5 Techniques To Help You Achieve Peak Performance

Everyone has the power to achieve peak performance and consider themselves high performers, and it’s much easier to achieve than you might think.

I spoke with Tom McCarthy, a world renowned High Performance Coach and author of The Breakthrough Code, to learn more about peak performance. McCarthy is a firm believer that everyone has the potential to unlock peak performance and achieve great success in business and in life. Here’s his advice on how to do that:

Upgrade your story to upgrade your life.

“The most powerful story you’ll ever hear is the one you tell yourself,” says McCarthy. He explains that everything is created twice, first internally with the way we think and the narrative we write for ourselves, then externally when those thoughts materialize in the outside world. “If you tell yourself a story about who you are, what you’re capable of and what your life’s about, it will be very powerful and it will create that world for you. But it’s got to be built inside, before you can build it on the outside,” he says. To truly become a peak performer you have to work on your story, which means letting go of old baggage and creating new beliefs for yourself.

Stop negative thinking in its tracks.

“You want to notice your negative thoughts and emotions, then start to release them so that they don’t hinder your ability to move forward with positive thinking,” says McCarthy, who has a great mental tool for getting rid of negative thoughts. “Imagine you have a paper shredder in your head. When negative thoughts come up, visualize shredding those thoughts into a million pieces,” he advises. “If you’ve got the negative stuff still in there and you’re just trying to layer the positive on top, that’s not as efficient or as effective. You need to get rid of the negativity.” Think of it like creating a garden and getting the weeds out. Once you’ve cleared them away you’ve got fresh soil in which things can really take root. Your mind and your thoughts operate in much the same way, by clearing out space for positive thoughts to bloom.

Focus on less, then obsess.

McCarthy says that one secret to achieving peak performance is to focus on less, then obsess. Peak performance requires extreme focus, but that focus also has to be extremely targeted. Achieving peak performance “takes a level of focus beyond what we can consciously focus on. You need to create a subconscious obsession, which I call your superconscious,” explains McCarthy. “It’s that level below your conscious mind, and it’s always working, even when you’re sleeping. If you want to have big results, you have to work with your conscious mind to target the superconscious to see it, feel it, believe it and then let it go.” Working on that subconscious programming will help you cultivate a mindset that supports peak performance.

Manage your willpower.

McCarthy believes that everybody wakes up with a certain amount of willpower, and that the key to sustaining it throughout the day is to find ways to manage it. “Everything we do drains our willpower, which means it needs to be replenished throughout the day,” he explains. You can replenish your willpower with recovery breaks during the day, like taking the time to meditate or step away from work and have a nice lunch to refresh and recharge your mind. Another thing McCarthy recommends is to do the tougher things earlier in the day when you have the most willpower rather than putting them off for later. This way those tasks are not weighing on your mind and draining your energy by taking up mental space.

Embrace challenges.

Challenges are something that we should embrace, not run away from. While often viewed as something negative, in reality, challenges can be very positive experiences. “Challenges are the things that actually allow you to make breakthroughs in many situations,” says McCarthy. Think of challenges as a pathway to growth, learning, and development, and make a conscious effort to learn from them.

One important thing to take note of is that you don’t have to be a peak performer in every aspect of your life. Instead, choose the areas you want to become a peak performer in and focus your efforts on them. For example, focus on achieving peak performance when it comes to leadership and running your business, but don’t focus on it when you play tennis on the weekends as a hobby. When you apply this laser focus on the areas you want to level up in the most, you’ll see results much faster.