Every Easter Sunday I would eat all my Easter eggs and then, without fail, attempt to steal my sister's eggs from her bedroom. That's when my sister started adopting her own ritual of attempting to beat me to death with her Rubik's Cube.

As an adult, I have a ritual of always saying a small prayer to the God of Acquisitions before sending off a copy of my CV to a research institute. On receiving the inevitable rejection letter, I have a Plan B ritual of getting drunk and trying to cheer myself up by logging on to schoofriends.com.au in a bid to find former classmates who had gone on to lead lives more pathetic than my own. Or who had become solicitors.

But Leyland P-76 survival rituals aside, many writers, actors, musicians and sports stars observe special rituals as a way of mentally shifting gears before they perform.

Renowned American author Jack Kerouac reportedly lit a candle whenever he sat down to write. Poet and novelist Somerset Maugham wore a special writing hat.

Stephen King is rumoured to begin by putting a glass of water on his desk, turning on the stereo and then swallowing a vitamin pill. He's quoted as saying: "The cumulative power of doing things the same way every day seems to be a way of saying to the mind, you're going to be dreaming soon."

Before every performance, singer and Australian Idol Marcia Hines reportedly puts a "Do Not Enter" sign on her dressing room door and meditates to "get in the zone". It's her way of preparing herself to give the best performance possible. A tad less elegant, Everybody Loves Raymond's Patricia Heaton used to turn to Ray Romano, burp and say, "You're gonna miss me!" before going on stage.

But for every celebrity with a sacred ritual, there's another dozen who are ruled by superstitions or lucky charms.

Kylie Minogue is rumoured to start each day by turning the teapot three times clockwise and once anti-clockwise for good luck. Cameron Diaz wears a lucky charm necklace.

Billy Bob Thornton stubs out a cigarette with the lit end facing away from his children before he grinds it out. Otherwise the actor thinks harm may come to them. Thornton also has a morbid fear of antiques; he cannot sleep or eat in a room of antiques.

Cricketer Steve Waugh had his famous "lucky" red handkerchief. Michael Jordan wore lucky shorts underneath his uniform shorts. Tennis star Tim Henman always uses the same locker at Wimbledon.

Perhaps the most extreme example of superstition comes from Swedish tennis star Bjorn Borg. He stayed in the same hotel room in the same hotel and ate the same meals at the same time whenever he played Wimbledon. He won five consecutive Wimbledon titles (1976-1980). But what happened in 1981 when he wasn't able to stay in his usual hotel room? He lost to John McEnroe in the final.

This is part of the problem with superstitions. When we have a success, there's a small part of our brain that can't help but link the success with some random thing that happened at the same time. For example, a pair of socks we wore. We don't really believe that the lucky pen is what gets us through exams, but if we forget to bring the pen, the anxiety is real. This can mean we do poorly on the exam and the superstition is reinforced.

What starts off as a silly good luck charm can start to have real power over us and over our performance...hence the Bjorn Borg syndrome.