Are You Prepared To Interview? 29 Mental Psych-Up Strategies For Giving A Great Interview.    People who consistently interview well under pressure have top-notch minds. They achieve this mental mastery by preparing their brains to perform. They know and understand the science of mental readiness. Read how to create a customized pre-interview psych-up system using 29 mental rituals that will catapult you into the zone–-that elusive, yet vital mental state that great interviewers create almost on command. Learn how you can train your brain for interview greatness.    1224 words.

Are You Prepared To Interview?

29 Mental Psych-Up Strategies For Giving A Great Interview

Bill Cole, MS, MA
Founder and CEO
William B. Cole Consultants
Silicon Valley, California

Do you have a special psych-up system for getting into the proper mindset for being interviewed? Do you know how to ready your mind? Do you have a trusted formula that helps you get into the performance zone on a regular basis?

Do you have a system that will keep your mind clear and crisp under pressure? To handle the stress of tough interviews?

This article will help you develop mental readiness strategies so you can prepare with confidence for any interviewing situation.

Do you ever wonder why you interview with excellence one day and can't get out of your own way the next? The answer might lie in how you prepare. To not prepare is to begin to fail, but psyching up with purpose can light the fire of greatness inside you.

Mental preparation is comprised of long-term preparation (training) and short-term preparation (pre-event routines and rituals). Short-term mental preparation includes psyching up strategies the day before, the morning of, just before the interview and during the interview. These four phases are vital to handling performance anxiety, focusing you on your upcoming tasks, keeping you positive-minded and in providing energy to drive your performance.

Easy-To-Use Mental Strategies

In previous articles, you have discovered various phases of the preparation strategies. Let's now learn about short-term pre-event mental preparation strategies. Here are some approaches I use when coaching business people, athletes and other speakers and coaches.

Everyone has a story about how great preparations lead to great performances. The key is realizing that you have control over how you prepare. Give yourself the gift of psyching up and watch your performances soar!

Athletes, sales people, teachers, public speakers, media people and anyone else who "officially performs" successfully uses pre-performance routines or rituals. You can use routines to help you relax, focus and prepare mentally and physically for an upcoming event. A ritual is a systematic series of steps undertaken prior to the execution of a task designed to help you sharpen mentally, emotionally and physically. You may have things you like to do ahead of your event that make you feel optimistic, confident and energized. This is your ritual. You want to perform tasks ahead of time that contribute to your focus and organization. You should have routines you use to keep you calm, in the proper mood and frame of mind.

Choose Your Custom Ritual Style

There are two times to use your rituals. One is used for mental preparation just prior to the start of your interview and the other is used during the interview, but during breaks in the action, to re-focus or re-energize. In addition, there are two broad styles of rituals. If you enjoy focusing specifically on the upcoming interview and organizing details, thinking about it, imagining yourself performing well and can see yourself completing the interview successfully, you use an associative style of preparation. If doing all that makes you nervous, and you'd rather not focus on what is about to happen, and instead prefer to distract yourself by listening to music, reading, viewing television or the like, then you use a dissociative style of preparation. Both styles are valid and appropriate. The key is to know which one works best for you and to consistently apply that ritual. Remember that even not thinking about the upcoming interview is a legitimate style of preparing if you use it consistently across all your interview performances. This is your customized way of preparing to perform your best.

Ultimately, it may be best to work with a mental game coach to be able to purposively focus on the upcoming interview so you can iron out any performance issues and to prepare as fully as possible using the associative approach.

Having a ritual does not mean you are obsessed with its completion. Your ritual exists to serve you, not the other way around. We hear about professional athletes who have superstitious, elaborate rituals they must perform to feel ready to play. We hear of golf pros who may not shave the week of a big event, may eat the same meal at the same restaurant and may wear the same clothes for each round. This is extreme, but it does make them feel secure and confident. Even for professional athletes, the ritual should be easy to perform, take no longer than a few minutes, always be under your control and not require any special equipment. This way you can always perform your ritual.

29 Mental Readiness Success Strategies

Here are 29 practical items you may use as a menu for designing your own interview pre-performance mental rituals:

1. Eat specific meals at specific times.
2. Make an overall game plan.
3. Make back-up and emergency contingency plans.
4. Check all equipment you will use.
5. Stretch and exercise to burn off excess nervous energy.
6. Visualize your success in the interview.
7. Warm-up everything you will use in your interview performance.
8. Seek a coach or confidant who will listen to you.
9. Wear clothes that make you feel confident.
10. Provide some quiet time for yourself.
11. Check out the venue where you will interview.
12. Use positive self-talk and positive imagery.
13. Watch your best performances on video tape, if you have them.
14. Be around people who support you and make you feel confident.
15. Be around people who are excellent models of mental toughness.
16. Know your opening strategy cold so it is automatic.
17. Read your mental training journal for evidence of past successes.
18. Maintain a consistent, organized schedule so there is no last-minute rushing.
19. Seek support staff to reduce pressure on yourself.
20. Stay tuned to any last minute time or changes for your interview.
21. Focus primarily on your strengths and leave practicing your weaknesses to your long-term training.
22. You want to build up your confidence just before an interview performance by reminding yourself of the best parts of your presentation.
23. Plan your day so as much as possible you avoid stressful situations or conflicts that drain your energy and focus.
24. Avoid activities that may result in your being tired, depressed or negative.
25. Continue your usual best schedule of rest, eating, relaxing and exercising.
26. Avoid over-training and scheduling any last-minute panicky practices that drain your confidence.
27. Have a game plan so you know what you hope to do once in your interview.
28. Visualize primarily positive outcomes for your interview and leave out analyzing what can go wrong.
29. Spend time around people who will support your efforts and who validate you.

Rituals are perhaps the most misunderstood and most under-used mental training tools in the interview tool kit. If you have experienced hypnosis, relaxation training, autogenics, meditation, prayer, long retreats, yoga or other mind-body disciplines, you can attest to the deep focused relaxation and feelings of well-being that accrue. If you spend time with any top performers you will observe their rituals and routines that propel them out of ordinary consciousness into the hyper-state of intense focus that is required to reach the flow state--the peak performance state.

To reach your potential as an interviewer, you must be able to control your mind. You do that by controlling your rituals.

Begin building your custom mental rituals for personal power now.

This article is an excerpt from the Interview Success Guide, an indispensable tool you need to make your interview campaign a big success. This is a 216-page blueprint containing over 400 questions you could be asked in an interview, listed by category. There are over 1200 interview task reminders, questions and guidelines in checklist form so you leave nothing to chance. This guide gives you a step-by-step approach to mastering the interview process. Everything you need to do, from the moment you begin your job hunt to when you accept the position, is covered. We have thought of everything you could possibly need to know to conduct a comprehensive, smart job hunt campaign. Learn more about The Interview Success Guide.


To learn more about how interview coaching can help you improve your abilities in media situations, oral test and exam situations, and job interviews visit Bill Cole, MS, MA, the Mental Game Coach™, at: www.mentalgamecoach.com/Services/InterviewCoaching.html.

Copyright © 2003-2012 Bill Cole, MS, MA. All rights reserved.

Bill Cole, MS, MA, a leading authority on peak performance, mental toughness and coaching, is founder and CEO of William B. Cole Consultants, a consulting firm that helps organizations and professionals achieve more success in business, life and sports. He is also the Founder and President of the International Mental Game Coaching Association (www.mentalgamecoaching.com), an organization dedicated to advancing the research, development, professionalism and growth of mental game coaching worldwide. He is a multiple Hall-Of-Fame honoree as an athlete, coach and school alumnus, an award-winning scholar-athlete, published book author and articles author, and has coached at the highest levels of major-league pro sports, big-time college athletics and corporate America. For a free, extensive article archive, or for questions and comments visit him at www.MentalGameCoach.com.

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