Finding Your Peak Performance

Finding Your Peak Performance

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Last week I talked about regulating our nervous system so we could show up as the best version of ourselves. But to truly understand and utilize our nervous system we need to identify and find our peak performance level and learn how to activate it along with keeping our nervous system regulated. Because everyone is different we all have a different energy level and nervous system feeling for what our peak performance is. 

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The easiest way to understand your peak performance is to find your ideal energy level. This energy level can be classified as a number and is where you are most comfortable and allows you to be most effective at the task you are completing. Some people are higher strung than others and naturally have a higher energy level correlated to their peak performance. Others are more calm, grounded, and contemplative and their energy level is lower for their peak performance. 

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To understand it better refer to this photo below. This is what I map out to understand my energy levels back when I was playing rugby. I knew that when I was in my peak performance window that I would be the most effective player I could be and be able to help my team in the best way. 

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As you can see, my peak performance range is fairly high, I classify it between 7.5 to 8.5. It's an arbitrary number but it serves a basic understanding of where I want my energy to be. When I am at my best, as an athlete, I want to be at this higher energy range because it allows me to operate at my optimal level of performance. As you can see there are two other areas: the crash zone and the stall zone. The Crash Zone is what happens when you try to raise your energy level beyond your peak performance level. You become overstimulated and your nervous system enters the fight or flight response as the heart rate and breath rate increase and our body becomes tense. 

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The Stall Zone is what happens on the other side. You don’t really have the energy to meet your peak performance range and if you try and get there you overexert yourself in an attempt to get there. Instead you stall out and become hesitant and sometimes unsure. Instead of operating at our peak with confidence we act with hesitation and just can’t ever get going and we stall out becoming ineffective. 

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Both the stall and crash zone show the pitfalls of what happens when we always try to force ourselves to be in our peak performance window. Some days we just don’t have it and need to find other ways to lean into our peak performance window. Some days we just are trying to do too much and we need to calm back down. 

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The easiest way for us to be able to enter that peak performance window is by having a routine to help us get to that state. If we have a high energy peak performance window we may want to do something that gets our energy up before we start the task. If we operate better at a lower energy level maybe we listen to slower, calmer music to get us ready to go. Maybe we need to ease into our energy level so we do something that slowly increases our energy level over time. This is why warmups in sports or music or anything is so important. 

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It is a way to get our mind ready for the task at hand. If we just dive deep into something without being prepared we are risking being in the stall or crash zone and then we won’t be able to adequately perform the task. But if we are able to warm up and ease into the situation we will be able to hit and maintain that peak performance level for the duration of the event. This will allow us to keep our nervous system regulated for longer and allow us to continue to access this peak performance window and increase our performance. 

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Also it is important to remember that certain tasks or activities require a different peak performance window and energy level. Understanding what scenarios you need and do better with more energy and those that require less energy will allow you to do those tasks better and more efficiently especially if you can consistently find the time to block your schedule to utilize when you get these specific energy states you can maintain your nervous system and become more efficient with your life. 

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Understanding and utilizing what your peak performance looks like for all scenarios in your life will help you unlock your full potential. 

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