The new behavior generator is the strategy that is at the heart of mental rehearsal. It helps you to improve an existing skill or learn a new one. You can use it for your own personal development or for coaching others in business or sports.

The principles of the new behavior generator are:

• Imagine your goal in context.
• Use dissociated mental rehearsal for learning.
• Use associated mental rehearsal for practice or improvement.

Decide what you want to improve or what behavior you want to learn. You may want to respond more resourcefully in a particular situation, or you may want to improve your sports, training or presentation skills.

The first step is auditory internal dialogue. Ask yourself, "What do I want to do differently? How would I look and sound if I were doing that exactly as I want to?"

Relax. Allow the pictures and sounds to emerge. Look up and see yourself performing that skill exactly as you want. If this is difficult, think of someone who does it very well and watch and listen to them in your imagination. Pretend that you are a director of your own home movie. You want to make this movie feel as good as possible. Edit it until you are completely satisfied.

When you are satisifed, associate into the picture. Now imagine you are actually doing what you saw. Look down to access the kinesthetic system. How does this feel? If it does not feel right, go back to step three and make further adjustments. If other people are involved, what will be the effect on them? Check for ecology.

When you are happy with your performance from an associated perspective, think what cue or trigger will remind you to use this new skill in the future.

Future pace. Imagine the trigger happening. Imagine responding in your new way and enjoy the feeling you have about that.