Performance File #06 - The 7 Key Rules of the Mental Road (Part 2 of 2)

[ This article is part 2 of 2. For part 1, see Performance File 05. ]

Rule #4 States: Your Dominant Thought Determines Your Emotions, the Behaviors that Result from Those Emotions and Ultimately, Your Performance...

Because human beings think in pictures and the pictures you view in your mind have a real influence on your emotions and your physical body, whatever you process in your mind as a dominant thought has a direct influence on your subconscious mind, directly influencing feelings, the behaviors that result from those feelings, and ultimately your personal performance. I recognize that this is a bold statement and because I cannot demonstrate this basic truth for you in a tangible way through this article, I’d like you to simply take my word for it. In a seminar environment, the strength of this most important Rule can be demonstrated in a way that most of my high-performance clients have found absolutely fascinating and even shocking.

Rule #4 affirms that our dominant mindset directly affects our ability to perform. Each of us, regardless of our age, has more than likely experienced the consequences of this powerful Rule in the real world. Consider the following, for example:

• Circumstances or belief systems that lead us to become afraid, to develop feelings of anxiety with its associated physical tension often deny us the ability to focus effectively on the task…and our performance is not as good as it might have been.


• Situations in which we feel a high degree of motivation and desire seem to allow us unlimited reserves of energy and strength.


• A loss of confidence creates periods of self-doubt where images of failure become self-fulfilling prophecies that infect and poison our feelings, behaviors, and ultimately, our performance.


• Environments that allow us to remain calm and focused usually allow us to generate and deliver our best personal performances.
  

Positive and productive dominant thoughts generally beget our best performances while negative and counter-productive dominant thoughts beget anxiety, loss of focus, and poor performance. We violate the Rules of the Mental Road and our personal performance suffers.

Rule #5 States: You Can Control Your Dominant Thought

There are some things in our life over which it seems we have little control. There is however one thing over which we can learn to have greater and greater control…our mind. If you learn how to control your Dominant Thought such that your mind consistently ‘sees’ what it is you want and what you want to be like when you perform, your personal performance will be the best that it can be given the skills, knowledge, and abilities you possess. The A.C.T. Model© that is the hallmark of our Individual Performance Program is a self-directed process that is expressly designed to help our clients control their dominant thought, to be able to bring their best performance to the event on command, in spite of what might be significant challenges.

Rule #6 States: Your Perception or Perspective Regarding the Challenges you Face Will Determine Your Emotional Response...

It may be hard to believe, but it is not the events in your life that cause you stress, it is your perception or interpretation of those events that leads to a stress response that on the one hand, can be negative and counter-productive for your health or performance and on the other, that can be positive and contribute to your ability to perform. This Rule follows a simple A-B-C format.

A references The Activating Event – the situation that you are reacting to

B describes Your Belief with Respect to That Event, and

C outlines The Consequences of That Belief

Let me give you a concrete example from the world of business to illustrate this point:

Two salesmen from competing companies arrive at a local hotel because each is scheduled to make a major sales presentation to prospective buyers from one of the leading companies in their industry. One is scheduled to present from 9:00 to 9:30 and the other is scheduled from 9:30 to 10:00. Initially, they were supposed to meet with the Vice President for Sales only but 10 minutes prior to their presentation, each is told that not only will the VP for Sales be present, but so too will two other senior VPs for Marketing and Finance as well as the President of the company. It appears that this deal has just recently escalated in importance and volume and because it could be so financially significant, all of these key executives want to be able to ask the questions that they feel are important to satisfy their individual concerns.

Salesman #1 thinks to himself: “Good grief, what am I going to do? I’ve only got a half-hour to answer all of their questions! I will never be able to satisfy their need for information in that short a time. Not only that, I know that often these top executives do not really understand the sales process and I am certain that I will not be able to convince them that our company’s product is their best choice. I never do well in these kinds of pressure situations… I get so nervous that I trip over my tongue every time! I just can’t get comfortable. Why did these other people have to show up? This meeting is going to be a disaster! What will my boss think if I can’t pull this deal together?”

When faced with the same information, Salesman #2 thinks to himself: “Good grief, what a great opportunity!! It is so tough to get all of the key decision makers to focus on one thing at the same time and I have them all in the same room for 30 minutes. I know they won’t expect to get all the details in that short a time, my job is to excite them about this opportunity for collaboration and show them that our company’s product and reputation is their best option. I always do well when the challenge in front of me is well defined! These people put their pants on one leg at a time just like I do and I know I can deliver the goods. What a lucky break! I can’t wait to get in there to show them what we can do to help make them more successful! The boss is going to love this!!”

The quality of their product or service being equal, it should be obvious which salesman is going to be more effective and is likely to bring home the big contract. We can go back to our A-B-C explanation to better understand this scenario.

The Activating Event – the ‘A’ in this scenario is the same for both individuals: 10 minutes prior to their scheduled meeting, each is informed that other key players will be participating.

Their Belief about the event (the ‘B’ in this equation) is quite different however! Salesman #1 sees the change of plans as a threat, with the arrival of company heavyweights as a sign of doom and disaster. Salesman #2 on the other hand, sees the change as a positive, a situation that could turn to his advantage and make closing the big deal that much easier because he is being provided with the opportunity to make his presentation to all of the key players at the same time.

What are the Consequences (the ‘C’ in our equation) that each will realize as a result of their beliefs? Salesman #1 will become anxious and physically tense as the meeting approaches and the increased tension will cause him to narrow his focus and lose the mental flexibility needed to think on his feet. He will likely trip over his tongue, just the way he pictured it in his mind! Salesman #2 on the other hand will become energized by the thought of hitting a home run and will enter the room more relaxed, confident, and mentally sharp.

What is the impact of Rule #6 on performance? Here it is: realize that in our A-B-C analogy, A always leads directly to B, which in turn always leads directly to C. A, the activating event does NOT lead directly to C, the consequences! It is always our beliefs - our perception - regarding the activating events in our life that lead to the Consequences that we ultimately experience. The beauty of this realization is that if you change your belief about the activating event (something that is 100% within your control to do), you will change the consequences that you experience. It is simple enough, it just is not very easy to do in the real world!

And finally, Rule #7 simply states:

If you do what you have always done,
You will get what you have always gotten…
If you want something different,
You must approach challenges and opportunities
with a different mindset!

If you successfully integrate the 7 key Rules of the Mental Road into your day-to-day thinking (and maintain that mindset – this is the key), you will understand the secret of how to program your mind for success. You will understand how to powerfully shape your dominant thought so that you can more easily slip into your mental zone of peak performance, on command.

Remember that the mind can only process one thought at a time and that you cannot NOT think about what is on your mind. Your performance will be best served by implanting a dominant program in your mind that describes exactly what you want and how you want to be when you perform in the moment. If you focus on this mental program with intensity and single-mindedness, you will find it easier to maintain the relaxed and confident frame of mind that is consistent with excellence in your personal performance!

Visit www.dallaireconsulting.com if you would like more information regarding Dr. Dallaire and our Performance Programs.

Performance File #03 - Developing Powerful Confidence - in Business, Sport & Life

“Show me how to maintain my confidence when things are not going well.” Does it surprise you that many of the most successful business executives and athletes today sometimes wrestle with the problem of lost confidence?

Here’s a basic truth that I’ve confirmed many times over the past 30 years working with individuals in the high-performance domain: It’s easy to be confident and have a positive mindset when things are going well! The true champion however, is one who’s able to retain a strong sense of self-confidence even when the wheels are “falling off his wagon” and in so doing, still bring his or her best performance to the game regardless of the challenges that they face! High level competitors understand this and this explains why for many, this is the second Holy Grail of the performance equation.

But why do we sometimes suffer crises of confidence? The answer lies in the yardstick by which most of us measure success, and around which we build our confidence. That yardstick is – you guessed it: RESULTS! So often, we let our confidence be dictated by the results we achieve. When results are good, it’s easy to maintain a high level of confidence but when results are poor, our confidence often takes a beating and our personal performance nosedives. We doubt ourselves and wonder whether we’ll ever be able to climb out of this performance ‘hole’. And when you lose your confidence, is it tough to climb out of that hole…to turn that kind of negative and destructive thinking around? You bet it is!

But the truth of the matter is, more often than not... WE CAN’T DETERMINE THE RESULTS!

No matter how well you perform as an individual, in most instances other factors outside of your direct control have an effect on the outcome. But how do you get around this problem of loss of self-confidence? How do you maintain your confidence in yourself when the results are far from what you’d hoped they would be? The solution is simple enough…but it’s not very easy: You have to change the yardstick.

What’s the only thing that’s 100% within your control, that’s not dependent on any other factor? The answer of course is “you” or more precisely it’s the commitment you make and the effort you invest to give your personal BEST every time you’re called upon to perform. YOU are the only one who can cause YOU to give less than your very best effort in the face of every challenge you take on. If you choose to give your best effort, there’s nothing I or anyone else can do to cause you to give less than that. Consider what would happen to your confidence if your yardstick was changed to measure how well you gave your honest-to-goodness best effort when you were called upon to perform.

If you regularly accomplish this task, you’ll prove to yourself that YOU can count on YOU to give your best no matter how great the challenges you face. If you consistently behave this way, your confidence will only grow to become stronger and stronger. And so will you’re self-esteem since self-esteem is the reputation we develop with ourselves. It shouldn’t be only about the results you achieve, it should mostly be about the personal commitment and the effort you invest to give your best at all times.

You will still be disappointed about some of the outcomes you achieve because results are outside of your direct control, but the realization that you can count on yourself to truly give your best effort will help you to grow your confidence in yourself. This confidence will then allow you to approach the challenges you face with greater calm and with a more directed focus on the process of that performance, rather than on its outcome.

The irony of it is, when you focus on the process of personal excellence and commit to giving your best effort every time you’re called on to perform – win, lose, or draw – the results most often take care of themselves and your performance ends up being the best you’ve got. The less you focus on the results while you’re trying to achieve them and the more you focus on the process of simply performing ‘in the moment’, the better the results typically are.

For Dr. Jacques Dallaire's entire vault of Performance Files, or to learn about Dallaire Performance Consulting's leading business performance programs, individual/sport seminars and mental skills products, visit Dallaire Performance Consulting.