Do these 2 simple things for monumental productivity for self and at work.
As we enter a new phase of business, commerce and individual performance it’s important to understand that productivity counts, like never before. Future jobs will be lost and replaced with AI, modernisation and robotics and your goal today is to understand how you will fit into the new commercial world.
However, fitting in is not enough, you will have to become indispensable and prove your productive worth as an increment over your personal cost to your company or personally to your life. This increment, I describe as a performance gap and is the simple difference from where you are today and where you want to be in a future time.
But what is stopping you?
- I don’t understand where I am or where I want to be.
- I don’t understand what needs changing.
- I don’t understand how to make the changes.
This leads me back to a basic human problem that I encounter at every turn, not just in business, but also in leadership, performing arts, the military and in elite sport, all of which I have worked and researched extensively.
The Problem: Our fear and anxiety circuits at a brain level.
But why is this a problem? If we define fear we all know that it is an unpleasant emotion or feeling that sweeps over our mind and bodies caused by the threat of danger, pain, or harm. Anxiety on the other hand is more of a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome. In the earlier stages anxiety is usually more annoying and less intense than fear but can soon develop a fear response if left unchecked.
So let me ask you again, why is this a problem? In simple terms it’s a problem that affects performance, health, wellbeing and particularly productivity to yourself and to your organisation.
- It affects performance because your performance outcome is the result of your actions and behaviours.
- Your actions and behaviours are a result of your psychological core processing.
- Your psychological core processing is a results of your cognitions through your life’s experiences.
- Your cognitions, mindsets and values arise from how you see the world and how you wire and hopefully rewire your brain’s circuitry.
These reasons are easy to see how your performance and productivity can be affected but you are also affected with poorer wellbeing and mental health. Being in a constant state of threat as opposed to challenge fills you with disease enhancing cortisol, known for its relationship with stress and other neuro-transmitters and hormones that flood your body during the stress response. These are not good in the mid to long term and need to be addressed through relaxation and cognitive strategies.
On a brain or neuro level we have evidence that some of your pre frontal cortex activities are diminished through fear and anxiety. These include:
- Planning
- Strategising
- Creativity
- Decision Making
- Problem Solving
- Focus
- Persistence
- Confidence
and there are more that will stop exceptional performance and the ability to be productive. Easy to see that this is a real problem if left unattended.
Ok so we accept that fear and anxiety is strongly correlated and a reservoir of causation for poor performance and wellbeing, so what can we do?
The Solution here is to learn about the two different routes to fear and anxiety. One is termed a low road and the other the high road. The roads are different because of the path that they take from situation to response. One is quicker than the other one and has stronger intensity and reactions. It is more unpleasant and is deeply entrenched in our limbic system.
The other route is less intense at the start and works it way from rumination of the past towards worry about the future with interpretations in the middle relating to the present tense but trust me when I say that this ultimately ends up at the amygdala deep inside the limbic structure in the brain. This is the skill in eliminating the problem by identifying which route yours is taking.
So two things that you can do from today:
- Identify the source of your anxiety or fear. Is it from my thoughts or brain generally or is it a reaction to a stimulus?
- Once identified eliminate it today by using a correct matching strategy, by working on your thoughts if worry based, through self talk, reappraisal and thought stopping and if fear based from the situation or environment, then learn how to breathe properly, how to relax tight muscles and also to de-associate or de-pair the triggers from the stimulus.
The take away here is that it is crucial to identify the correct path and to match the strategy intervention with that path. Once eliminated you can often remove medication, enjoy a relaxed lifestyle, achieve your life goals and be challenged, energised and calm as you produce your best work.
Check out my Performance Courses
Geoff Greenwood FCCA MBA MSc
Performance Specialist at Neuro-Performance