's not had to deal with something this bad before.

Steve Wells Comments:

When Catherine arrived for that first session she was in a very upset state and her issues were really close to the surface. Since she knew about EFT and was highly motivated we started using the technique almost immediately on the things she was thinking and feeling. Whilst it isn't necessary to always "confront fears head on", I've found that when someone is "in" an intense state, the best remedy is lots and lots of tapping right then. We did a large number of rounds that session, including some tapping whilst talking and processing the information. My colleague Dr David Lake has taught me that for intense "stuck" states like this, tapping is the antidote - the more tapping the better - so now instead of talking a lot "about" things, I try to spend as much time as possible getting rounds of tapping done.

Catherine Continues:

I got through the first session, just, but the test would not come until I was in the situation I had struggled with all year. On the court. After the session I was still extremely sceptical because I really didn't feel any differently. It was when I hit the court again that I noticed a difference in the way I felt when out there. I was almost looking forward to playing the game, which was a feeling that had been evading me lately. It wasn't a miracle cure by any means but with so many issues to cover my change wasn't going to happen over night.

I found myself at home practising the technique (certainly not something I would do if I didn't think that maybe this was working). Around that time came my dropping from the Australian Team and the time I knew I had to really take hold of this and fix the problem, next year was a Commonwealth Games year and I was going to be there.

Steve Wells comments:

Catherine's shooting percentage improved from 55% the game before we had our first EFT session (a performance that totally disheartened her and explains her really low state when she arrived at my office), to a brilliant 80% in the game she played after doing EFT. Her percentages remained in the high 70's or better for the remainder of the season and the local newspaper described her as returning to "the top of her form". Despite this, the feedback I received through her coach was that Catherine "thought it might have helped but wasn't convinced". She didn't return to see me at that time. This is a frustrating thing for a practitioner, especially since I had seen considerable shifts in her emotional levels in the session AND her performance on court had undergone such a dramatic shift. However, I have learnt from past experience to wait and see in these situations and that's what I did.

Early this year, Catherine contacted me again. She reported that the feeling was still there but was definitely lower in intensity and occurring less frequently than before. She wanted to overcome it completely and reach her goal of being in the Commonwealth Games Team.

We worked for several sessions on her feeling of being "in the spotlight" and "having to perform", and the feeling progressively improved. My basic approach was to get her to focus on the actual game situations that provoked the feeling and apply EFT to those. At one point we also uncovered a childhood experience where she had to perform in a school play and treated that successfully using Gary Craig's "Run the Movie" technique. We also focused on her ultimate goals of being an established Australian team player and world champion, a goal which in itself brought up a lot of pressure to perform. I reframed pressure situations as opportunities both to tease out all aspects of the problem, and also because the ability to handle more and more pressure is central to the achievement of such a high goal. We were fortunate that many situations arose during the season during which the games provided a great deal of pressure on her to perform. She handled them admirably using EFT.

Catherine continues:

A few more sessions with Steve and my arranged return to the Sydney TAB Swifts for the next season things were looking brighter. I made the Commonwealth Games Team and was having an extremely happy and productive season with my team. Shooting percentages are back to where they should be and I look forward to the games ahead each week and being on the court again!

In August at the Commonwealth Games I made the gold medal match, a classic Australia vs. New Zealand game and although I didn't get to start I was given the call to go on at half time. After having to endure watching the first half I was feeling pretty sick as it was shaping up to be a typical 1 goal the difference game.

Knowing that I had to go on and make some sort of an impact I took myself out the back and did a little EFT behind the bleachers whilst waiting for the half time whistle. Lucky I did because it ended up going to double extra over time and although I didn't shoot great statistics that game I certainly made some goals that really counted helping Australia to a 2 goal win and a gold medal. More importantly at no stage when I missed a shot did I let it bother me! "So what I missed a shot, I'll just get the next one in"!!! An absolute revelation and all thanks to EFT!

Catherine Cox

Steve Wells comments: The gold medal game was an absolute thriller and Catherine hit some clutch shots from long range in the final few seconds to help Australia to make it over the line. She is a true world champion, who is achieving her dream with the support of EFT.

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