Keys to sustainable peak performance

The modern workplace and life demand creativity and innovation. We’re asked to operate at our peak more often and for longer than ever before. At the same time, environments are more volatile and unpredictable than ever. The rate of change is rapid and the degree of uncertainty unprecedented. 

Unfortunately, few of us are taught the true (and simple) keys to sustainable peak performance that we can apply to all areas of work and life. So we push ourselves (and others) to succeed rather than harnessing human biology, and often end up burnt out or in states of chronic stress and overwhelm. Both performance and wellbeing are affected.

The scientific evidence is overwhelming. What we’re really talking about when talking about driving performance is getting our biology to work for us, rather than against us.

Advances in neuroimaging technology over recent decades have allowed scientists to better see what happens to our brain in Flow and, significantly, what we can do to increase our access to this powerful state.

Flow is a peak state of consciousness where we feel and perform our best. In the flow state, we’re so focused on the task at hand that everything else falls away. Through a state known as hypo-frontality, parts of our brain actually deactivate and hours feel like minutes, action and awareness merge, our inner critic vanishes and performance, both physical and mental, goes through the roof. It’s an efficiency exchange – the brain is trading energy it needs for heightened attention and awareness, and it’s shutting down non-critical structures used for other higher cognitive functions.

For most people though, flow happens by accident. We’ve all experienced it, but most people don’t know how to recreate it or how to set the foundations and use the triggers science has discovered help us to get more of it. We currently stumble in and out of flow… and some rarely access this peak performance state at all. Sadly, most working environments in the 21st century are not conducive to flow. Many common processes and workplace environments are actually blocking people’s access to this peak performance state and all the performance and creativity enhancing benefits science has proven it provides.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. When you understand the stages of the Flow cycle and the critical steps so many of us get wrong, you’ll begin experiencing more and more Flow in ALL aspects of your work and life.

Watch our short video to find out more about the power of flow and download our 13 Tips for Triggering Flow