As a life coach, I help people to take control of their ‘inner game’, and therefore take control of their life.

“It’s the game of life. Do I win or do I lose? One day they’re gonna shut the game down. I gotta have as much fun and go around the board as many times as I can before it’s my turn to leave”.  Tupac Shakur

The term “the inner game” was introduced by Timothy Gallwey in his book The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance

via Blogging To Have It All: RoadMaps in Review: April and May 2010.

Timothy Gallwey in is book “Inner Game of Tennis” described the war. He identified the “Self 1″, the logical, judgemental, mathematical, verbal, competitive, time orientation LEFT BRAIN hemisphere that constantly battles against the “Self 2″, the creative, spontaneous, intuitive, emotional, orientation in space, and in charge of life support RIGHT BRAIN hemisphere.

via Tennis Super-learning Program Stretching Is Important Part | Healing Sports Injuries.

via “the Inner Game of Health and Fitness” Part 1 | Health and Fitness.

Tim Gallwey in his best selling book “The Inner Game of Tennis”, showed how visualization can be much more effective than verbal instruction. As a tennis Pro, he became aware that each pupil’s mind seemed to contain two entities. A Self 1 who observed and commented on the play, and a Self 2 who actually did the playing.

Before a shot Self 1 would issue alI sorts of commands such as “keep your eyes on the ball”, “bend your knees”, “follow through”.

Then, after the shot, would come a verbal analysis – usually critical. When asked why they did this, most players would respond, “I am just talking to myself”.

Gallwey rationalized that “I” and “myself” had to be two separate entities, otherwise no conversation would take place. He developed the theory that Self 2 would be better taught by nonverbal means, and that the “relationship” between Self 1 and Self 2 must be improved to optimize performance. Indeed he observed that an athlete’s peak performance usually occurred when the verbal Self 1 was almost totally set aside. Players on a “hot streak” almost never analyzed what they were doing -they were immersed in the physical action and played instinctively and unconsciously. As soon as they tried to exercise conscious control, they lost their fluidity.

Gallwey, therefore, taught his players to engage, or distract, the verbal Self 1 during play, by describing external events. They would say “bounce” when the ball bounced, or “hit” when it struck the racket. They alternatively would be told to say the words of a song. These distractions, left brain activities, allowed the right brain and limbic system to control the physical play and make all the highly complex intuitive calculations that are involved in assessing ball speed, direction and angle of bounce.

The importance of not over-analysing and of not verbalising an essentially non-verbal activity, was further re-inforced when `Inner Skiing’ was introduced. Small children, it was noticed, could learn to ski well in a day. Adults learn (or are taught) to depend more and more on verbal analysis and to trust intuition less and less.

The inadequacy of the verbal hemisphere controlling the subtle but essentially physical movements of skiing, is made all too obvious when you observe the jerky movements made by people who are clearly rehearsing their instructors words in their minds. The fluent skier very often cannot even describe how he or she does it – yet obviously knows on a non-verbal level. Consequently increasing emphasis has been put on teaching skiing in nonverbal ways – and the positive results can be dramatic.

via The Power Of Your Imagination.

via Muslim Youth for Truth: “My friends made me do it.” How to deal with peer pressure and getting the courage to finally say NO..

The inner zone of excellence is a key part of what is known as the “inner game” of business. The concept of the “inner game” was developed by Timothy Gallwey as a way of helping people to achieve excellence in various sports (e.g., tennis, golf, skiing, etc.), music and also business and management training. Fundamental to the inner game is our ability to stay in a high performance state when confronted with difficult circumstances.

via Robert Dilts « Nadine36hypnotherapy’s Blog.

Lori is an authentic, engaging speaker and coach who shares her real life experiences with honesty and passion! Lori is the Founder and CEO of Foundation Coaching Group Inc. Foundation Coaching’s primary mission is to impact as many women as possible and share the vision of living passionately.

One area of coaching that touches my heart and soul the most is Stress Management. I was happy to be able to read and review this book when asked by the authors. As you might imagine I have read a LOT on the topic and more often than not it is several thousand words of meaningless drivel. I was pleasantly surprised when I dug into the book and I had to actually turn on my brain.
The book is broken out into three sections:
Part One: The Game of Stress, goes into great detail about what exactly stress is, where it comes from, acknowledging and understanding your stress and our reactions to stress.
Part Two: Outsmarting Stress, teaches how to become aware of your stress, shows you strategies to move past stress and how to take control of your life and the stress.
Part Three: The Inner Game Toolbox, describes in detail eight tools to overcome stress.
Throughout the book there are dozens of real world examples of how people worked through their stress or used a particular strategy. As a reader I like to see how other people work similar situations, these were timely and relevant. Each new concept also had a corresponding exercise that lead to new insights about yourself and the stress in your life.
By far the most valuable part of the book is the Inner Toolbox. Eight strategies that can have a significant impact on your life. Each tool is described in a step-by-step manner, includes exercises to cement the understanding and real life stories to share how other people successfully used these tools.
The simplest and easiest tool is the “Stop” and the one that I loved the most was “being the CEO”.
I would highly recommend this book for anyone that knows they have a stressed life and is ready to change it. I also think this book is great even if you feel your stress is under control that tools are ones that should be added to your personal box and can support you continuing your stress free life.

“Ever since The Inner Game of Tennis, I’ve been fascinated and have personally benefitted by the incredibly empowering insights flowing out of Gallwey’s self-oneself-two analysis. This latest book applies this liberating analogy to work inspiring all of us to relax and trust our true self.”
–Stephen R. Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

A new entry in the SunMobility blog

Do you think it’s possible to truly enjoy your job? No matter what it is or where you are? Timothy Gallwey does, and in this groundbreaking book he tells you how to overcome the inner obstacles that sabotage your efforts to be your best on the job.
Timothy Gallwey burst upon the scene twenty years ago with his revolutionary approach to excellence in sports. His bestselling books The Inner Game of Tennis and The Inner Game of Golf, with over one million copies in print, changed the way we think about learning and coaching. But the Inner Game that Gallwey discovered on the tennis court is about more than learning a better backhand; it is about learning how to learn, a critical skill that, in this case, separates the productive, satisfied employee from the rest of the pack. For the past twenty years Gallwey has taken his Inner Game expertise to many of America’s top companies, including AT&T, Coca-Cola, Apple, and IBM, to teach their managers and employees how to gain better access to their own internal resources.
What inner obstacles is Gallwey talking about? Fear of failure, resistance to change, procrastination, stagnation, doubt, and boredom, to name a few. Gallwey shows you how to tap into your natural potential for learning, performance, and enjoyment so that any job, no matter how long you’ve been doing it or how little you think there is to learn about it, can become an opportunity to sharpen skills, increase pleasure, and heighten awareness. And if your work environment has been turned on its ear by Internet technology, reorganization, and rapidly accelerating change, this book offers a way to steer a confident course while navigating your way toward personal and professional goals.
The Inner Game of Work teaches you the difference between a rote performance and a rewarding one. It teaches you how to stop working in the conformity mode and start working in the mobility mode. It shows how having a great coach can make as much difference in the boardroom as on the basketball court– and Gallwey teaches you how to find that coach and, equally important, how to become one. The Inner Game of Workchallenges you to reexamine your fundamental motivations for going to work in the morning and your definitions of work once you’re there. It will ask you to reassess the way you make changes and teach you to look at work in a radically new way.

Join Penny as she talks with Tim Gallwey, Dr. Edd Hanzelik and Dr. John Horton about their new book “The Inner Game of Stress” (Random House – August 2009). Renowned sports psychology expert and best selling author W. Timothy Gallwey teams up with two esteemed physicians to offer a unique and empowering guide to health in today’s volatile world. The Inner Game of Stress applies the trusted principles of Gallwey’s wildly popular “Inner Game” series, which has helped athletes and politicians, and has touched just about every corner of our population, not only by providing useful tools for stress management, but also by demonstrating how we can each access our inner resources to maintain stability in life. Tennis great Billie Jean King and championship NBA coach Phil Jackson are just two of the sports legends who have benefited from Gallwey’s “Inner Game” books. A one-of-a-kind guide, “The Inner Game of Stress” allows anyone to get in the game and win.