The hoopla of the Olympics is nearly here and top athletes will soon thrill us with their va-va-voom and vigour.

Though we may admire them, most of us don't want to run, jump and throw stuff for a living. But the savvy mental techniques they use to win medals can help us make a fab wedding speech or get a great job. We can even learn how to get into "the zone" when we're explaining our expenses to our boss.

Professor Aidan Moran of UCD is one of Ireland's top sports psychology experts and says there are loads of ways we can help ourselves to do our best when it really matters. Learning how to do this is what sports psychology is all about, and he's helped many high flyers, including Ken Doherty, Padraig Harrington and the Irish rugby team.

The techniques he suggests are easy and powerful. For example if you are going for a job interview you can use "visualisation", which involves rehearsing in your mind what you need to do in a situation.

"Don't visualise the result of what you want to achieve but the action that will take you a step closer to the result," Professor Moran explains. So you could visualise yourself walking into the interview room and sitting down and shaking hands and feeling calm and confident. Apparently, the brain doesn't distinguish real from imagined actions so by "seeing" and "feeling" yourself being successful, you'll programme yourself to think: "Hey I've been here before and it was okay."

Sports psychology has also found that our minds are not really designed to concentrate on anything for too long. That's why we often find ourselves wondering: "Should I buy a chocolate muffin" when someone is going into too much detail about the hot new photocopier.

"The trick is to learn when to concentrate, as much as how," Professor Moran reveals. In a book he co-authored called Pure Sport he writes about how a golfer called Doug Sanders paused on the 18th hole before taking what was presumed to be the winning putt. He was thinking about which section of the crowd he should bow to after he won the 1970 British Open and this cost him $10 million and the game. Now Professor Moran tells golfers to stop trying to concentrate for five hours of a game, and focus on the 10 minutes spent hitting the ball.

Distractions

Obviously most of us can't get away with taking periodic 10-minute spurts of interest in what we are doing, but at least sports psychology can help us to block out unhelpful distractions. For example, Tiger Woods can't be affected by his opponents' weird jumpers. Instead, he concentrates on one shot at a time and doesn't even think about whether he'll win.

We can adopt the same approach by focusing on the steps needed to complete a task not the outcome. We may reach such a pitch of concentration that we're in "the zone". This happens

when what we are thinking is exactly what we are doing and can even apply to assembling an Ikea wardrobe.

Another top tip Professor Moran suggests is to spring clean our minds from time to time by turning our worries into actions.

"Ask yourself what job you can do right now to change your situation" he advises. So if you've been agonising about how to pay a utility bill, ring up the company and arrange to pay by installments. The Nike slogan "Just do it" can greatly reduce your stress levels.

If you have to do a demanding job, give yourself a start and finish time. Even swimmers training for the games know when to get out of the pool and stop.

"A lot of people distract themselves because their minds want to know when the job will be finished," Professor Moran explains.

"If it's a big assignment you might need to break it down into tasks, but at least you'll know 'this too will pass'."

Having a clear routine also helps concentration. Professor Moran defines this as the series of steps you take between thinking about doing something and taking action. Of course, if you start to fiddle about obsessively with bottles of water, like tennis star Rafael Nadal, it could cause a few raised eyebrows. But who cares? You're learning about the "inner game".

The 'inner game' also stresses the importance of focusing on positive targets -- what you'd like to do and not what you hope to avoid. For example if a golfer is told to "avoid that bunker on the right" his focus could easily shift to it and the ball may end up there. He has to train himself to visualise a positive target instead.

If Basil had known this he wouldn't have kept mentioning the war to his German guests in Fawlty Towers. So if you feel you're not cool enough to impress a gorgeous stranger you've just met don't dwell on it. If you do you may find yourself mentioning your Barry Manilow CD collection before he buys you a Vodka. Talk about your fabulous Electric Picnic memories instead.

Techniques that empower Ronaldo to score winning goals can even help you to make a great wedding speech. He doesn't ask himself: "How am I doing?" before he kicks a scorcher into the net, and it's not a question you need either. Don't think about how your performance is being perceived and focus your mind on what is most important. That is clearly what you are going to say next and not whether people are laughing at your jokes.

However it's also important not to get delusional. Staying in "the zone" will not, for example, enable you to guess the name of the bride's mother. If you want to excel you'll also have to prepare. For, as Professor Moran concludes: "People vastly overrate the importance of talent and ability and underestimate the importance of hard work."

- Grace Wynne-Jones