Starting to look at your Anchor
All of the last section – your Ahhh – means the next thing you need to do is decide what your Anchor is going to be. Your Anchor should be something you do every time you experience your Ahhh, don’t forget – so that eventually you can turn things around and get the feeling of your Ahhh just by doing your Anchor. Almost anything will work as an Anchor, but you can make life a lot easier for yourself by sticking to some very basic rules.
(The password for this video is “Anchor“.)
Remember: whenever you experience your Ahhh, you do your Anchor to train yourself. Then (eventually) you can do your Anchor and you’ll get the same hormonal effect as for the Ahhh moment (though it might not be as strong as the real thing).
Take a few minutes to think about what your Anchor should be.
Only you can decide on your own anchor but the video should have given you some ideas about what not to do, if nothing else. Bad examples weʼve seen include suggestions such as
- pushing my glasses up when Iʼm nervous
- cracking my knuckles
- pulling my left ear with my right hand
- wearing my smartest shirt
| Exercise: check that you understand why each of these ideas fails which criteria (Remember the criterial for a good anchor? Replay the video.) Do this by putting the word(s) Subtle, Active or New beside a hard-copy of this page. You can download a file that will help here. |
To sort out your own anchor, jot down everything you can think of that might be even remotely suitable to use as an anchor – then take a break. You need to do this in a fresh state of mind. When you come back to it, repeat the exercise above, ruling out the unsuitable anchors until youʼre just left with a few. This can take quite a while and you should set aside some time just for this exercise: if you pick the wrong anchor itʼll be a lot harder to make this technique work.
Finally, I’d like to add a fourth criteria – itʼs not as important as the others because itʼs just a matter of practicality but itʼs worth bearing in mind…
Pick an Anchor that is going to be the most easy to do when you have your Ahhh moments!
Remember – this technique is very powerful indeed, but it takes a while to learn how to use it and set it up. Don’t be tempted to rush it!
How long it takes can vary by up to a couple of weeks for different people
A (very!) brief thought
Don’t forget that you you can use this technique whenever you need, such as:
- at the start of your presentation to help you get off to a flying start
- when something goes wrong and you need to get your head back in the game
- if you’re faced with a question you weren’t expecting in an interview
- just before a serious meeting with your boss
The important thing is that because it’s so quick and simple to use once you’ve mastered it, you can use it repeatedly, in almost any setting.