Knowing When To Stop To Perform Greater
Understanding The True Path To Peak Performance With Two Important Catches You Do Not Want To Miss
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Knowing When To Stop To Perform Greater
Understanding The True Path To Peak Performance With Two Important Catches You Do Not Want To Miss
I Love Pushing the Limits.
If you look at My Life and Career...
There is an Ever Growing List of Accomplishments that Proves It.
I Live for the Flow States that come with Peak Performance.
The Thrill of Attaining a New Goal...
Or Discovering Something Incredible and New...
Working with People and Having them Get Amazing Results...
I Push to Attain This as Often as I'm Able.
Always Asking Myself How I Can Help Others Improve...
How Systems Can Be Improved...
How I Can Improve.
I Try to Press the Throttle to Accelerate as Quickly as Possible.
But Here's a Truth You have to Understand...
Sometimes the Fastest Path...
Requires us to Press the Brakes.
Just Yesterday, I was getting Ready for my Daily Run.
It is Sweltering Hot here in Texas, so that means I Run at Night...
Because it is Much Cooler and it Allows me to Do My Barefoot Runs with More Ease.
As I was Preparing to Run, I had some Extra Time, so I told myself I was going to Run 4 Miles.
It's something that I've Done Before.
No Problem.
Doing Between 8:00 and 9:00 Minute Miles is a Pretty Decent Pace for me at that Distance Normally.
So I Began My Run.
But I Noticed Something Odd...
I was Feeling Sluggish and Off My Game as I Rounded for My First Mile...
Which then Became Worse Coming Around for My Second Mile.
My Head was Getting Foggy...
My Body was Feeling Slower (Even though I Maintained My Pace)...
Whatever was Happening...
It was Not Normal.
Sometimes, You have to Press the Break.
So I Did.
Now, I "Hate" Not Hitting the Mark that I Set Out for Myself.
But I Also Know Something that is More Important than the Goal...
I'm Human.
I have Limitations.
Sometimes, there is More to the Psychophysiological Story than What We're Seeing.
So I Stopped after My Second Mile.
I Got Some Hydration and Nutrients in Me...
Then Went to Bed...
Kinda...
I had a Struggle with Staying Asleep Last Night as Well.
Ironically, I Still got Above My Average Total and Recovery Sleep...
But I Knew Something was Off.
So, it was No Surprise to Me when I Got My HRV (Heart Rate Variability) Today and it was Showing Lower than My Average.
My Average is Between 54 and 67 ms...
Today it was 50 ms.
What does this Mean?
My Body is Facing Some Sort of Unplanned Stressor.
When Our Stressors Go Up...
HRV Tends to Drop.
But Here's the Thing...
If You "Push" Yourself Further when You're Body is Facing a High Level of Stressors...
You're Going to Make Things Worse.
All Stressors Cause Stress Damage, or Oxidative Stress.
The More Oxidative Stress You Have...
The Worse You'll Perform.
The Higher Your Stressors...
The Faster Oxidative Stress Builds Up...
The Longer it Takes to Recover...
Which can Actually Create Negative Results Over Time.
The End Result of this is Burnout, where We Become Limited to Only 5% of Our Productivity Potential according to the Research.
If You Want to Push Toward Further Goals...
You Must First Recover.
But this Can Only Happen...
If...
You Stop.
This is One of the Most Valuable Lessons in All of Peak Performance.
Knowing When to Stop becomes Critical to Prevent Negative Results.
I have Seen Many People Continue to Push...
All to their Own Detriment.
I have Heard Many Stories...
Of People Pushing Themselves So Much...
They End Up in the Hospital.
I have Even Heard a Few Stories...
Of People Pushing Themselves to Death...
From Burnout Caused by the Workplace...
In Individauls as Young as their 20's.
That Does Not Even Account for All the Examples of Individuals Who Push Themselves in Physical Activities.
If You Do Not Know When To Push The Brakes...
It Can Become A Fast Recipe To Slam Into Rock Bottom.
Just like a Car when a Turn Comes Up...
If You Push the Gas and Attempt to Turn...
There's a Huge Chance that You'll Flip the Vehicle and Crash in a Gigantic Mess of Metal.
Peak Performance, in All of its Forms, Sometimes Requires You to Hit the Brake.
Allow the Body to Recover Fully.
What Most People Do Not Realize is that Growth Happens in the Recovery.
You Must Push the Body in Peak Performance, Yes...
But it is in the Recovery where the Body Adapts to Handle the Situation Better.
If All You Do is "Perform"...
You are Actually in a Constant State of Decay.
Without Recovery there is No Adaptation...
Without Recovery there is Only More Stress Damage...
Which is a Recipe for Failure.
To Truly Reach Your Potential with Peak Performance...
Recovery is Necessary.
Pressing the Brakes is Necessary.
Knowing When to Push the Gas and When to Push the Brakes become Micro-Opportunities to Get Ahead.
The More Micro-Opportunitites that You Get Right...
Pressing the Gas or the Brakes at the Right Time and Pressure...
Can Create Exponential Results Very Quickly.
How Quickly?
Well, Growth Tends to Happen at 1% of what is Known as the Challenge-Skill Ratio...
But Flow States Happen at 4% of the Challenge-Skill Ratio.
Going Beyond 4% has Negative Consequences, and Being Under 1% is Not Enough to Spark Growth - It works as a Bell Curve.
But for Simplicity, let's just use 1% and 4%.
After One Round, there is a 3% Difference.
Not Much.
But After a Week of Consistency?
At 1% Daily, You're at a 7.21% Improvement from where You Began...
At 4% Daily, You're at a 31.59% Improvement.
Much More Significant Difference.
But here's the Catch...
You can Also Hit Flow States Multiple Times Per Day.
Can you See How Quickly Peak Performance can Change when We Understand when to Hit the Gas and When to Hit the Break?
The Second Catch is that What "1%" and "4%" Means Changes Constantly.
Some Days it Requires "More" to Attain Those Numbers...
Other Days it Requires "Less" to Attain Those Numbers.
As Humans, Some Days We Need More Recovery becacuse Life Presents Unseen and Unplanned Stressors.
We, as Humans, are a Complex System that Lives within an Even More Complex System...
Meaning there are So Many Variables at Play that We Will likely Never Be Able to Account For.
I was Facing that Yesterday, and am Still Facing it Today.
To get to 4% Today Requires Me to Do "Less" Today Overall...
Because If I Push Too Much...
I will Simply Be in Deeper Dis-Stress...
Causing More Stress Damage...
Requiring More Recovery.
Sometimes, the Greatest Opportunity for Growth Comes from Hitting the Break.
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So, what are Signs that We Should Hit the Break?
Different Circumstances will have Different Signs.
For Instance, You (probably) Will Not Experience the Same Type of “Foggy Head” and “Sluggish Body” that I had during My Run…
If You’re Primarily Working in an Office Setting.
But that Does Not Mean there are Not Signs to Pay Attention To.
I have Four Indicators that Anyone can Utilize to Help You Understand when it Might be Time to Hit the Break…
Plus One Bonus for those Who have the Means!
Let’s Dive In…
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