Last year I spoke at the Meelerahu Konverents (Peace of Mind Conference), organized by the largest Estonian conference organizer Äripäev. My presentation was about attitude and state management and their importance in our daily lives.
I often see “being busy” as equal to being productive. We are trying to learn new time-management hacks to cope with our never-ending to-do list. And at the same time, we ran most of our time on autopilot, reacting unconsciously to outside triggers instead of choosing how to respond consciously.
Numerous types of research show, though, that high performance is directly related to our energy levels (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual) and our state of mind. For example, global research by the Transformational Leadership Institute found that 94% of the leaders performing consistently high reported being in 1 of 3 mental states most of the time- Calm, Happy, or Energized. In the optimized state of mind we are able to see more choices and make better quality choices. As founder of NLP, John Grinder says: “Problem is never the problem itself. Problem is the state, in which you approach the context of the problem.” This idea has profoundly changed my own life as well as my approach to team and 1:1 coaching.
But how do you change your state of mind?
The good news is that you can change your state very quickly, and it doesn’t require years of practice or hours of meditation. It does require, though, an attitude that you focus on the things that you can control and pay attention to how you react. Noticing and switching off the autopilot gives you a choice.
And NLP provides a very simple yet effective formula. By changing your breathing to a conscious-paced one, you immediately change your psychology, which positively affects your state and results in higher performance (not to mention well-being). I
During my presentation, I shared 3 very effective techniques to quickly change your state:
Breathing
Smiling
Change of posture and movement
My favorite one is a fake smile with the help of a pen. I know it looks pretty stupid, but it works wonders, I promise:) Just try it out! You will almost immediately notice that holding a pen between your teeth slows down your breathing, which changes your psychology and gets you into an optimal state.
It is also important that we create daily rituals to restore our resources of all 4 energy types, which is a secret of all high-performing athletes and one of the most ignored things in the business world.
