Paul McKenna has revealed he can change people’s lives in just a few minutes.

The 60-year-old bestselling author will be going on tour soon to instil self-belief in people which can hopefully unlock 'your A-game'.

“A large part of athletic achievement is the control of your mind and body, we call it neurophysiological state", he told PA.

"Every major sports person in the world has somebody like me, and CEOs do,” said McKenna, who does a modern form of hypnosis called neurolinguistic programming (NLP) – a long way from the comedy hypnotism he used to do on stages at the very start of his career.

Barack Obama, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton are all rumoured to be trained in NLP.

“When they speak to you, you feel like you trust them and you’d like them, they’re eloquent, and the way their sentence structures go together is very good,” McKenna said.

The author has sold more than 10 million copies of his books, including bestsellers I Can Make You Thin and I Can Make You Rich.

He has suffered with his self-doubts over the years. “Of course! I was the nerdy, geeky kind of kid, I certainly wasn’t a stage performer. I basically learned how to be more confident – confidence is a habit.

“When you’re talking to friends, you’re not worried about being judged. It’s natural, you’re authentic. Now, the problem is, put someone in front of a group of strangers, [they feel] they’re being judged.” But a new habit can always be taught – to anyone, he insists.

Clarity – having a clear idea of your motivation and what’s of true value to you – is another key component to learn from his latest book of the same name, Success For Life (Welbeck, £14.99, available now).

“I certainly know what I’m doing next year, I have a general idea about the next 30 to 40 years – not every goal set, but a direction. If that doesn’t work, I’ll try something else, [then] I’ll try something else. A lot of confidence comes from being flexible, from being able to think if the environment changes or something else occurs, you’ve got to adapt.”

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McKenna, one of the original self-help gurus who rose to fame in the Nineties, says his health is something he’s “considered more seriously in recent times”.

He adds: “I don’t feel 60, I still feel like I did when I was 40, but going up and down the stairs now and doing certain things, I notice I ache a little bit or I’m a bit slower.

“I used to do 200 dates a year when I was touring. I could get by on three hours’ sleep, I never used to get a hangover. I treated life like a marathon, I just got up and attacked the day and I’d burn out. Then I’d get up again and go at it again.

“Now I think differently. I treat life as a series of sprints, so what I do is I work at something, then I stop and I recover. [I’m] more balanced. I’m not working as hard in that sense.”

“I don’t feel 60, I still feel like I did when I was 40"

Now, when he visits a different city for work, his wife Kate, whom he married in 2016, insists they slow down and stay for a few days. “I go to a city, I used to just work, and my wife went, ‘No, no, no, no, we’re going to Dublin. We’re going to see our friends, there are some great restaurants, one or two pubs…’.”

There are also things he no longer does. “I don’t drink spirits anymore” – and now, in his 60s, he juices every morning. “I make a green juice, I make sure I walk in nature for half an hour a day, I meditate.

“I do my gratitude list. I think about all the things that I’m grateful for, I reinforce abundance. I think about where I want to be, I visualise myself healthy.”

Paul McKenna’s 11-date Success For Life tour, across the UK and Ireland begins on March 2. For tickets see MindBodySpirit.co.uk.