Why Thinking Less Equals Better Performance.
It is a feeling all performers chase. The almost addictive moments when everything falls into place, sense of time and self drifts away, and you are fully present and getting everything just right. It’s the perfect pass that creates a spectacular scoring opportunity. It’s landing a flawless combination. It is pushing through a challenging workout that makes you feel like superman. It is nailing an important presentation. It is complete, in the moment, high-performance fun.
But how can we create these moments consistently for ourselves, instead of waiting for them to find us? Harnessing effort and focus is an important skill, one that we are rarely taught.
Imagine that effort and focus exist on a speedometer. We need effort and focus to hit high-performance, but we need a very specific amount. Too little and we risk unnecessary mistakes… too much and it’s the same story.
THE THREE PERFORMANCE ZONES:
CARE-LESS: When we don’t have enough focus and aren’t applying enough effort, we are in the care-less zone. We are usually here because we don’t care enough, or we are over-confident about our abilities. This inevitably leads to unnecessary mistakes.
CARE-FULL: When we care a little too much about the results of our performance we tip into the care-full zone. We are usually here because we are under a lot of pressure to performance successfully or to a certain standard. We fear the consequences of failure, or of things not turning out the way we hoped or expected. This fear and worry is making us risk-averse, cautious and hesitant. Unfortunately these two qualities are not associated with high-performance.
CARE-FREE: Right in the middle of care-less and care-ful is the sweet spot: care-free. When we are care-free we know we can be successful, but we are willing to risk failure. We care about our results, but we know that winning and success does not define us. We know that mistakes are a part of the process and that if things don’t work out the way we hope, we will learn something and improve. As a result, we are willing to take calculated risks and push ourselves farther than we can in the other two zones. The result? Magic. We are challenged yet able to meet that challenge. We are caught fully in the moment and experience that elusive high-performance fun.
We often feel that we need to try harder, focus more, and think harder, when we feel our performance faltering. What we are not taught to do is to think less, dial back, and trust ourselves.
Think of it this way. If you are a tennis plater, you have spent hours upon hours practicing your serve. You have learned this skill to the point where it requires no conscious attention at all. But now, suddenly, you are at an important competition. You are feeling the pressure of needing to win and the pressure of the crowd. You can lose. Your conscious mind starts trying to check and control the many parts of your serve…. is my arm position right? How am I gripping the racquet? Where am I look? How am I throwing up the ball? This extra attention on things you are already able to perform flawlessly throws off your rhythm and you mess up the serve. Stress kicks in even stronger. Pay more attention you think! Focus harder! Don’t mess that up again… and so the cycle continues.
Instead, what if we reminded ourselves to think less? Distracted our conscious mind with a performance statement such as: I am calm, centered and relaxed. And just served the ball, trusting in our skills and knowing that whatever the outcome you’re ready to learn? In this state of mind, in the care-free zone, we will nail that serve 99% of the time.
So, the next time you are performing and feeling under pressure, take a mental moment to search for care-free. Think less. Trust your skills and allow yourself to perform them without the interference of a worried conscious mind. You will be surprised at the results!
Until next time,
Annika.