***Peak Performance: We Experience What We Have Learned to Expect

The words “Peak Performance” tend to conjure up a vision of momentary flashes of brilliance. Extraordinary performances, like the 517 yard, hole-in-one, shot by golfer Mike Crean at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in Denver, in 2002. Such performances as this are like flashes of lightning; rare, beautiful and hard to ignore. There is no doubt this is peak performance, but is a consistent level of peak performance possible as well? Can we regularly experience the most consistently reported psychological characteristics of peak performance which include feeling completely in control, relaxed, and confident, having a narrow focus of attention and no fear of failure? (1) “Lightning strike” performance like that of Mike Crean is impressive but, other than serving as a reminder that just about anything is possible, not much help to us in developing consistently high levels of performance. It’s hard to bottle lightning, after all. Research has continuously demonstrated that consistent peak performance is not accidental (2). Consistent peak performance is the result of attitude made visible by our choice of behaviors and our choice of behaviors can be traced to the expectations and habits we have developed through practice “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” (Aristotle) Almost everyone is now familiar with the the “10,000 Hour Rule”(3) presented by Mal-colm Gladwell in “Outliers”, which states that excellence, consistent peak performance, which could also be defined as mastery, requires 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. Through our thousands of hours of practice we have learned and made habits out of our ways of seeing the world, our level of resiliency, our fears and our emotions. Negative emotions have been shown to directly impede performance. A great deal of research has demonstrated links between emotions and performance (2). Research indicates that athletes develop beliefs on which emotions help performance and which emotions hinder performance. Research has indicated that emotional intelligence, defined as the ability to identify, regulate and utilize emotional states to bring about peak performance is an important variable...” (4). Emotional conditioning, or reprogramming your mind habits, involves first identifying the habits associated with negative thinking, and then learning new habits with associations to more positive expectations. Citationsrn(1) “Peak Performance: Why Do Athletes Sometimes Not Perform Up to Expecta-tions”, Dr. Greg Wells, Blog, February 21, 2010. http://www.drgregwells.com/wells-blog/2010/2/21/peak-performance-why-do-athletes-sometimes-not-perform-up-to.htmlrn(2) “The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Perfor-mance”, K. Anders Ericsson, et al., 1993rn(3) http://www.gladwell.com/outliers/outliers_excerpt1.html (4) Sorts Psychology: Developing a Positive Attitude Toward Stress Will Improve Per-formance. http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/sports-psychology-developing-a-positive-attitude-towards-pressure-will-improve-performance-42173