The Secret of Peak Performance
When did your relationship between pressure and performance start?
Mine started in secondary school.
I always used to leave my homework until the last minute. I felt like I couldn’t work without a tight deadline.
This continued at Uni and beyond, leading to many late nights and last minute rushes…but usually great results.
Subconsciously, I was believing that pressure = great performance.
So guess what?
I started to feel pressure before and during important tasks and events. It had become an unconscious pattern of thinking and behaviour.
I was creating it without even realising. It had become a strategy.
The truth is that pressure never exists anywhere other than in our minds, in the form of thoughts.
There’s no pressure inherent in any test, interview, match or presentation - how could there be?
Pressure is simply a set of thoughts that insists that something needs to go a certain way in order for you to be ok.
That’s why some people feel pressure in certain situations and others don’t.
What I didn’t realise at the time was that it wasn’t the pressure that was helping me perform, it was what it helped create that made the difference: focused attention.
Focused attention is the secret of peak performance.
We do our best when our entire focus is on the activity in hand without any focus on ourselves.
This is a state of flow, where our sense of self disappears.
You do not need pressure to perform, despite what you might tell yourself or hear from others.
(The mind won’t like that last sentence, it will probably tell you that this is cheating somehow).
Your goal is therefore easy, focused attention. This is the key to peak and sustainable performance, in every situation.
Where do you create pressure in your life?
How great would it be to create the focus and attention you desire to perform at your best - without the experience of pressure?
Would it feel like cheating?
Here are some tips on how to create focused attention:
Make it a habit - train your mind and eliminate distractions
Eliminate multitasking- it’s not a thing anyway
Don’t force it when it’s not working - relax
Stop thinking about yourself - self-consciousness is the enemy of performance
Meditation/mindfulness - experience that you are not your thoughts
If you’d like specialist coaching on this, send me a DM.
