Energy Flows where Attention Goes

Positive thoughts strengthen, and negative thoughts weaken you.

Here’s a simple demonstration that proves it.

Hold your arm straight out to your side.

Have someone else attempt to press your arm down while you resist while you try to hold your arm in place.

First, think of yourself eating and enjoying your favourite food. Notice the strength of your arm in resisting the press down.

Next, think of the time when a meal made you sick or nauseous. Notice how much weaker you are than when you were thinking happy thoughts.

Examples of thoughts that weaken us are regret, shame, guilt, self doubt, apathy, and fear. Examples of thoughts that strengthen are love, joy, trust, confidence, gratitude, generosity, and acceptance.

Be aware of the thoughts in your mind as they determine your relative state of weakness or strength in dealing with the task at hand.

Pick and put on your thoughts like you pick and put on your clothes to be at your best.

Cast off negative thoughts that weaken you. Select and put on thoughts that uplift your spirit and help you raise to the occasion.

Hi, I would like you to Meet your Fears

Consummate performance is the outcome of a virtuous chain of empowering events.

This chain is triggered by a moment of truth e.g. coming face to face with a tiger, facing an interview panel, standing on a stage about to give a speech, or running up to the ball to take that decisive penalty kick at the soccer finals.

We are often thrust into these moments of truth. What happens next is determined by the choices we make. It is these choices that decide the outcome.

The virtuous chain leading to consummate performance starts with empowering thoughts. It is followed by empowering visualisation, by empowering emotions, and an energised body which is in turn followed by powerful actions culminating in consummate performance.

Whether we are a champion, advanced beginner, or a novice, peak performance is delivered at the end of this virtuous chain of events which we control.

Like any chain, this chain too, is only as strong as its weakest link. It can be broken anywhere along the chain. And, when the virtuous chain snaps, peak performance is impossible.

What would weaken and break the chain? The main enemy is fear, and fear comes in many guises.

The links in the chain leading to consummate performance may be broken by any or a combination of the following forms of fear, and the consequent negative thoughts:

Root Cause of Fear	Nature of Negative Thought
Learned fear response	A learned fear response is linked to a past bad experience e.g. being stumped during a speech, missing the goal in a penalty kick. Thinking that history is going to repeat itself. Often one bad experience is enough to develop a phobia.
Low self esteem	Secretly believing that you don’t deserve your status, that you are unqualified for the task at hand, that you are a fraud or impostor. “I don’t think I’m good enough to lead this team.”
Interpersonal anxiety	Fear of disapproval by others. Imagining the criticism of others e.g. “Look, she is so slow”, “She is not ready, is she?” “We over rated her ability.”
Burnout	Loss of confidence due to diminishing interest or passion for the task at hand. “I’m not sure whether I still have what it takes to pull this off.”
Physical injury or issues	Performance anxiety due to physical injuries or issues e.g. a swollen ankle in the kicking leg when about to take that decisive penalty kick. “My ankle is killing me. Hope I can still kick the ball hard and straight. I don’t know.”

Pause, and listen to your self talk. Our fears and negative thoughts reveal themselves in self talk.

Be aware of your fears and the negative self talk that may be weakening your virtuous chain, and sabotaging your performance.  

By having greater awareness of the root causes of fear that generates the negative thoughts that weaken us, we can apply specific techniques to overcome them.

Adrenaline: Everyone Gets the Same Shakes

Everyone gets the same bodily shakes and tremors when facing acute stress, so how is it that some people thrive under pressure while others disintegrate in panic?

To answer this question, we need first to have a basic understanding of how our brain functions.

Our brain is made up of three layers, each layer representing an era in our evolutionary heritage. The lowest and earliest layer is our Reptilian brain, followed by the middle layer, our Paleomammalian brain, and topped by the newest layer, our Neomammalian brain which makes human beings uniquely powerful. The functions of the 3 layers are as follows:

Brain Layer	Function
Reptilian brain or Basal ganglia	Basic survival instincts of fight, flight, and copulate. Also controls our autonomic functions like breathing and heart rate.
Paleomammalian brain or Limbic system	Emotions involved in feeding, mating, and parenting. Motivated by pleasure and avoidance of pain.
Neomammalian brain or Neocortex	Human abilities of language, reasoning, abstraction, conceptualisation, and planning.

Whenever our five senses pick up information which our Reptilian brain assessed is a potential danger to our life and limb, it triggers our endocrine glands to churn out an instant dose of adrenaline hormones. This spurt of hormones is pumped around our body through our blood streams. The adrenaline rush produces the effects of:

Physical Changes	Survival Function
Raised heart rate	Increased action potential
Increase breathing rate	Increased action potential
Blood leaves digestive system	More blood for muscles
Blood leaves extremities	More blood for muscles
Blood goes to major muscles	More energy to fight or run
Sweating	Less heat when fighting or running
Decreased general focus	Increased primary focus

Every one of us human beings feels the same bodily sensations. This adrenaline rush is a relic from our evolutionary past when our ancestors have to be constantly alert in order to survive the threats from predatory big cats, bears, wolves, snakes, and even hostile humans. These bodily reactions prepare our bodies to either fight or flee.

While all of us get the same shakes from our adrenaline, it is up to each one of us to interpret what the sensations mean, and hence it leads to different reactions and outcomes.

The bodily sensations are neutral. How we interpret the bodily sensations is based on what we believe is happening to us, and around us.

People who excel under pressure believe that their raised heart rate, increased breathing rate etc are signs that their body is “primed”, “revved up”, “pumped”, “juiced”, “amped up”, “charged up”, “energized” for peak performance. They feel an empowering surge of confident energy as they begin their task.

People who crumble under pressure, believe that these exact same bodily sensations are warning signs that “things are going out of control”, “things are falling apart”, “I am not good enough for this”. Power and energy is drained from their mind and body.

When you believe that your shaking body is a prelude to disaster, your mind and body weakens, and your performance suffers.

When you believe that your shaking body is a purring cat ready to pounce, your mind and body are strengthened, and your performance is enhanced.

Pause, and choose your beliefs when you feel that adrenaline rush. It makes the difference between being calm or panicking.

Try it. You will be amazed how a simple switch of thought like this could make all the difference.