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The High Performance Mindset is used to describe how high performers or successful people, think, feel and act, when faced with challenges and stress. Central to this framework is the idea of a resilience window – or your range of stress tolerance. Regardless of the outlet you choose; school, work, business, sport, life, or a combination of these, you are a Performer.
Many of our performance outlets have been disrupted. Finding ourselves flailing around, and losing ourselves in the uncertainty of what comes next.
Our ability to be Resilient in uncertain times is determined by our Window of Tolerance. This is a formula that Performance Psychologists use to gauge how well an athlete can perform, mentally and physically in various states of arousal caused by stress, anxiety, and pressure. You can do a WOT test to determine your resilience window.
When faced with a threat, real or imagined, there is a natural stress response that is designed to protect. It does this by alerting the mind and preparing the body for action. When the threat is present for an extended period of time, the state of alertness persists.
If not addressed, a specific type of trauma results; Chronic Trauma.
When in a constant state of alertness, the window of tolerance dwindles over time. As the stores of resilience diminish, we begin feeling tired, hopeless, lose interest, get bored, become on edge, quick tempered, anxious, and quality of sleep is reduced.
Building resilience can reduce the perception, experience, and effect of the stress that results from a challenge/trauma. This approach, minimizes the impact of stressors by increasing your ability to adapt, and reducing the effect that it can have mentally, emotionally and physically. This works if the challenge or trauma is caused by tough competition, stressful work environments or even world events; like coronavirus or even quarantine).
A high performers’ ability to be resilient, develops a larger window of tolerance when dealing with stress, anxiety, and challenges.
Resilience can be built by practicing…
Acceptance: focusing on what you can control in your situation preserves valuable mental energy that would ordinarily be wasted on things you cant control.
Consistency: sticking to a plan for personal self-growth and training. Resiliency takes time to train by building self-awareness of your strengths and facing weaknesses.
Positive attitude: adjusting the way you think about things, the situation, or events by re-framing them. Embrace healthy thoughts to become more hopeful and optimistic.
Relaxing: take a bit of time out. Give yourself a break. Spend time with yourself, loved ones or do things that you enjoy.
You can work on your resilience online!
Being Resilient doesn’t mean that you don’t experience stress. It is a reflection of how you deal with stress and bounce-back after it.
Being Accepting doesn’t mean that you’ve given up. It is opening space in your mind and freeing up energy to focus on being constructive despite the circumstance.
Being Consistent doesn’t mean that you cant break your schedule. It is about being true to your work on yourself, being intentional and purposeful about what you want to achieve.
Being Positive doesn’t mean that you don’t get sad/angry sometimes. It is a balancing tool to ensure that you don’t stay in the darkest recesses of your mind for too long. Forcing, or pretending to be positive, can leave you drained as well.
Being Relaxed doesn’t mean that you aren’t taking things seriously. It is taking your personal health and mental wellness seriously, so that you can be in a position to help those that you hold dear.
If you would like help implementing any of these strategies or want more information on how you can work on your Resilience Window, contact me for a free consultation.
