Peak Performance

Whether you have a goal to achieve mastery in a physical sports, artistic performance, business or personal/romantic relationships, it starts with the mental aspects.

The bottom line is that your emotional and mental state affects your performance in any area of life...from the board room to the bedroom.  To be a peak performer you need:

• Focus and concentration
• Calm
• A Clear Intention

And the ability to:

• Set new challenges, i.e. "raise your game"
• Sustain motivation and forward momentum in the face of obstacles

Psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, talks about the state of Flow as being an optimal state of intrinsic motivation, where the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing.

Being in "flow" or "in the zone" is an effortless, joyful, intensely focused state of consciousness characterized by self-forgetting, moment by moment awareness, time and/or sensory distortion, a sense of total control over the situation and a perfect match of your skill for this challenge.

Although you cannot make flow happen, you can increase the likelihood through training, preparation and mental-discipline.  Common blocks to peak performance include:

• anxiety and worry - what I like to call the "what if's" and "Oh, my God's"
• negative self-talk - such as "I can never win" or "I'm not ____ enough."
• difficulty "shaking off" past performance problems
• distractibility
• fear of failure or fear of success

If you can say "Yes" to the following statements, you are more likely to achieve a state of Flow.

• I have clear goals.
• My goals are attainable
• I have the skills and abilities to meet my goal.
• I have the ability to focus a high degree of concentration on an activity without being distracted
• I sometimes feel like my sense of time is distorted (moving faster or slower) when I am focused on something I enjoy doing.
• I have the ability to adjust my behavior as needed, based on the direct and immediate feedback during my activity
• My goals involve just the right balance between my ability level and the level of the challenge, i.e. the challenge is neither too easy or too hard.
• I feel a sense of personal control over the situation or activity.
• I find this activity rewarding, so there is effortlessness of action.
• I often get totally absorbed in the activity, losing awareness of everything else, except what I'm doing.

Whether you are a professional/collegiate athlete, or a business person who wants to trim strokes off your golf game or wipe the tennis court with carnage from your blazing service game, or a martial artist training (like I am) for your Black Belt, call 314-246-0507 today for a complimentary coaching consultation.

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