René Descartes got it wrong.

Firstly, I'd like to address that the header is not a discovery of my own. I learned it from a book authored by Henrik Fexeus and actually this whole text is inspired by his books.

In a nutshell: despite acknowledging the great mind of René Descartes, Henrik Fexeus wrote that there was still something flawed in his work: the mind-body relationship. Back in 17^th century Descartes theoretized that mind and body are separate concepts. Afterall it took couple hundred years from biologists and psychologists to actually provide evidence of the relationship.

Then Henrik Fexeus went to prove it with a simple be practical and pretty awesome drill. So, do we. Please follow this:

1. Bite your teeth tight together.
2. Wrinkle your eyebrows
3. Focus and stare at one point
4. Keep this for ten seconds

Now we have done it. Did you feel growing anger? Sure you did, and sure I did. There is reason for that. Emotions are not only mind over matter stuff. Those four things are something people do when they're irritated and angry, and so by doing that you gave sensations and messages to your mind that you are angry. So there we go, the mind and the body are connected. You just proved it your self.

Where am I going with this?

Optimal performance requires certain state of mind and body sensations. Lets say that you go the start line or business negotiation with your head down and shoulders low. You do not only message your opponent that you are flying low, you message that to yourself too. It is not a wild guess to say that the performance won't be optimal.

To improve and reach your potential, observe yourself when you are confident and flying high and do that during down time too. Then you can learn to detect those bodily messages to promote and to avoid. In the next event, no matter how you feel, go to the line, table, blocks and present those moves and message yourself that you flying high today. Take to your self to line in a confident manner.

Hold your head high. And thank you Mr. Fexeus.

#mymountain

This came to me overnight and with a cup of coffee this morning, I took pen and paper and draw a mountain - my mountain. Then wrote two post-it notes and stuck them to the mountain. One of them contains a stick-guy, who currently stand on the foot of the mountain. That guy is me. Another one is the flag on top of the mountain. I think you all see where this is going.

The stick-guy is me, the flag is my goal with my target is written on it. The climb between is the journey I live and thrive for. The climb will be filled with new post-it notes of what it takes from me to get on top. It is a journey I'm gonna go through step by step by setting goals and taking actions that will get me there eventually. I'm just excited to see the guy getting up the slope.

It symbolizes the journey we truly want to make to achieve our goals and personal excellence. It doesn't matter whether it is athletic mountain, educational mountain or professional mountain. It doesn't matter how high it is, how steep it is or how long you think it is gonna take.

What matters is that it is your mountain, you are excited about it and you are willing to take the journey.

However, as I'm bit Zen(ish), I want to add this motto to top this all up:

”When you get on top of the mountain, keep climbing.”

____________________________________________________________

PS. You may ask where I come from with this, but there is my story behind this. If you want to know more, just ask me or I may come back to it at some point. There is also a good solid theory behind all this, which I may come to write about later.

A man of his word.

This is a story of discovery, reflection and well, a fair bit of irony. And this leaps, at least vaguely, the psychology of performance. To the point…

The point is that I once said that if I ever find myself doing something some pilates mumbojumbo stuff, I would most certainly come out and tell about it in public forum. I want also to mention that mumbojumbo is not my invention as a term. I may have said that multiple times, but this expression holds more drama and sounds more powerful – but again, that’s the not the point. I may have also smiled wryly at those videos, which people tenaciously follow, but that’s not the point either. The point is that I’m now proud to announce that I’m now part of this population. And yes, pay attention to the expression ‘proud’.

This all is related to my own athletic pursuit, and a knee problem apparently. The knee discards me from riding, running and most leg exercises at gym, which have been the bread and butter of my training. Now I swim (badly). And recently I discovered yoga, which I do even more badly for the time being.

Despite my wry smiles and slight arrogance towards it, I admit its awesomeness today. In my case only three times have seen me develop at my very own scale, which runs from excellent to hopeless with numerous sub-categories. I have now officially proceeded from definitely below hopeless to only below hopeless. It equals a dream of having white belt in certain combat sport or something like that.

Anyway, the yoga. It has helped me to discover weaknesses, which I can work with. On the other hand, I have consequently discovered easy gains for my performance. Improve there and become a better, more robust athlete. It helps my flexibility, stability and all things they say it does. However, being a performance psychologist I also evaluated the psychology of yoga (only in my specific case though).

I admit having struggled with all sorts of hick-ups lately. Yoga has provided me with fresh new approach, feelings of development in short term, more goals towards future, challenge, concentration, mindfulness – all sorts of things. Mainly, because it is new, challenging and I find it exciting for many reasons. Most of all, it has acted as a vehicle towards feeling better, happier and more confident. I don’t have a reason why, and I really don’t want to have one. Acknowledgedly, there are other reasons too, but it doesn't really change anything.

At the end, the point is that it may be anything that can get you back on track. Trust youe own judgment.

Anton

How to get out of the comfort zone? - The logical part 2.

Ok, this is the part two, which should be a logical continuum to the part one. But again, I have a disclaimer that even though the continuum is logical, I hold no guarantees of my solutions being logical – except for me and in my mind. Simultaneously, I dare to state that I’m more often right than wrong. And there goes the logic.

Anyway, last time I concluded myself to suffering from comfort zone syndrome, which means that I can only stay there. Since then I have done several successful experiments, which have totally gotten me out of there and here is my top tier list in no particular order.

Check the weather forecast, pick up a horrible day and make sure you don’t dress appropriately. I, sure as hell, got out of the comfort zone and went through several stages to outright misery. However, it is not the misery I’m looking for here.

Next, I tried to have an intense training session after too little sleep and no breakfast. Again I got out of my comfort zone, and ended even terms with my first experiment – being miserable. Again, not the right way out of the comfort zone.

Back to the drawing board I went and decided that after overloading in work, it is time to overload in training. Now, make a wild guess what the result was. Yep, misery. Again it was the wrong tactics, but you live and learn – another option ticked off.

The list has since then continued and is quite respectable today: incorrect saddle height, wrong handle bar setup, no hydration during training, running without gloves, running out of flapjacks as pre-session snack and the list goes on. After all my experiments I guess the thing that is most likely getting me out of comfort zone is my missing morning coffee. Another one being asthma attack.

As you can see, there are various ways to get you out of the comfort zone. However, different levels of misery aren’t exactly what one should be after. Not at all, to be precise. I’m not the one to tell how one should feel, because I haven’t been there for years – so please feel free to share your opinion. However, I still do have an idea how I may one day get there, which is logically covered in the third take on this subject. Once I get there, I will also be able to report how I felt, why and what I did do.

Greets still from the comfort zone,

Anton