“Optimizing performance requires discipline and consistency.” – Darren Hardy

Optimizing performance is a crucial skill in life as it enables us to achieve our goals and dreams more effectively and to use our inner resources efficiently. We can work smarter, not harder, allowing us to accomplish more with less effort and time.

This blog is the last in a series of blogs about managing your energy and optimizing your life. Here’s what you may have missed:

Human energy is closely connected to peak performance because our energy levels significantly impact our ability to perform at our best. When we have high levels of physical, mental, and emotional energy, we can better concentrate, make sound decisions, and stay motivated.

Hardwiring The Brain For Performance

Very few people, if any, can become exceptional at everything they do. A tennis pro may become a peak performer in their sport, but this excellence will not translate to skiing, swimming, engineering, or brain surgery. The reason for this lies in the brain. When someone becomes a peak performer in a task, they hardwire the neurocircuitry for that task, which involves thousands of neural pathways. The first time a person does a task, the neural circuitry is like a tiny, scrawny seedling. Every time they practice, the neural circuitry becomes stronger and gets more resources (oxygen and glucose) diverted to it. Then the neural pathways develop myelin sheaths (think insulation around an electrical wire). Studies have shown that myelin can increase the speed of neural signals by up to 100 times. The neural circuit has become supercharged and is easily activated on demand. The task becomes almost effortless and takes less time, energy, and attention.

7 Steps To Becoming a Peak Performer

If you want to become a peak performer in any task, there are a few things you’ll want to do:

Be very clear on what you want to improve performance in. Is it a broad activity like “tennis” or narrow like “hitting backhands”? With a broader activity, you may not be able to improve performance as much as if you narrow it down.
Identify your why. What is your motivation or the purpose behind your desire to improve at this task or activity?
Research how other people got good at this activity. What did they do to become great?
Develop your Peak Performance Formula (PPF) for this activity (see below)
Practice, practice, practice. Then practice more.
Learn from your failures and your successes. When you mess up, ask yourself, “why?”. When you do great, ask yourself, “why?”. Then tweak your PPF and your practice.
Get support, either from a coach (who can help you with the steps above and to develop your PPF), an expert in the activity (who can help you with advice and feedback), or a peer (who is on the same learning path).

Developing Your Peak Performance Formula

To become a peak performer in any task, it helps to develop your personalized formula for each activity:

Peak body: What do you need to do with your body? Do you need to sit or stand? Do you need to move energetically or sit quietly? What can you do to ensure your body is healthy to operate like a finely tuned machine)?
Peak mind: What patterns of thinking are hindering you? What ways of thinking would help? What do you need to do to be resilient when you fail? Is there any new learning that you need to do? What will help you get and stay motivated?
Peak emotions: What would be the best combination of emotions to help you reduce stress and become excellent at this activity?
Peak focus: What do you need to focus on, and what do you need to do? What will help you focus and not get distracted?
Peak environment: What physical space, resources, people, and habits will help you master the activity?

Develop your formula and practice it daily until it becomes hardwired into your nervous system. Once it’s hardwired, it becomes like flicking a switch to get into your peak state and become a peak performer in that task. The flow state is a state of optimal performance when a person becomes completely absorbed in a task and loses track of time. In the flow state, you will likely hit all five parts of the peak performance formula.

Your time, energy, and attention are precious resources. When you become a peak performer, you can optimize these resources and create more things you desire.

Resources

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