Running Up the Down Escalator
Can high achievers become "peak performers"?
By Dr. Adrianne Ahern
Are you a "peak performer"? And if not, do you want to be?
We're working hard at our careers, with high standards and ambitious goals. We're committed to taking good care of ourselves – and even better care of our families and the ones we love. We have community commitments, social commitments, and educational aspirations--all of which we've jammed into the precious minutes of our days. Frankly, the idea of becoming a "peak performer" in all of these areas may seem more trouble than it's worth.
But is it?
What Peak Performance Isn't
Peak performance is not defined by extraordinary effort. It's not about forcing our bodies or minds beyond prior limits, struggling to break records, or straining to produce exceptional results. It's not about coercing ourselves to do things that feel emotionally stressful – or terrifying.
Yet this is exactly how many of us "high achievers" approach life. Like running up the down escalator, we're expending tremendous energy just to stay even. And to make it to the top requires even more extraordinary determination and exertion. So we stay at the office later than others, bring work home, skip lunch, stay shackled to our Blackberries even on vacation.
Isn't there a better way?
What Peak Performance Is
True peak performance has qualities of pleasure, relaxation, confidence, and calmness. It may show up as working quickly but never feels rushed. It may involve stretching limits, but that stretch will feel exciting, not painful. It often produces exceptional results but always with a sense of ease. Peak performance is based on operating from the Zone or states close to it.
Many people think of the Zone as some mystical state that appears out of the blue. But most of us have experienced it at some point in our lives. It might have been during a crisis (you foundyourself emotionally calm, mentally focused, able to act swiftly to handle whatever was necessary in the situation), while making love (when time slowed to a crawl and you were completely immersed in wonderful sensations and heart-expanding emotion), or after running a marathon or giving birth.
And this, believe it or not, is how many peak performers experience much of life.
What Peak Performers Know
Peak performers have figured out that they can enter the Zone at will, and they do so more frequently than the rest of us. They know the Zone, not as a mystical state reserved for special occasions, but as an ongoing practice. They know the Zone isn't something that happensto them but is a mental state they can accessusing a few key steps that affect neuro-pathways of the brain. Rather than forcing themselves to work or train harder, they discipline themselves to consistently enter the mental state so that whatever they do is more effective and pleasurable.
Rather than clocking in hundreds of extra hours, peak performers spend a few minutes to clear the mind and focus attention. Rather than losing sleep and stressing over the details of a big presentation, they take time out to visualize the results they seek and breathe away any anxiety. Rather than spending weeks gathering data to support a salary increase request, peak performers use specific moments to reinforce their own sense of worth and well-being.
Getting On the Right Escalator
My expertise is the brain and its hard wiring. Clients come to me because they have exhausted all other avenues of accomplishing what they want in life, whether it is a career goal, an athletic achievement, or a personal desire. It's not that they haven’t worked hard enough or done the right things. It's not that they are incompetent or incapable. But the hard-wiring of their brains, their basic neuro-conditioning, is working against them, not for them. The extraordinary efforts they've put forth can rarely overpower the momentum and direction of this conditioning. They are scrambling up the down escalator, and it isn't working.
They need to learn what peak performers know: how to get to a different "state of mind," one like the Zone,that aligns brain, nervous system, and physiology to support them in achieving their desires.
Four Steps to a Peak Performance Moment
A consistent peak performance state takes some practice to realize. But to get a taste of how beneficial such practice might be, try these four steps the next time you face an important project, meeting, or decision:
1)Breathe: Breathing connects you to your body and clears your mind. If you really want to scare your boss during a salary review, sit facing her silently for several moments breathing deeply! Several deep breaths can connect you to your calm, creative mind, releasing tension and anxiety.
2)Focus on what you want: Prior to any moment you want to be a peak performance moment, visualize what you want from the experience. Many of us have the bad habit of pre-playing what we don't want to happen—the awkward question we might be asked, the potential lack of agreement from another party, the difficulty of getting something completed. Instead, focus on how great, easy, pleasurable the experience will be.
3)Stop analyzing: Tiger Woods said, “I practice to the hilt while training so that when I come out here to a tournament I can just have fun.” Basically, all of the planning, calculating, and analysis should come before the experience itself. Once you are on that call or in that meeting, you will be most effective if you allow yourself to be fully present, sensing and responding to what is happening in that moment.
4)Trust your instinct: If your gut tells you to table a decision for a while, table it. If you feel moved to make a bold statement, make it. If you have a hunch that you shouldn't use your opening joke for the presentation, don't use it. The calm, clear state you are in allows access to the wisdom of your intuition.
Though the steps leading to peak performance take some discipline to implement, you'll be surprised at the results! Taking the steps to align the hard-wiring of your brain to work with you, not against you, will add new ease, creativity, and pleasure to your life.
Byline:
Dr. Adrianne Ahernis apeak performance psychologist and author ofSnap Out of it Now!Her innovative tools, including neurofeedback,inspirational lectures, and life-changing workshops offer practical tools and techniques to train our brains to work for us, not against us. For more information, please visit: