Limitless. How can everyone feel this way? What does it take to perform at a higher level?
Mental performance is something that has fascinated me for quite some time. Finding effective ways to keep ourselves in a peak state can be extremely beneficial for our careers, businesses, and relationships.
How do we all stay at the top of our game on a regular basis to accomplish one’s goals? Through consistent dedicated practice to our cognitive capabilities, “cognitive stimulation can be understood as the set of techniques and strategies focused on efficacy and boosting cognitive capabilities through activities that produce changes in the brain” (BitBrain, 2019).
Focusing on keeping our brains and bodies healthy has been discussed but not necessarily taught to many of us. Sure, people may have heard the occasional line like: “go eat more broccoli, go for a run, read a book, meditate for a bit” but what does this all mean to you?
It means that the habits of those that perform at an elite level are not much different than we think, but they do have a slightly different routine to allow for such world class performance, “along with a healthy balanced diet, regular practice of physical exercise, and good resting” (BitBrain, 2019). These are some of the main components of a world class routine.
The only way we will know how to perform at an elite level is to test various strategies until we find our sweet spot of: maintaining consistency and longevity of our results.
For myself, I have been developing my own peak mental performance routine over the last few years with minor tweaks but this is my current routine I am using right now:
- Get 7-8 hrs of sleep or more a night
- Stretch or Yoga daily for 3-5 minutes
- Listen to 10 minutes of Audibook everyday
- Listen to 10 min of Business Podcast everyday
- Exercise everyday for 20-30 minutes
- Meditate for 5-10 minutes everday
- Write down my goals daily to stay on track
You don’t have to have a routine exactly like this but this will give you an idea of a blueprint to follow if your feeling lost or don’t know where to start.
I have always been the most successful when I stack my daily routine from one exercise to the next, just like when I lift weights.
According to Caroline Stokes, founder of Forward, “peak performers share five traits: getting into the flow, self-awareness, the ability to relax under pressure, coachability, and control over emotions”(Stokes, C., 2019).
Getting into a flow state more frequently and for longer durations can help boost your performance. Today, more than ever there is constant distractions battling for our attention. This is why we need to train our focus muscle to help concentrate on the right tasks to get the right work done.
Peak performers exercise their ability to focus for longer periods of time regularly. For myself, this is done through regular exercise, sleep, a well balanced diet, and meditation.
Focus stands for a “quirky yet effective acronym: follow one course until successful” (Rockley, K., 2019).
Do one thing at a time and watch your productivity shoot through the roof! As much as the world wants us all to sprint, I have learned it is better to slow down and re-focus.
Our focus muscle needs to be taught what should demand our attention and what should not, it will be up to us to decide what we wish to focus on more to achieve our version of greatness.
List of References
BitBrain. (Aug 19, 2019). What is high cognitive performance or “peak brain performance”?. Retrieved Dec 3, 2019 from https://www.bitbrain.com/blog/peak-brain-performance
Rockley, K. (Dec 4, 2019). 10 x Successful Habits of Peak Performers, The 5% Institute. Retrieved Dec 4, 2019 from https://www.5percentinstitute.com/10-x-successful-habits-of-peak-performers/
Stokes, C. 12 Actions to Achieve Peak Performance. Retrieved December 1, 2019 from https://www.theforward.co/12-actions-achieve-peak-performance/
