Circle of excellence

The circle of excellence technique is the classic NLP anchoring technique to boost your confidence in difficult situations or to give your best performance in public. You can use your circle of excellence when you are giving a talk, going into a tough meeting or preparing for a race or sporting event.  This technique allows you to use a trigger -that of stepping forward into an imaginary circle, usually accompanied by a hand gesture - to boost a positive state of mind when under pressure.

Follow the steps below to easily create your own circle of excellence!

Make it more fun by doing this exercise with a friend so they can talk you through the technique.

1. Staying outside the circle, identify the state of mind you want to anchor and tell your friend what this is in your words.
ie you may want to be in a state of 'confidence'.   If you were to describe that more fully in your own words it may be 'clear-headed' or in 'control of the situation'.

2. Step into the circle and remember a time when you were in that particular state. Relive that experience vividly as if you were there.  Notice the sights, sounds, smells and your feelings.

This recalled experience is likely to be in a completely different context to the one that is problematic for you now and that's fine. 

3. When you have the experience in your mind at its strongest, hold that thought, then anchor it with a distinctive hand movement that you don't normally use during the course of a day.

For example, you could pinch your thumb and index finger together in a circle or grip your little fingers together. 

4. Step out of the circle and repeat Step 2 and Step 3 recalling a second experience when you were in the same best state.  Step out of the circle.

5. Think of a time in the future when this state will be useful to you.

6. Step into the circle imagining the success of the future event and firing off the distinctive hand anchor that you created at the same time.

Notice how much easier this event can be for you and the intensity of the future experience (NLP calls this future pacing).

Repeat this process if you want the anchor to become stronger.