resilience

Dec 06 2017

Motivation Gets You Started- Habit Keeps Your Going. But Only This Quality Enables You to Finish and Succeed

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”
Jim Rohn

There is much wisdom in the much-shared quote from Jim Rohn; but it is only two thirds of the picture. The third element is essential when it comes to achieving great things. It goes by the name of resilience.

Not as sexy as motivation. Not as easy to give practical advice for, as the concept of habits is. But if you don’t have resilience – then you’re unlikely to succeed. Just look around at the many individuals and organizations that started out with great energy, enthusiasm and promise but failed to reach the finishing line.

But I Did Everything Right

You may be highly motivated, have done the detailed planning with your Gantt chart, collated the necessary resources and done all of the right things at the right time and in the right way. But you can bet your bottom dollar you are going to face unexpected setbacks that push you to your limits.

There seems to be an equation which is something like the greater your goals and ambition, the more obstacles you will face along the way.

A Well Trodden Path

Most people are familiar with the account of Colonel Sanders and his bid to bring his Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe to the world. He was reportedly turned down 1009 times. Yes, you read right- 1009 rejections.

Agatha Christie faced 5 years of continual rejections and J K Rowling’s Harry Potter manuscript was rejected by 12 publishing houses. By contrast in terms of activity and time frame you might remember the resilience displayed by Kerri Strugg in the 1996 Olympics. If you don’t here’s the clip

I could go on with examples from the battlefield or the world of startups but you get the picture. It is rare for there to be gain without pain.

Prioritize Resilience

There is a debate amongst experts as to what is extent people are born resilient, how much is developed during childhood and what can be learned and developed. While the debate continues, what remains clear is that with effort and a willingness to experiment you can increase your resilience.

Whether it’s incorporating a daily practice of stepping out of your comfort zone, upgrading your mindset or using brain entrainment technologies there are plenty of options. One size doesn’t fit all hence my reference to a willingness to experiment.

At the end of the day, whether your planning to put a ding in the universe or want to provide a good lifestyle for your family, give as much thought to becoming resilient as you do to motivation and habits and your chances of crossing the finish line will increase dramatically.

Martin Soorjoo works with individuals and teams to improve their Performance, Focus and Pressure Management

Aug 30 2017

How to Improve Your Performance Under Pressure

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

Your Response to Pressure is a Choice

How we respond to pressure is a choice. For most people, however, their response is in line with a ‘threat response’, which unless you are about to experience actual physical harm, is not only counterproductive to our long-term well being but also to performing well under pressure.

This is because when we activate our threat response, hormones including adrenalin and cortisol are released, speeding the heart rate and slowing digestion while our blood vessels constrict to minimize blood loss and increase inflammation. People may also experience fear and anger, while our Amygdala causes us to focus on the negative.

Choose the Challenge Response

The field of pressure management is changing rapidly with exciting new findings challenging old assumptions about and solutions to pressure. An effective response to non-physical pressure is the ‘challenge response’[1]. When we decide to frame an engagement as a challenge, we are typically more able to effectively access the cognitive resources necessary to perform well under pressure. When we ‘rise to the challenge’ we typically feel energized and excited in addition to experiencing a degree of anxiety.

Research has consistently demonstrated that when choosing the challenge response, students attain higher exam grades, surgeons operate with greater concentration and athletes perform better during competition.

Putting This into Practice

Long term the objective must be to bring about a mindset shift that leads to your default response to high-pressure (non-physical) situations being the challenge response. This can be achieved through mindset interventions.

If, however, you are facing an imminent high pressure challenge e.g. a public speaking engagement, job / promotion interview or a difficult negotiation, implement the following steps:

If you have advance notice of the high-pressure challenge, spend a few minutes seeing it for what it really is, focusing on the positive aspects which may include:

It is not a life-threatening situation.
It is an opportunity to advance in some way.
You are capable to rising to this challenge.
You have done something similar before and received positive feedback.
You have faced and overcome more difficult challenges.
People want you to do well.

Generate feelings of excitement and enthusiasm and commit to approaching your challenge in this emotional state.

Spend a few minutes visualizing yourself performing well under pressure and feeling energized and focused. Contrary to popular but disproven belief, it’s important not to focus on the outcome but on your actual performance e.g. how you deliver your presentation or deal with questions. Focusing on the outcome simply increased the pressure you feel.

It’s important when visualizing to engage all your senses, so see what you will be likely to see, hear yourself speaking and feel how you want to feel.

If you want to take your visualization to the next level then take a leaf out of the books of special forces operators and world class athletes and anticipate things not going to plan e.g. being asked a question you didn’t anticipate but handling the situation calmly. In other words, expect the best but prepare for the worst.

Remember Pressure and Stress Save Lives

It’s important to acknowledge both our threat and challenge responses as assets that can serve us well and even save our lives. Pressure and stress have got a bad rap over the past few decades and there is some basis for this.

Recent exciting research, however, has proven that the mere act of choosing to perceive and indeed recognize pressure and stress as having the potential to be a good thing rather than something to be avoided at all costs, not only mitigates long term adverse consequences but supports better performance.

[1] The model of challenge and threat was developed by Blascovich and Tomaka (1996 & see also Blascovich & Mendes, 2000& Mendes, Blascovich, Lickel, & Hunter,2002& Mendes, Blascovich, Major, & Seery, 2001 & Tomaka, Blascovich).

Martin Soorjoo works with individuals and teams to improve Performance, Focus and Pressure Management

Aug 28 2017

How to Harness Fear, Failure and Frustration to Dramatically Increase Motivation

Motivation is frequently linked to optimism and positivity. The 1952 classic and bestseller ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’ by the Reverend Norman Vincent Peale, was translated into 15 languages and to date has sold more than 7million copies. It is still very popular today.

Positive thinking dominates the fields of self-help and human performance, from images with inspirational quotations (the sort that I frequently share on social media) to the use of tried and tested mental performance tools such as positive self-talk and visualizing success.

To be clear, these tools are not used by hippies in fields of flowers living a vegan, organic lifestyle, but by Olympians, special forces operators and other elite performers, as well as being a management tool used by many Fortune 500 companies.

In ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’, Nobel Prize-winner Daniel Kahneman described optimism as the “engine of capitalism” stating that:

“Optimistic individuals play a disproportionate role in shaping our lives. Their decisions make a difference; they are the inventors, the entrepreneurs, the political and military leaders — not average people.”

Professor Martin Seligman, former President of the American Psychological Association and credited as being the ‘father of Positive Psychology has repeatedly demonstrated that optimism promotes both resilience and persistence.

Seligman consulted with the Pentagon on the development of the military’s Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program, which sought to assess and enhance soldiers’ ability to cope with all of life’s challenges, including the mental rigors of combat.

The authors (one a retired Navy SEAL) of ‘Stronger: Develop the Resilience You Need to Succeed’ identify active optimism as the leading factor in personal resilience—the ability to tolerate stress, see opportunities in adversity, and keep pushing forward.

So it’s clear; being opimistic and focusing on the positive increases motivation, resilience and achievement. However…

The Downside of Being Upbeat

Over the past few years researchers, neuroscientists and psychologists have begun to demonstrate that focusing on the positive can be detrimental to motivation and achievement.

New York University psychology professor and author of ‘Rethinking Positive Thinking’ Gabriele Oettingen, persuasively contends that visualizing a successful outcome can make people less likely to achieve it.

Researchers have also found that people in a negative mood develop more persuasive arguments than people in a positive mood, and that negative moods can improve memory.

Perhaps this is why so many lawyers are negative and suffer from disproportionately high levels of depression than other professions. Although never suffering from depression, as a Barrister practising at the Bar of England and Wales for 14 years (arguing cases rather than making coffee), I certainly spent much of my career focusing on the negative.

Denial can also be a consequence of positive thinking. Barbara Ehrenreich, journalist and author of ‘Bright-Sided: How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America’, argues that the 2008 economic crisis was partly a result of people’s refusal to consider negative outcomes, like mortgage defaults.

The Upside of Focusing on the Negative

Focusing on the negative can have two distinct benefits. The first is the avoidance of denial and enabling of more effective planning. The second benefit is that negative emotions, possibly triggered by painful memories, can fuel determination and action.

One effective technique for utilising the power of negative focus is that of the premortem. Here you imagine things have gone wrong before they have and then analyse all of the reasons you might have failed.

Brad Stulberg, author of ‘Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout’ and Thrive With the New Science of Success’ explains

“It may seem like the negative thinking inherent to a premortem would work against self-belief and confidence. But if anything, it actually works toward it. When you force yourself to become aware of all that could go wrong, you become more likely to take the necessary steps to ensure that things go right.”

Using the Dark Side as Motivation

Elite performers will frequently access their painful memories, dark thoughts and negative emotions to fuel their motivation during extreme challlenges.

Robert Wicks, psychologist and author of the book ‘Bounce: Living the Resilient Life’, talks of the angry resolve frustrated athletes feel as “sweet disgust”. This refers to the determination to fight back which goes hand in hand, in this context, with anger.

Tim Grover, coach to legends such as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant and author of the compelling ‘Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable’ refers to controlled anger being a deadly weapon that

“can ignite our competitive intensity, laser focus, and a relentless craving to attack and conquer.”

Retired Navy SEAL and ultra-marathon runner, David Goggins, described as ‘the hardest man alive’ uses his difficult experiences to fuel his motivation as well as thinking some very dark thoughts. His achievements are truly remarkable. Watch this interview with him and you’ll immediately understand what I mean.

Last week I had the privilege of interviewing Ret Navy SEAL Commander, Alden Mills, for my podcast show. In addition to having operated in the SEALS, Mills also overcame asthma, going on to win a gold medal for rowing, went on to lead his first company to $90 million in sales in just three years and authored the excellent ‘Be Unstoppable: The 8 Essential Actions to Succeed at Anything’.

During the interview Mills describes how, in times of challenge, he would intensely visualize himself failing and the attendant painful consequences of doing so. These negative visualizations would help propel him forward to crush the obstacle or challenge.

Key Takeaways

Mental performance techniques and strategies that focus on positivity and active optimism can be powerful solutions for increasing motivation and action.

For some people, in some contexts, positive thinking can undermine motivation and achievement.

Anger, painful memories or future visualizations of negative outcomes can be very powerful tools for increasing motivation and driving performance, particularly when facing extreme challenges.

One size does not fit all. Which strategy works will depend on who you are, what is going on in your life at the time and what challenge you are facing.

Aug 11 2016

To Plan for the Future You Must Live In the Present

The Downside of Do More Faster

When I first qualified as an attorney 25 years ago (a barrister at the English bar wearing a fancy wig and gown), my prime directive was something like do more faster. This seed was probably sewn when I was a young boy obsessed with the amazing abilities of the bionic Steve Austin (AKA the Six Million Dollar Man) who became ‘better, stronger, faster…’.

Fast forward ten years later as an attorney having done a lot more, faster and longer but beginning to experience the negative side effects of stress along with wondering where the years had gone, I began my quest for a better way of living. Meditation and mindfulness were just two of the practices I discovered, trained in and continue to use and share with the family, friends and clients.

The purpose of this post is not to outline numerous well-researched and proven benefits of meditation and mindfulness but to address the myth that mindfulness is at odds with living in the fast lane. If, however, you are not yet aware of the benefits including improved cognitive ability, stress-management, reduced blood pressure and improved emotional regulation see here ‘Why Google, Target, and General Mills Are Investing in Mindfulness’ or ‘7 Ways Meditation Can Actually Change The Brain’.

But I Need to Be Eddie Morra

The impetus for the post arose when a client was resistant to my suggestion that he explore meditation and mindfulness as one way of alleviating the extreme stress he was experiencing. His objection was based on the fact as CEO, he was primarily responsible for setting the strategy for the company and that meant he needed to keep his mind on the future and operating with speed. His misunderstanding was that being mindful meant only living in the present, always proceeding slowly.

Despite the dramatic increase in mindfulness meditation by high performance individuals ranging from CEO’s of some of the largest companies in the world to Special Forces operators, a perception remains that being a mindfulness practitioner means leading a life similar to that advocated by ‘Master Po to ‘Grasshopper’ in Kung Fu.

How Being More Present Can Result in Better Strategy

Mindfulness provides you with one way of effectively dealing with the relentless challenges and distractions of the present. I have always thought of my days as similar to the experience of standing in the middle of an 8 lane freeway facing oncoming traffic (I accidentally tried this in my teens). I, like so many us, often find myself subjected to an ever increasing number of emails, texts, calls, notifications and meetings. This can greatly undermine clarity of thought and energy.

Mindfulness facilitates the ability to enjoy the best parts of the present e.g. moments with family and friends and positive experiences while being able to step back, create some white space and not simply be reactive. It also enables you to operate at a higher and more effective level when you need to move up a gear or three.

Steve Jobs, used a meditation and mindfulness practice to enhance his creative insight in planning, and legendary investor Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Capital uses meditation to gain greater clarity. He has stated that the practice is the most important ingredient in his success.

Planning and strategizing for the future places a heavy load on our pre-frontal cortex. In other words it is seriously hard work. By ensuring you are less drained and less stressed by the demands of the present and by equipping you with greater clarity of mind and creativity, mindfulness enables you to both more effectively live in the present and plan for the future.

Martin Soorjoo works with teams and individuals helping them increase their performance and resilience.

Mar 08 2016

In Defence of Winning

In recent times, competition and winning have got a bad rap. Some argue that competition is destructive and undermines cooperation and respect within society and organizations. It’s not the winning but the participation that matters, is a justification frequently advanced for not succeeding. In schools nowadays we see prizes being awarded for coming 10^th.

While winning isn’t always everything and attempting to win at everything, aside from being an ego driven strategy, is a surefire way to achieve burnout, there can be little doubt that succeeding in what’s important to you, matters greatly.

Winning On your Terms

Whether it’s getting the job offer or promotion, raising venture capital or a family, winning in the boardroom or more importantly on the battlefield, winning can be the difference between depression and happiness, bankruptcy and solvency and in some cases life or death. The harsh reality is that there are rarely any meaningful second prizes for simply participating or practicing.

Remember Enron and Armstrong

This is not to say that attempting to win by ‘any means necessary’ is acceptable.

Playing by the rules and respecting your competitors provides valuable learning and growth and helps maintain stability within societies and organizations. Cheating is nearly always ultimately destructive – just think of Enron and Lance Armstrong.

The ‘Win Win’ of Competition

Competition is the route to winning and of itself provides many benefits including being an engine of the global economy, raising standards and quality and spurring innovation. Studies have repeatedly shown that in a competitive environment, most people improve their effort and performance.

Attempting to win means we get better as we inevitably try harder and perhaps more importantly, we inspire others to seek to do better. We just need to remember how inspired we feel when we watch an Olympic athlete win the gold medal or our team win the Superbowl. We admire their mental toughness, resilience and determination.

When we have the courage to go for gold and be the best that we can, we and others win, even when we lose.

Martin Soorjoo works with individuals and teams to increase their Performance, Effectiveness and Resilience.