PEAK PERFORMANCE
A full-steam-ahead plan to take control of your life
Linda Rainsberry
posted December, 2001

Work takes up at least one-third of your lifetime if you factor in the hours you work along with the time it takes to get ready in the morning and the travelling time. In moments of stress, here's a fabulous article on how to change your own mindset.

PEAK PERFORMANCE CHECKLIST

1. Show Up or Commit to your Goals

2. Get Motivated

3. Be Selfish
- What are you doing for yourself?
- Do some things that are calming.
- Give yourself some private time even at work, i.e. take your lunch hour.

4. Make a Plan -- or Several
Have a Destination in mind... Also, surround yourself with people who accept you for who you are, and support the goals you've set for yourself.

5. See Success
- Achievement requires effort, energy and commitment.
- You have to visualize what you want and develop a strategic plan for what needs to be done

6. Get Organized
- Create a Checklist of Things to Do
- Run a Mental Checklist
- Strictly Monitor It
- Stick to Them

7. Be Positive
-Throw Negativity overboard
- Be Positive in your thoughts and language
- Try not to complain
- Provide good nutrition to your body and your mind
- No Energy, No Action!

8. Action!
- Success is not a destination, it's a process
- Commitment, Concentration and Action using body and mind

"Everyone's in the office by seven o'clock in the morning. 50-60 hour work weeks are nothing," says Allen Smith, a 37-year veteran of investment trading, "The cell phone has me on call 24/7." Chances are, Smith's schedule sounds familiar, and you don't need to be an investment trader to work those hours. In fact, you may be working that hard for no money at all!

The slacker era is over. Find the 20 minutes it takes to read this article and you'll come away with a full-steam-ahead plan to take control of your hectic schedule, set your course for success and reach your peak performance.

SHOW UP

The first secret of success is showing up. Now that just sounds ridiculous. What kind of insider tip is that? Surprisingly, it's a key that's given to everyone, but very few people choose to open the doors it unlocks. Employers want team players who deliver, not divas who dawdle. If you're a procrastinator, pick up the pace. If you're always late, set your watch ahead and be early instead. If you're a brawler, save it. Better yet, stop it.

GET MOTIVATED

Staying in the zone of the impossible, and trying to beat the odds for admission to a school you want to attend, or a job you want, is a tough slog. "If accomplishments were easy, everybody would be achieving," says Charmaine Crooks, 38, a five-time Olympian and current member of the International Olympic Committee. "Passion is at the root of it." Just as elite athletes such as Crooks need a coach to set them on course for gold, you may need a little help along the way. You and a friend could agree to coach each other. If you are a student, enlist the services of a guidance councillor or faculty adviser. In larger urban centres you can even look in the Yellow Pages under motivation consultants to find professionals who can help. Of course, the self-help and business sections of bookstores have plenty of titles aimed at giving you a jump start.

BE SELFISH

"What are you doing for yourself?" is one of the first questions Marlene Durrell asks her clients. Durrell is a Toronto-based personal coach whose company, The Walmsley Group, helps clients to achieve personal and professional goals. Even Durrell had to wrestle with the idea of looking out for number one.

Selfishness has been given a bad rap. It makes you sound mean, insensitive, self-absorbed. Nothing could be further from the truth. Durrell points out that we can't give what we don't have, and if we're worn out, there's nothing left to share. For Durrell, selfishness is a paradox: "The more you take care of yourself, the more likely you're going to have some creative and emotional energy for the things that matter to you."

Sherrill Robinson has learned that lesson. The 31-year old labour lawyer regular works 12-to 14-hour days, fighting for better wages for hotel and restaurant workers in Toronto. She knows how easy it is to immerse yourself in the demands of the day, and she's not going to let it happen. Robinson doesn't mince words: "Decide how much of your body and soul you're prepared to give to work, and then draw the line." On the other side of that line is Robinson's time out, which might include indulging her interest in crafts and decorating, or experiencing the freedom of in-line skating. "You need to do things that are calming to relieve the stress of the day", she says.

Even during work hours, Robinson is vigilant about protecting some private space. Just as she wouldn't cancel an appointment on a client without a really powerful reason, she tries not to touch the time she sets aside for herself. When she's tempted to skip lunch, she reminds herself: "This is my time. You can't touch it. It's mine." That's the only insurance policy she has that she will have enough energy for the long haul.

MAKE A PLAN - OR SEVERAL

While energy and motivation are important, you won't get anywhere unless you have a destination in mind. Sometimes one plan is enough. You try it out and everything falls into place. But according to Toronto's Dr. Lise Janelle, a holistic chiropractor and creator of a workshop called Maximizing Your Ultimate Potential, the realization of dreams isn't usually instantaneous. Several interim steps may be needed, so you have to remain open to opportunities that present themselves, even if they weren't part of your original action plan. Patience.

Erik Suokas, 23, is one of those lucky few; he knows he wants to be a chiropractor, but he can't register this year because he needs two more prerequisite courses. Undaunted by this delay, Eric's going to work, saving some money, enrolling in the courses, and heading off to California in 2001.

Goal-setting isn't always such a solitary effort. Thirty-eight-year-old Toronto filmmaker Julie Crooks (Charmaine's sister-in-law) started with just a tendril of an idea. She saw a bad film in a university class, thought she could do better, and promptly tried to find a group of people who were also interested in telling Canada's untold stories. She found them, in The Black Film and Video Network. Crooks learned the importance of finding the people who have the knowledge you're seeking and attaching yourself to them - as an apprentice, intern, junior employee or member of a professional organization. Finding mentors speeds up skill acquisition, allows you to learn things that aren't taught in classrooms, and helps build contacts to support your ambitions. Crooks also stresses that you should surround yourself with people who accept you for who you are, and support the goals you've set for yourself. Life's going to cough up some disappointments. You need people there to help cushion the crashes.

SEE SUCCESS

There are no two ways about it. Achievement requires effort, energy and commitment. But when it comes to achieving goals, harnessing the power of your mind's eye is a time-tested tool. " As far back as the early 1970s, Dick Fosbury revolutionized the world of high jumping by leaping over the bar backwards. He attributes the success of this innovative jumping style to visualization," say authors Richard Earle and Jeff Davidson, in their book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Managing Stress for Canadians(Prentice Hall Canada, 2000). Ex- Olympian Charmaine Crooks is also a proponent of visualization. " As a runner, I would feel the competition, physically experience myself going through the race and see myself crossing the finish line," she says. "The key is to picture this race, this time, right now." And that's not just true of an 800-metre run. Crooks sees it as a route to success in business as well. "You have to visualize what you want and develop a strategic plan for what needs to be done," she says. Here's how visualization works:

- Sit in a straight-backed chair, then tense and relax each muscle group, beginning with your feet and working your way up your body.

- Breathe through your nose, counting to three slowly. Breathe out through your mouth and count to three again. Establish a rhythm.

- Put one clear, focused statement into your mind: "I will be a ------." Fillin the blank with your personal choice. Make the visualization very specific. Then, without speaking out loud, state your commitment calmly, over and over, on each inhalation. Relax as you exhale.

- Stay seated for about 10 minutes. Let the visualization envelop you. Try not to let any extraneous thoughts intrude.

According to Earle and Davidson, visualization works because "your brain makes no distinction between what it imagines and what it actually experiences." Practising visualization daily will help you not only to achieve your goals, but also to deal with the stresses you encounter along the way -- just change your focused statement accordingly.

GET ORGANIZED

While your brain may have the power to propel you toward your dreams, it has limitations when it comes to organizing a day's work. Even if you agree to climb onto the treadmill of too much activity, your mind has a circuit breaker. It's called capacity. As you crowd your short-term memory, things get transferred to intermediate memory, which can hold only seven items. You can speak sharply to your mind, order it to do more, but it won't deliver. Dr. Gabriel Leonard, a neuropsychologist at the Montreal Neurological Institute, confirms what has been known for more than 30 years: Seven is the magic number. Since you probably have more than seven things to accomplish on any given day, you'll need some memory aids-lists. Whether it's yellow sticky notes everywhere, a jammed daily planner you can't live without, or electronic help from your new Palm VII, lists are a universal time-management tool. Laura Davis, 18, of Fredericton, has been juggling a part-time job and a place on the school rowing team while making sure her marks were strong enough to get her into university. Every morning Laura runs a mental checklist. So does David Rainsberry, a 22-year-old fourth-year student at the University of Toronto. His list is generated last thing at night, then transposed to the number of available hours in the following day. Rainsberry stresses the need for editing: "If the daily itinerary isn't strictly monitored, your life just becomes a marathon with no end in sight." Both Davis and Rainsberry are heading off to the schools of their choice this fall-sports science at the University of New Brunswick for Davis, and law school for Rainsberry.

The two attribute at least some of their success to the ability to make lists - and stick to them.

BE POSITIVE

Private space protected, course set, priorities straight-you're almost ready to navigate through the maxed-out professional world. But before you set out, you'll have to throw negativity overboard. Being down on yourself drains your vitality. Be positive in your thoughts and the language you use. Loving both your flawed and fabulous self is Dr. Janelle's prime directive to her clients. Filmmaker Julie Crooks agrees "I try not to complain. That just takes energy away from what I have to do anyway. It might sound like a cliché, but I'm with Nike - "Just do it."

You also need to remember your asipirations are housed in a body as well as a mind, and both need good nutrition. That's not just Mom talking. Janelle sees clients whose biochemical balance is seriously distorted by junk foods. No energy. No action. Good nutrition is important for your body and your mind.

ACTION!

Now's it's time to act. Janelle knows lots of people who have talent, but she has found it's not enough. The only difference between the ordinary person and the extraordinary achiever is the level of commitment, concentration and action. When body and mind are one -- both working in tandem to support your life's work -- there's only one thing left to do: Know the truth. "Success is not a destination; it's a process." says Janelle. "If you've started to take action to achieve your dreams, you're already successful."

READ AND LEARN:

1. The Portable Coach (Scribner Books, 1998), by Thomas J. Leonard, offers 28 strategies to help shape your life and career. The book gets top marks from Toronto personal coach Marlene Durrell.

2. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Managing Stress for Canadians (Prentice Hall, 2000) has tips on everything from the importance of eating right to visualization and time management, all packaged in bite-size morsels of reading - perfect for the truly time-strapped.

LISTEN AND LEARN:

1. How to say No Without Feeling Guilty (Bantam Books - Audio, 2000), by Patti Breitmen and Connie Hatch, is an audio book offering guidance on mastering the two-letter word.

2. You Can Be Happy No Matter What (New World Library, 1998) is an audio guide to keeping everything in perspective, by Dr. Richard Carlson, author of "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff".