Optimizing any kind of performance - feedback appreciated!

[Ralph]

I've shared the techniques I use on my blog. Could you test them out and give me some feedback or at least say what you think about them? I'll spare you the intro, some underlying philosophy and conclusion here. The description of techniques is shortened as well. If you think something is missing, you can read the whole thing on Ralph Dudek’s blog


success = preparation + state

Whether you succeed or not depends on the quality of your preparation as well as on your physical and mental state during the performance. Take a very good look at this simple formula. Your state right there and then is equally important to the past preparation.


There are two kinds of preparation - direct and indirect. By memorizing, learning and researching you prepare directly for a specific performance. Indirect preparation is shaping your personality, communication skills and experience through your entire life. Any type of performance requires skills that you have mastered indirectly. You can access them subconsciously, but only in the right state.



My ideas for optimizing direct preparation:



Know your specific outcome

What are you truly after? Why are you performing? What determines whether you succeed or fail? The answer to this question might seem obvious at the first glance. Look into it deeply though and you will come up with a very insightful answer. Shortly speaking - how would your ideal performance look like?

Focus

Your subconscious resources aid the area of your life that you focus on most. Direct your thoughts on the upcoming performance. Just thinking about it will unleash the creative flow of ideas. Then you will just have to act on them.

Reduce the input of distractive information. You want to focus on the performance, not the 8 pm news, therefore do not watch the news.

For some people it is easier to deal with stress by distracting themselves. However, the side effects of such strategy of stress management are by far too severe. Distracting yourself from challenges and breakthroughs by idle entertainment or by following a different path will not push you forward on the path aligned with your life‘s purpose.

Use advanced mind techniques

If preparation includes memorizing anything, use advanced memory techniques: mindmapping, linking and chaining. If it requires lots of research, learn photoreading. Do not be a cro-magnon repeating the text over and over again until it is memorized.

Visualize the performance

Visualizing yourself performing is nearly as effective as a rehearsal. Your brain goes through the same neurological patterns. Every time the pattern is repeated it is reinforced. This i true for any kind of skill or a habit, good or bad. You can train karate in your head while doing homework. Your physical endurance and flexibility will obviously stay the same, but you will improve your technique and reflexes.

Powerful rehearsal

If you do a lot of rehearsing, here is a simple technique that will greatly enhance your performance. While rehearsing, imagine as vividly as you can that this is THE performance, not a rehearsal. Take yourself to that significant event as vividly as you can. Include all the senses in your visualization: see, hear, touch, taste and smell it the best you can. Do this every rehearsal and you will note tremendous improvements.

The point is to get used to the routine executed in the real environemnt. Your brain can not tell the difference between vivid imagination and the reality. Use this to your advantage by programming yourself for success during the rehearsals. As the actual performance comes, imagine it is just another rehearsal. You will do as perfectly as you did back in the gym, in front of the mirror or wheveever you rehearsed. This strategy works great for very important performances. It requires a lot of rehearsals and a long head start. It works miracles when you are worried that you will not do as good as you did on the rehearsals due to the pressure. It does a great job preparing you for


State management:

The flow state

The best state you can perform in is called the flow state. It’s name is quite accurate. It is a state in which everything happens naturally, spontaneously, as if on auto-pilot. You are very calm, confident, 100% focused on the task at hand, intufitive and driven by the subconscious mind. This state is a total opposite to getting stuck inside your head. There are no thinking processes at all. You are totally focused on the reality, the present moment and your performance. There are no second thoughts, only bold action. There is no anxiety or doubt. You could call that a “just do it” state. If you practice sports, you probably know what I am talking about. Have you ever been there? Think hard. It is so much easier to go back there than to induce this state for the first time.

Scan your mind until you find a memory of the state of flow. Then write down a few things:

1. What was your breathing like?
2. What was your body position?
3. What facial expression did you make?
4. How did you hold your shoulders?
5. What did you focus on in your mind?
6. How did your inner dialogue sound? What did you say to yourself, at what pace and tonality?
7. What pictures were you making inside your head?
8. How did you perceive reality?

Now you can get back to that state just by mimicking those factors. The list of answers is your personal recipe for the state of flow.

If you do not remember the state, it is completely okay. To get there, you need to get fully occupied by something you enjoy and are challenged by. Think about your hobbies. Which ones require fullest attention in order to be good at them? Which of those are you most challenged by? Pick one and go do it. Dive into it, get challenged by it, focus and relax. Get into the flow state. When you finally get into the state of flow, enjoy it for a while and then go over the questions listed above. You need to be able to describe this state in detail before you keep reading because you are going to learn to recreate it.

Anchoring the flow

Your brain always connects your state with the extraordinary event in your environment. It is called anchoring. It happens naturally and automatically. You can witness it and even induce it. What you want to do is to anchor the flow state consciously and trigger it just before and during the performance.

Turn off the music and any possible distractions, just for a couple of minutes. Follow this simple three step process:

1. Get back into the flow state by reading and following the answers to the questions about flow state, imitate the physiology and mental focus.
2. When you are in the peak of the flow state, make some kind of gesture, for example tapping your middle finger with your thumb in a certain way.
3. Follow steps 1 and 2 until you can do it in reverse - get to the state only by making the gesture

The anchored pattern will naturally wear off with time. You need to reinforce it daily. It takes just about three minutes. For such a breathrough in state management, it is totally worth doing.

Deep breathing

Benefits of deep breathing touch various areas of life immensely. It’s best to breathe slowly in the 1:3:2 ratio. This means for every second of inhale with your nose there are 3 seconds of holding breath and two seconds of exhale using your mouth. Give yourself the enormous advantage of ten deep breaths right before the performance. Actually, do the ten breaths three times per day and observe the magic it works with your energy level.

Go easy on your body

You can control your state from the inside as much as you want, but this will not make bacon, eggs, coffee, alcohol, cigarette smoke and sleep deprivation magically jump out of your body. Your energy can either be spent on performance or digestion, cleansing and generally staying alive.

Before the performance eat light meals. Avoid animal products. Be particularly careful about food combining. Obviously you want to avoid poisons like coffee, sweets or any kind of alcohol no matter what.

Drink lots of water. Soda, beer, some chemically improved sweet drink or coffee IS NOT water! Freshly juiced fruit, mineral water a smoothie or a tea IS water.

Get enough sleep before the performance. Enough is about 6-8 hours. Do not overdo it in either way. Excess of sleep will cause anxiety, bad dreams and lack of energy.

Get a day off

A week/day/hour before the preparation is your ‘day off’. Day off time should be proportional to the preparation period. During this time you keep your energy level high by eating light, drinking water, exercising and overall feeling awesome. This is a time for only final preparation. There can be no tasks scheduled on that time that can be managed before. It is your time to slow down and take the final look on the bigger picture. Visualize the optimal performance. Reinforce your anchor. Laugh a lot - either with friends or read some jokes.

The main purpose of the day off is that something usually comes up last second. You need time to deal with it. Expect the unexpected and schedule this final day to deal with it. Take care of all the ‘expected’ in advance.



What do you think? Did I help by the way?

Much love
Ralph

[magi13]

Originally Posted by Ralph

I've shared the techniques I use on my blog. Could you test them out and give me some feedback or at least say what you think about them? I'll spare you the intro, some underlying philosophy and conclusion here. The description of techniques is shortened as well. If you think something is missing, you can read the whole thing on Ralph Dudek’s blog


success = preparation + state

Whether you succeed or not depends on the quality of your preparation as well as on your physical and mental state during the performance. Take a very good look at this simple formula. Your state right there and then is equally important to the past preparation.


There are two kinds of preparation - direct and indirect. By memorizing, learning and researching you prepare directly for a specific performance. Indirect preparation is shaping your personality, communication skills and experience through your entire life. Any type of performance requires skills that you have mastered indirectly. You can access them subconsciously, but only in the right state.



My ideas for optimizing direct preparation:



Know your specific outcome

What are you truly after? Why are you performing? What determines whether you succeed or fail? The answer to this question might seem obvious at the first glance. Look into it deeply though and you will come up with a very insightful answer. Shortly speaking - how would your ideal performance look like?

Focus

Your subconscious resources aid the area of your life that you focus on most. Direct your thoughts on the upcoming performance. Just thinking about it will unleash the creative flow of ideas. Then you will just have to act on them.

Reduce the input of distractive information. You want to focus on the performance, not the 8 pm news, therefore do not watch the news.

For some people it is easier to deal with stress by distracting themselves. However, the side effects of such strategy of stress management are by far too severe. Distracting yourself from challenges and breakthroughs by idle entertainment or by following a different path will not push you forward on the path aligned with your life‘s purpose.

Use advanced mind techniques

If preparation includes memorizing anything, use advanced memory techniques: mindmapping, linking and chaining. If it requires lots of research, learn photoreading. Do not be a cro-magnon repeating the text over and over again until it is memorized.

Visualize the performance

Visualizing yourself performing is nearly as effective as a rehearsal. Your brain goes through the same neurological patterns. Every time the pattern is repeated it is reinforced. This i true for any kind of skill or a habit, good or bad. You can train karate in your head while doing homework. Your physical endurance and flexibility will obviously stay the same, but you will improve your technique and reflexes.

Powerful rehearsal

If you do a lot of rehearsing, here is a simple technique that will greatly enhance your performance. While rehearsing, imagine as vividly as you can that this is THE performance, not a rehearsal. Take yourself to that significant event as vividly as you can. Include all the senses in your visualization: see, hear, touch, taste and smell it the best you can. Do this every rehearsal and you will note tremendous improvements.

The point is to get used to the routine executed in the real environemnt. Your brain can not tell the difference between vivid imagination and the reality. Use this to your advantage by programming yourself for success during the rehearsals. As the actual performance comes, imagine it is just another rehearsal. You will do as perfectly as you did back in the gym, in front of the mirror or wheveever you rehearsed. This strategy works great for very important performances. It requires a lot of rehearsals and a long head start. It works miracles when you are worried that you will not do as good as you did on the rehearsals due to the pressure. It does a great job preparing you for


State management:

The flow state

The best state you can perform in is called the flow state. It’s name is quite accurate. It is a state in which everything happens naturally, spontaneously, as if on auto-pilot. You are very calm, confident, 100% focused on the task at hand, intufitive and driven by the subconscious mind. This state is a total opposite to getting stuck inside your head. There are no thinking processes at all. You are totally focused on the reality, the present moment and your performance. There are no second thoughts, only bold action. There is no anxiety or doubt. You could call that a “just do it” state. If you practice sports, you probably know what I am talking about. Have you ever been there? Think hard. It is so much easier to go back there than to induce this state for the first time.

Scan your mind until you find a memory of the state of flow. Then write down a few things:

1. What was your breathing like?
2. What was your body position?
3. What facial expression did you make?
4. How did you hold your shoulders?
5. What did you focus on in your mind?
6. How did your inner dialogue sound? What did you say to yourself, at what pace and tonality?
7. What pictures were you making inside your head?
8. How did you perceive reality?

Now you can get back to that state just by mimicking those factors. The list of answers is your personal recipe for the state of flow.

If you do not remember the state, it is completely okay. To get there, you need to get fully occupied by something you enjoy and are challenged by. Think about your hobbies. Which ones require fullest attention in order to be good at them? Which of those are you most challenged by? Pick one and go do it. Dive into it, get challenged by it, focus and relax. Get into the flow state. When you finally get into the state of flow, enjoy it for a while and then go over the questions listed above. You need to be able to describe this state in detail before you keep reading because you are going to learn to recreate it.

Anchoring the flow

Your brain always connects your state with the extraordinary event in your environment. It is called anchoring. It happens naturally and automatically. You can witness it and even induce it. What you want to do is to anchor the flow state consciously and trigger it just before and during the performance.

Turn off the music and any possible distractions, just for a couple of minutes. Follow this simple three step process:

1. Get back into the flow state by reading and following the answers to the questions about flow state, imitate the physiology and mental focus.
2. When you are in the peak of the flow state, make some kind of gesture, for example tapping your middle finger with your thumb in a certain way.
3. Follow steps 1 and 2 until you can do it in reverse - get to the state only by making the gesture

The anchored pattern will naturally wear off with time. You need to reinforce it daily. It takes just about three minutes. For such a breathrough in state management, it is totally worth doing.

Deep breathing

Benefits of deep breathing touch various areas of life immensely. It’s best to breathe slowly in the 1:3:2 ratio. This means for every second of inhale with your nose there are 3 seconds of holding breath and two seconds of exhale using your mouth. Give yourself the enormous advantage of ten deep breaths right before the performance. Actually, do the ten breaths three times per day and observe the magic it works with your energy level.

Go easy on your body

You can control your state from the inside as much as you want, but this will not make bacon, eggs, coffee, alcohol, cigarette smoke and sleep deprivation magically jump out of your body. Your energy can either be spent on performance or digestion, cleansing and generally staying alive.

Before the performance eat light meals. Avoid animal products. Be particularly careful about food combining. Obviously you want to avoid poisons like coffee, sweets or any kind of alcohol no matter what.

Drink lots of water. Soda, beer, some chemically improved sweet drink or coffee IS NOT water! Freshly juiced fruit, mineral water a smoothie or a tea IS water.

Get enough sleep before the performance. Enough is about 6-8 hours. Do not overdo it in either way. Excess of sleep will cause anxiety, bad dreams and lack of energy.

Get a day off

A week/day/hour before the preparation is your ‘day off’. Day off time should be proportional to the preparation period. During this time you keep your energy level high by eating light, drinking water, exercising and overall feeling awesome. This is a time for only final preparation. There can be no tasks scheduled on that time that can be managed before. It is your time to slow down and take the final look on the bigger picture. Visualize the optimal performance. Reinforce your anchor. Laugh a lot - either with friends or read some jokes.

The main purpose of the day off is that something usually comes up last second. You need time to deal with it. Expect the unexpected and schedule this final day to deal with it. Take care of all the ‘expected’ in advance.



What do you think? Did I help by the way?

Much love
Ralph

Nice, ^^ I'm just not sure about photoreading. P.s. rote memory is not that bad too.

[Ralph]

hehe you want to delete that quote Magi

[magi13]

Originally Posted by Ralph

hehe you want to delete that quote Magi

^^ it's very long though isn't it?

success to you = prep + state?

to me success = how bad you want it + method

^^, It's similar in principle

[Ralph]

Originally Posted by magi13

^^ it's very long though isn't it?

success to you = prep + state?

to me success = how bad you want it + method

^^, It's similar in principle

Yeah, if you start talking about method, you'll reach my formula. As for motivation, I just assumed it in my article

[flyer]

Thanks, great article A lot of useful information, without too much bla-bla.
Did not know about those memory techniques - very effective!

[lifetimelearner]

Chinese Proverb:

"There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but the view is always the same."

[Ralph]

Originally Posted by lifetimelearner

Chinese Proverb:

"There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but the view is always the same."

Nice one, I'll remember