Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success

by Brad Stulberg

PERFORMANCE PRACTICES •Grow your mindful muscle. The best way to do so is by practicing mindfulness meditation: Choose a time when other distractions are minimized, such as first thing in the morning, after brushing your teeth, or before going to bed. Sit in a comfortable position, ideally in a quiet space. Set a timer so you aren’t distracted by thoughts about the passage of time. Begin breathing deeply, in and out through your nose. Allow your breath to settle back into its natural rhythm and focus on nothing but the sensation of breathing, noticing the rise and fall of your abdomen with each breath; if thoughts arise, notice them, but then let them go. Direct your focus back to the sensation of the breath. Start with just 1 minute and gradually increase duration, adding 30 to 45 seconds every few days. •Frequency trumps duration. It’s best to meditate daily, even if that means keeping individual sessions short. •Apply your growing mindfulness abilities in everyday life. •Have “calm conversations” during stressful periods. •Realize when you want to “turn it off” and then choose to leave stress behind. Pausing to take a few deep breaths helps to activate the prefrontal cortex, your brain’s command and control center.

found that when people zone out and daydream, a particular part of the brain consistently became active. He called this the default-mode network. Interestingly, as soon as Raichle’s subjects started focusing again, the default-mode network went black and the task-positive network became active again.

Most creative discoveries adhere to a standard arc. First, we throw ourselves into the work, intensely deliberating on a topic. While our conscious mind gets us pretty far, every so often there is a missing piece we just can’t figure out no matter how hard we try. When we reach this point, though it seems counterintuitive, the best thing we can do is stop trying. Often, if we step away from intentional and active thinking and let our minds rest instead, the missing piece mysteriously appears. Just like the wily veteran runner Deena Kastor (whom you met in Chapter 1) said the magic of her success lies in stepping away from her physical training, the magic of generating creative ideas lies in stepping away from effortful thinking. In order to better understand this magic, we must turn to the difference between the conscious and subconscious minds.

We may sit and stare at the computer screen or the whiteboard trying to figure something out, but so long as we’re still trying, we’re likely to fail. It’s only when we stop trying that our conscious mind fades into the background and our subconscious mind (the default-mode network) takes over.

PERFORMANCE PRACTICES •When you are working on a strenuous mental task and hit an impasse, stop working. •Step away from whatever it is you are doing for at least 5 minutes. •The more stressful the task, the longer your break should be. •For really draining tasks, consider stepping away until the next morning. •During your breaks, if you aren’t sleeping (more on this soon), perform activities that demand little to no effortful thinking. Though we’ll explore in great detail how to fill your breaks in Chapter 5, some examples include: Listening to music Going on a short walk Sitting in nature Taking a shower Doing the dishes •You may have an “aha” moment of insight during your break. If you do, great. Even if you don’t have an “aha” moment during your break, your subconscious mind is still at work. When you return to whatever it is you were doing, you’ll be more likely to make progress.

when walking, it’s easier to tap into our creative engine, our subconscious. This explains why walking tends to be more effective at fostering creativity than other movements that require greater focus and coordination,

taking just a 2-minute walk every hour is protective against many of sitting’s ill effects. One study showed that these short walks reduce the risk of premature death (i.e., “all-cause mortality,” or any cause of death) by 33 percent.

Exposure to nature not only helps with creativity, but it may also lower levels of Interleukin-6 (IL-6), a molecule associated with inflammation in the body. Lower levels of IL-6 can prevent the harmful, chronic type of inflammation that often sidelines serious athletes.

Mindfulness meditation strengthens the prefrontal cortex, which is the part of your brain that lets you choose how to respond to stress.

a technique called “open-monitoring” meditation, sometimes referred to as a “body scan.” In open-monitoring meditation, though you continue to breathe rhythmically, you shift your focus from your breath to various parts of your body. Start at your feet and work your way up. Focus on the feeling of your toes in your shoes, your skin against a chair (or your clothes), your muscles loosening, and your heart beating.

“a friendly post-exercise setting—particularly being able to talk, joke, and debrief with other athletes—seems to help with recovery and future performance.

The positive effects of social connection include increasing heart rate variability (HRV), shifting the nervous system into recovery mode, and releasing hormones such as oxytocin and vasopressin that have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. “What’s even crazier,” says McGonigal, “is that oxytocin helps your heart repair. It’s pretty poetic that feeling connected to others literally fixes a broken heart.

the benefits of surrounding ourselves with friends and kicking back are enormous, especially following demanding situations.

PERFORMANCE PRACTICES •Have the courage to take breaks throughout the day, especially when you are stuck or feeling unbearable stress; the more intense the work, the more frequent the breaks. •Take a walk lasting at least 6 minutes to increase creativity and decrease the ill effects of sitting. If you can, walk outdoors, but even taking a few laps around the office provides big benefits. •Put yourself in the way of beauty. Being in nature, or even just looking at pictures of nature, helps with the transition from stress to rest and promotes creative thinking. •Meditate. Begin with a few mindful breaths, focusing only on the breath. Then, consider shifting to open-monitoring meditation, scanning your body and shifting your awareness to all of its sensations. •Hang out with friends! At the end of hard work—be it with your body or your mind—surrounding yourself with friends in a laid-back environment fundamentally alters your biology from stress to rest.

during sleep, on a very deep level we process the experiences and information that we gather while we are awake. When we sleep, and in particular when we dream, the brain goes through the countless things we were exposed to throughout the day

Almost all of sleep’s benefits occur in the later stages, mainly during something called REM, or rapid eye movement. We spend only about 20 to 25 percent of our total sleep time in REM. And, in an interesting twist, the longer we sleep, the greater the proportion of it is in REM. That’s because REM time increases with each sleep cycle.

we stress our bodies, they enter into something called a “catabolic” state. Our muscles, and even our bones, break down on a micro scale. The hormone cortisol is released, telling our body, “Help! We can’t handle this stress.

Once we’ve been sleeping for at least an hour, anabolic hormones start to flood our system. Testosterone and human growth hormone (HGH), both of which are integral to muscle and bone growth, are released after the first REM cycle and stay elevated until we wake. These hormones increase protein synthesis, or the generation of proteins specifically designed to facilitate physical repair.3 This means much of the protein athletes eat, diligently counted gram by gram throughout the day, goes to waste if they aren’t sleeping enough.

sleep scientists found that a 10-minute nap yields the greatest benefits, though most experts say anything under 30 minutes is effective.

“sleep inertia,” occurs when we are awoken in the middle of a deep sleep cycle. The grogginess is the body and brain’s natural way of telling us to go back to sleep so it can finish what it started. (Hence the term “inertia.”) Deep sleep generally doesn’t begin until after about 30 minutes, which is why experts suggest making that the upper limit for a nap’s duration.4

PERFORMANCE PRACTICES •Sleep is productive. •Aim for at least 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night. For those doing intense physical activity, 10 hours is not too much. •The best way to figure out the right amount of sleep for you is to spend 10 to 14 days going to sleep when you are tired and waking up without an alarm clock. Take the average sleep time. That’s what you need. •For a better night’s sleep, follow these tips, consolidated from the world’s leading researchers: Ensure you expose yourself to natural (i.e., non-electric) light throughout the day. This will help you maintain a healthy circadian rhythm. Exercise. Vigorous physical activity makes us tired. When we are tired, we sleep. But don’t exercise too close to bedtime. Limit caffeine intake, and phase it out completely 5 to 6 hours prior to your bedtime. Only use your bed for sleep and sex. Not for eating, watching television, working on your laptop, or anything else. The one exception is reading a paper book prior to bed. Don’t drink alcohol close to bedtime. Although alcohol can hasten the onset of sleep, it often disrupts the later and more important stages. Limit blue light exposure in the evening. Don’t start working on hard, stressful activities—be them mental or physical—after dinner. If you struggle with a racing mind, try inserting a brief mindfulness meditation session prior to bed. When you feel yourself getting drowsy, don’t fight it. Whatever you are doing can wait until the morning. Keep your room as...

If we never take “easy” periods, we are never able to go full throttle and the “hard” periods end up being not that hard at all. We get stuck in a gray zone, never really stressing ourselves but never really resting either.

Studies show that vigor and performance increase following a rest day,

PERFORMANCE PRACTICES •Regardless of the work you do, take at least 1 off-day every week. •Time your off-days strategically to follow periods of accumulated stress. •The more stress, the more rest that is needed. •To the extent that you can, time your vacations strategically to follow longer periods of stress. •On both single off-days and extended vacations, truly disconnect from work. Unplug both physically and mentally and engage in activities that you find relaxing and restorative.

Studies show that ingesting 20 to 30 grams of protein prior to sleep increases protein synthesis overnight. As such, many elite athletes have taken note and drink a whey- or casein-based protein drink prior to sleeping.

even slight and subtle mood influencers can alter athletic performance.

PERFORMANCE PRACTICES •Reflect upon the activities in your life that are most important to you. •Determine what state of mind and/or body they demand. •Prime yourself for performance by readying your mind and/or body prior to key activities. •Test and refine various priming techniques, eventually developing customized routines. •Be consistent: Use the same routine each and every time you engage in the activity to which it is linked (more on the importance of consistency in a bit). •Remember the impact of mood on performance; positivity goes a long way.

Ecological psychology suggests that the objects that surround us are not static; rather, they influence and invite specific behaviors. Experiments show that the mere sight of an object elicits brain activity associated with particular actions.

Strategic routines go far beyond superstitions, like wearing the same socks or underwear before a big event. Rather, the activities we do prior to performing prime our bodies and our minds into specific states, and the environments we work in invite and influence certain behaviors. When we repeatedly execute the same routine and work in the same environment, we create strong links deep inside our brains and bodies. We connect what we do before we work and where we work to the act of working itself.

PERFORMANCE PRACTICES •Create “a place of your own” in which you do your most important work. •Surround yourself with objects that invite your desired behaviors. •Consistently work in that same place, using the same materials. •Over time, your environment will enhance your productivity on a deep neurological level.

At its core, behaviorism suggests that certain actions can be triggered, or “conditioned,” by external cues.

PERFORMANCE PRACTICES •Link key behaviors to specific cues and/or routines. •Be consistent and frequent; execute the same cue/routine every time prior to the behavior to which it is paired. •If possible, link key activities to the same context (e.g., time of day, physical environment, etc.). •If your pursuit requires variable settings, develop portable cues/routines that can be executed anywhere (e.g., a deep-breathing routine, self-talk, etc.). •Consistency is king. The best routine means nothing if you don’t regularly practice it.

Perhaps more than any other hormone, testosterone is linked to performance. It increases muscle growth, strength, and energy. In addition to its profound effects on our physiology, testosterone is also linked to enhanced creativity, confidence, memory, and attention. In other words, testosterone is a potent performance enhancer

“In order to be a maximalist,” he says, “you have to be a minimalist.” Take note: This does not mean you should aspire to be narrow or overly specialized.

one study found that judges granted prisoners parole 65 percent of the time at the beginning of the day, but nearly zero percent of the time at the end of the day. These judges were succumbing to something called “decision fatigue.” As the decisions they were forced to make accumulated, the judges became mentally tired and thus had less energy to think critically about cases, opting instead for the easier default choice of no parole.

PERFORMANCE PRACTICES •Become a minimalist to be a maximalist. •Reflect on all the decisions that you make throughout a day. •Identify ones that are unimportant, that don’t really matter to you. •Automate as many of the decisions that don’t really matter as you can. Common examples include decisions about: Clothing What to eat at meals When to complete daily activities (e.g., always exercise at the same time of the day so you literally don’t need to think about it) Whether to attend social gatherings (It’s not always a good idea, but during important periods of work, many great performers adopt a strict policy of saying no to social events.) •In addition to eliminating as many decisions as possible, don’t devote brainpower to gossip, politics, or worrying about what others think of you. (Unless, of course, your core mission is to be an elected official—then these things are, in fact, critically important.) •In addition to reflecting upon daily decisions, think about the second- and third-order effects (e.g., commute time, financial pressures, etc.) of larger life decisions, like where to live.

chronotypes, which is the scientific term for the unique ebb and flow of energy that everyone experiences over the course of 24 hours.

Scientists refer to those who are most alert in the morning as “larks” and those who are most alert in the evening as “

PERFORMANCE PRACTICES •Determine your chronotype using the previous tools and suggestions. •Design your day accordingly—be very intentional about when you schedule certain activities, matching the demands of the activity with your energy level. Protect the time during which you are most alert and use it for your most important work. Schedule less demanding tasks during periods in which you are less alert. Don’t fight fatigue! Rather, use this time for recovery and to generate creative ideas that you can act on during your next cycle of high energy and focus. •Work in alignment with your chronotype—it not only maximizes performance, but it also helps to ensure an appropriate balance between stress and rest.

Research shows that when we see someone else express happiness or sadness (e.g., by smiling or frowning), the neural networks associated with those emotions become active in our own brains.

Not only are we wired for empathy, but there is strong evidence that we have socially contagious emotions that prompt very concrete actions and behaviors.

PERFORMANCE PRACTICES •Recognize the enormous power of the people with whom you surround yourself. •Positive energy, motivation, and drive are all contagious. Do what you can to cultivate your own village of support, to surround yourself with a culture of performance. •Remember that by being positive and showing motivation, you are not only helping yourself, but you are also helping everyone else in your life. •Unfortunately, negativity and pessimism are also contagious. Don’t put up with too much of either. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

“The single greatest skill in any endeavor is doing the work. Not doing the work that is easy for you. Not doing the work that makes you look good. Not doing the work when you feel inspired. Just doing the work.

attitudes often follow behaviors.

physical fatigue occurs not in the body, but in the brain. It’s not that our muscles wear out; rather, it is our brain that shuts them down when they still have a few more percentage points to give.

By focusing on something beyond ourselves and reflecting on our core values, we can all more courageously confront challenges and improve our performance.

purpose reduces burnout and even helps with adherence to challenging health behaviors like dieting or quitting smoking.

PERFORMANCE PRACTICES •Our “ego” or “self” or “central governor” serves as a protective mechanism that holds us back from reaching our true limits. •When faced with great challenges, our ego is biologically programmed to shut us down, telling us to turn in the other direction. •By focusing on a self-transcending purpose, or a reason for doing something beyond our “self,” we can override our ego and break through our self-imposed limits. •To the extent you can, link your activities to a greater purpose (more on how to do this in Chapter 9). This way, when you are faced with formidable challenges and your mind is telling you to quit, you can ask yourself why you are undertaking them. If the answer is “for someone or something greater than myself,” you’ll be more likely to push onward. •Thinking less about your “self” is one of the best ways to improve yourself.

PERFORMANCE PRACTICES •We are constantly balancing perception of effort, or how hard something feels, with motivation. •If we want to endure more effort, which often leads to better performance, we may need to increase our motivation. •The best way to increase motivation is to link our work to a greater purpose or cause. •Not only will focusing on activities that help others make the world a better place, it will also make you a better performer. •Especially when we are feeling tired or worn out, we should think about why we are doing what we are doing.

PERFORMANCE PRACTICES •Find opportunities to give back in the context of your work; these can be more intensive, such as coaching and mentoring, or less intensive, such as posting sincere advice in online forums. •The only criteria is that your “giving” is closely linked to your work and that you give without the expectation of getting anything back. •While “giving” is especially powerful for preventing and reversing burnout, you should still aim to avoid burnout by supporting stress with appropriate rest.