Tuesday 10 May 2011

There is no doubt that one of the greatest challenges we face every day is to try to achieve a high level performance in everything we do. Most people generally try to do their best in whatever they are doing. When you think about this, why would someone intentionally face a task in their daily routine – at home or at work – and intentionally set about sabotaging it by doing their worst performance.

Then how is it that we often deliver our “less than perfect” performance, and on occasions deliver our worst performance?

Well … that is the million dollar question. And whoever can unlock the secret code to this one will surely resolve many of the unsolved mysteries of the world.

Let’s start by answering this with providing a little background on the things that actually effect human performance. And if we keep this really simple, we can say that a person’s performance is directly effected by their physical, social, emotional and intellectual position at that time. You notice I use the word “position” as this word reminds us that these four areas are changing, on an ongoing basis. But what’s really interesting, is that each is effected by the other, so in fact when one is not at a person’s “optimal” level then the other areas are effected.

A good example of this is looking at how our social interactions can effect all the other areas. Let’s say I had a really bad run in with my partner, wife or really close friend. Let’s presume we have a “falling out” of sorts and have some really stern words with each other expressing our dissatisfaction with the other’s behaviour. If this falling out or argument happens on my way to work, where I have a real important meeting involving lots of thinking and real interpretive analysis, it would be quite normal for me to find that I was suffering from a less than “clear head”, that I did not feel as relaxed as I had hoped, and that at the end of the meeting I was thinking that I did it really tough. It’s also likely I’ll feel quite exhausted after the meeting or much earlier in the day than I normally would.

With this example, my social domain has been put off balance by the argument with my friend or partner, leaving my intellectual, emotional and physical areas wanting for more of what they normally have.

The opposite occurs also. When coming up to a black belt grading where I am needing to be confident (emotional response), strong (physical), Interacting well with my sparring and self defence partners (social) and remembering all my work (intellectual), I will find that if there has not been an incident that will effect one of the areas like the example above, I may derive some extra results (synergies) that were never expected. I may in fact break more concrete tiles in the power breaking section of my grading than I ever have, do some amazing Poomse kicking higher than I ever have, and maybe even score a higher grade than any previous grading performance.

This means that the benefits I notice will be far greater if the physical, social, emotional and intellectual areas are in sync and when each of these has not been adversely effected by another area of my life.

In summary, if you are trying to achieve elite performance for a very important event in your life, for example a black belt grading in martial arts, your wedding, a job interview, a business meeting or negotiation, then it’s really important to manage each of these four areas or what I call the “key domains” of elite performance, before the event. In fact, for days and weeks before such an event will deliver the best results.

Could you imaging the likelihood of a Taekwondo athlete going to the Olympic games and fighting a gold medal performance – actually winning a gold medal in his or her weight division – after having a huge argument with their boyfriend or girlfriend on the morning of the competition? Do you think the other fighters in the division, presuming all else is equal, would stand a better chance of winning if they had a perfect preparation on the morning of the tournament, with lots of positive thinking and interactions going on?

You can apply this to your work and personal life. Do what you can every day to make sure your physical, social, emotional and intellectual domains are in good order – you’ll be amazed that peak performance will become for you the norm rather than the exception.

Master O’Flaherty