Terry Orlick is a mental consultant with 25 years of experience. His seven components model was designed to reach excellence in many different domains (sport, work, life). The elements are closely linked and often operate interdependently.

 

"Making the Wheel Work for You : 

The Wheel of Excellence can serve as a guide in your own pursuit of personal excellence. Decide where you are strong and where you need strengthening. Target areas for personal improvement and work at it". Terry Orlick

 

At the very based are two essential elements: Commitment and Belief.

 

The CommitmenT could be described as the willingness to achieve your goal and to challenge the obstacles. Motivation is an important factor of the commitment. But passion and enjoyment can make the difference when the efforts and the sacrifices are costly. This element refers also to all the small choices that made to reach the very top level in training, nutrition, recovery, biomechanics, and mental energy management.

The pursuit of excellence requires focusing entirely towards your everyday goals. The others aspects of your life such as social are educational issues won't be invested as much as your first priority. Are you ready to be fully dedicated? Are you ready to make huge efforts in the different dimension of your life to reach the excellence?  

 

Belief is related to self-confidence and the trust in your own capacity. This confidence helps to go beyond your limit, to switch from negative thoughts to positive ones and to keep faith in your abilities when you face a downtime. This notion refers also to trust in your staff's capacity. 

Believing in yourself means also knowing that you can master something you don't know yet, that you can rely on your learning capacity.

 

full focus is a skill that needs to be practice well beforehand. It requires an adequate level of arousal, meaning that you're not too relaxed but not too tensed neither: serenity, calm concentration, having a concerned attitude. The full focus comes when you reach the zone after routines of performance, and a serious physical and mental warm-up. The full focus is kept when you are able to re-focus extremely fast, staying in your flow with the use of personal power words that act as anchors. Here & Now!

The capacity to fully focus requires also that you know how to have quality rest for your brain. Not only quality sleep is important. Mental practice such as breathing techniques, relaxation, meditation or mindfulness helps also to develop focus abilities. For example, having 1-2 min break every 20min of work or doing a 20 min nap during the day can help you later, when you will train, to maintain a good level of concentration.

 

Positive images refer to visualization techniques which can be a key to success if it has been practicing for a long time under the supervision of a professional. Many of the best athletes use it daily. At first, it might be that pictures are not so vivid and clear, but as the practice goes, visualization is getting smoother.

Even though we called it visualization, it engages all senses (maybe the taste less often but it could be!). We see pictures, from inside, from outside (as we see ourselves on TV), we hear sounds, we smell odours, we feel movements and having somatic sensations.

There are different kinds of visualization as remembering, imagining or correcting a real situation.

The ability to concentrate on either past or future positive situation enhance motivation and self-confidence.

 

Mental readiness is the feeling that you are able to give everything when the time comes. A pre-performance routine, the capacity to manage the emotions (especially during important competition) and a positive social environment are important factors to be ready mentally when you need to be.

The dedication that you give in your everyday preparation help also to feel ready on the D-day.

 

Distractions control is related to re-focus. It is the capacity to don't be bothered by irrelevant environmental factors (such as noises or moves) but also from internal sources (such as negative thoughts or somatic sensations). When you are able to control distractions, you can still notice them but you know how to get back to your zone right away.

 

Constructive evaluation is :

- noticing what did well and be aware of the strength,

- noticing what did bad and be aware of the area to improve,

- listening the opinion of the staff, of the relatives,

- trying to reflect on what was your responsibility and what was not under your control.

- trying to get away from our own judgment, or feeling of guilt. 

Feedback are essentials. The best top athletes take mistakes as a possibility to learn and to reflect on how this mistake could be avoided next time. Then, they work on it during training, in order to grow better.