Continued to talk about the new book 《Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success》 (Brad Stulberg, Steve Magness).

Followed with the first part as The Growth Equation (Stress + Rest = Growth), we’re going to talk about the second part: Priming- the power of developing optimal routines and designing your day.

There’re many valuable ideas and insights in each chapter, also this book is truly action and result oriented. I’ve already started using the ideas of “performance practice” to analyze my daily life as I read the book over the last few days. Even from a nightmare, for those with a growth mindset, that is just another piece of the puzzle in long-term learning and growth.

One Thursday afternoon, I went to a scheduled meeting in a new area and I arrived there one hour earlier to see the surroundings as it was the first time to visit. The building locates the?geographical?position?superiorly, transportation?convenient, the?environment?is exquisite. There’s a river in the?way, surrounded with greenness, and?of?grace, and,?it would seem,?of?peace. Alongside the river is the plastic runway. I couldn’t help walking alongside the path at the thought of running on the perfect place for morning exercise one day and immersing myself in the topics we may discuss later during the meeting.

Go all the way, did not know how long, suddenly there was a strong arm hugging me from behind and covering my mouth. I’ve kept on struggling and finally be thrown to the ground while my bag was grabbed away. Fortunately there’s passer-by coming before any further devil deeds. As soon as my arm was loosen, I was struggling to get up from the ground, stupid with terror, staring at the direction left with the evil’s shadow. Everything happened in a moment and I was just standing there at a loss until the passer-by sent my bag back which was abandoned not far away and asked if need to call police or friends to help. I just realized that I didn’t know anybody or have any contact here. After the quickly makeup with drying the tears, I’ve come to the meeting place on time.

Luckily the meeting was 10 minutes later, at least I had some time to forget, not forget, but sort out the emotions focusing on the meeting. I couldn’t help but standing by the window to check the distribution of these buildings and figure out which one would be the most potentially one for the criminal hidding…Until a gentleman came in and drew me back to the reality of meeting. He knew well how to start a casual talk to make me relax and control the meeting to gather information from general to details. Also he knew how to change a topic and when to ask back. Meanwhile he’s a good listener with enough patience thought might be quiet familiar with many answers. As for the second gentleman, he’s more casual and even knew how to make me laugh. If noticed his notes on the paper, you won’t wonder why he’s good at catching details.

After one hour the meeting finished. I hadn’t realized that could barely provide any valuable information until tried to contact police for help except: man, strong, pink shirt, not sure one or two devils ….

On the way back, I’ve read the news that Warren Buffett has bought a substantial stake of stocks from United Airlines. Given its recently wrongdoing to the clients, the stock has fallen dramatically and I’m sure Buffett has criticized this kind of immoral behavior as well, he could still focus on what he should do in a professional way. Like a professional doctor, he won’t make an unfair distinction between a drugster and a well-known person during a surgery, nor impacted by any unhappy marriage. Regardless of the regret, I’ve sent back an email to thank for the time of the two gentlemen though i was aware of that, as a matter of fact, I’ve already screwed it.

Seized with remorse, the new book <<Peak Performance>> has arrived the next day. It’s a perfect time for me to figure out those factors impacting the peak performance in a short as well as long way with overcoming innumerable obstacles accompanying the journey.

1 Routines

Like all the athletes need a proper warm up, most of the greatest player have a special routine for themselves before the important game neither from ritual preparation or taking the lucky charm.

Regardless of the reasonability, the << Peak Performance >> says that the powerful man need their own routine to help them enter that flow state. It doesn’t matter what kind of process you’ve chosen while the key is to make sure the routine is fixed like a “trigger” which would automatically lead to the best state. It’s due to that the player is going to engage in a highly creative activities accompanying with huge uncertainty, they need to add confidence from other area by the fixed routines including process, surrounding, tools, other stuffs, even…people.

For any of meetings, I have get used to gather all the information of background of attendees, locations, etc. to ensure the certainty, thus could focus more on the uncertainty of the meeting content. It’s kind of my routine to any meetings. As for the Thursday meeting of last week, though familiar with the history of company and background of the attendees, I don’t have any chance to talk to anyone from the company except mails, thus tried to get more visualization information by visiting the location much earlier. Nonetheless, the sudden appearance of a robber had become one of the most uncertainty of that day, or worse, turned to a nightmare of missing IDs during following weeks. Though the thinking brain had restored some semblance of normal procedure of meeting, something more important, which would be explained in the second point, has gone.

2 Being here

<<Peak Performance>> tells us that there’s a doctor named Bob Kocher who’s the doctor in Harvard Medical School, meanwhile he’s an entrepreneur, investor, advisor for president’s health policy, and, professor of Stanford. As soon as the two authors visited him, they’ve figured out the secret of his success. When the “Doctor Bob” stayed with them, he’s totally being with them, leaving the work he’s working on, putting away his phone, zero interruption from outside. The attention Bob has given to them is exactly the same as he does to the President. Maybe you’ll take it as easy as pie, you can’t image it’s a tremendous skill in a world surrounded by unlimited information. People always check the phone within few minutes with the misconception of missing any important messages. Being here physically but not in spirit. Dr. Bob assigned his work to each hour and focused on the stuff of the assigned task with a clear object, thus he could learn and improve from each role no matter from research, making decision or stay with families.

We’re all familiar with the magic power of compound interest of a saving account, if it comes to work, however, it doesn’t mean you could gain it by participating or finishing the job, but improvement from work. Once your real concern is the compound interest of work, you have to be here, physically, mentally as well with 100% like Dr. Bob.

I have faith in myself to behave professionally as always in last Thursday’s meeting, but I’m not sure if most of my courage with enthusiasm had already been stolen by the robber. Consequently, I’ve failed to express my opinion clearly to convince the opposite side when I noticed his hesitation and even given up the chance to dig up more information. Instead I’ve used a pen to make notes avoiding any eye contact to hide my fear. For a moment, a no agreeable mind moving but guide me to stop the meeting and ask the first gentleman: Could we stop and call the police now? There’s still high chance to catch the damn devil right now. Of course I would never let this words come out to ruin the whole meeting until he left and the second gentleman continued. Looking at his brilliant smile, a crazy idea constantly flashed through my mind: what does the devil face look like? It’s one or two criminals on earth? Again, I’ve covered it by a pen on the notebook. I could control the behavior in a professional way, but can’t stop the eyes telling the truth of the fear of my nightmare, nor ask for help, even facing a real gentleman.

The earlier day during another meeting on Wednesday, on the contrary, the person I was meeting with kept on interrupting me or leading to enormous amount of unimportant details even including answering calls, nonetheless I’ve insisted on my points with the help of my notes. In the end the lady showed her appreciation and told me frankly it was indeed a busy time for them as well as a test for me. She doesn’t know that my career’s grown up with numerous confrontational situation and I’ve known how to earn the respect, while the pre-condition is, I was there, 100%.

Even the Thursday one was a tough experience which was far away from peak performance, I’ve still taken my most powerful uniform with me.

3 Personal Uniform

You’ve probably noticed that so many tech luminaries of Silicon Valley don’t like to change their clothes…the style of clothes.

Steve Jobs’ famous black turtleneck and blue jeans with New Balance trainers has developed its ability to covey a signature style.

Zuckerberg’s work uniform consists of jeans, sneakers and a gray t-shirt and he’s explained it clearly: “I really want to clear my life to make it so that I have to make as few decisions as possible about anything except how to best serve this community”. He wore the exact same thing to work out that he does when he’s making billions in the boardroom: a gray t-shirt.

He always responds with “I’m in a very luck position with service to billions of people every morning. I felt like if wasted time on small decisions of my personal life, it’s far away from a well-done job.”

There’re some special people in the world who seem to be careless from appearance, but you would be totally wrong if you take it seriously. They’ve made a “uniform” to their personal life. All those unimportant stuffs follows the uniform while the saved energy for the most important thing.

The uniform also includes saying NO, and always saying no to those unimportant stuffs would need strong emotional support. "You need to say no to a lot of things so that when it is time to say yes, you can do so with all your energy." The key is to be intentional and to make habits for the areas that are needed but not part of your focus.

But the greatest uniform is not saying no, it is, as <<Peak Performance>> said, showing up. When needed, could you show up on time, seriously, all the time? It’s easier said than done. Again, take mine as the example.

Experienced with the terrible robber, I was freaking out and escaped into the building, hiding myself in the bathroom of the hall. Looking at the ugly face in the mirror I’ve totally no idea how was I be thrown into this panic like a drowned mouse. If hadn’t known very well about the background of this company and be familiar with the background of the meeting persons, would I doubt if fell into a trap? Who’s those evils behind me? It’s one or two person and since when they’ve followed me ?Even known it’s just an accident, I couldn’t help but wondering why does this famous company locate in such a dangerous area without enough security, and why doesn’t anyone have called me before the meeting except emails ,while the only one I could contact is helpdesk ..…Suffered with humiliations and fear, the more important is that I was aware of being humiliated and it had nothing to do with the following meetings, just a scary accident. Hiding myself, delaying or cancelling the meeting….none of them was an option in 5 minutes before the scheduled time, not to say I’ve no idea how to contact anyone in the building. For the respect of others, self-esteem, or something bigger than myself … whatever, in a word, I’ve shown up in the meeting room on time where I was supposed to be.

In a summary, the path of reaching peak performance in a short term as well as long term journey includes:

Firstly, following the routines, no matter your personal one contributing to your best state or the industrial standardized process or rules;

Then, 100% focusing on the current work, physically as well as mentally, to find a better answer not limiting to finish the job;

Thirdly, building your own uniform, saying no to unnecessary and showing up when necessary, not one or two times, but for ever.

The last one, that would distinguish you from most of people in the world: “ Find something bigger than yourself” in the dynamic world ,which would be explained from the Part 3.

References :

《Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success》 (Brad Stulberg, Steve Magness – Jun 2017 )

《Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work》? (Steven Kotler, Jamie Wheal- 2017)

《The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer》(Elizabeth Blackburn , Elissa Epel – Jan 2017)