Prince's Diamonds & Pearls #178

The Secret Weapon of Winners

A sprint coach studied Carl Lewis for a year and couldn’t understand how Carl was always last or 2nd to last at the 40 meter mark, but then went on to win at the 100 meter sprint. Eventually, he realized that Carl didn’t do anything different at the 50 meter mark. It was the other runners who would try to push hard, clenching their fists, and scrunching their faces that slowed them down while Carl breezed past them.

“Just about every race that you watch with Carl Lewis, the first half of the race it doesn’t look like he’s going to win the race. He’s not in it. But then he’s able to pull out the victory at the last sometimes 20 and 10 meters at the end of the race. It actually looks like he was speeding up at the end of the race. But he’s not speeding up. No one is. Everyone is decelerating at the end of the race. He was just so much more efficient in terms of his technique. He was a very clean runner, so he was decelerating at a much slower pace.”

Bruce Lee is quoted as saying “Everything that you do, if not in a relaxed state, will be done at a lesser level than you are proficient. Thus the tensed expert marksman will aim at a level less than his/her student.”

Come to find out that to perform exceptionally at anything, the athlete, the achiever, the leader, the parent must be relaxed. Often the harder you push, the worse your performance. Relaxation is a part of high performance. The reason this is so hard for us is it seems counterintuitive and it is counter to what we’ve been taught. We’ve been conditioned to push harder, to bear down, to hammer it out, to grip it and rip it, to grind it out, and to grin and bear it. Yet maximum performance requires all of your energy going to the right muscles; this includes your brain muscle. If energy is dispersed anywhere else, your face, your jaw, your shoulders, your hands, and other places, it draws power and focus away from the primary driver. We need to relax, to release the brakes that are slowing us down.

In the book, “The Total Runner”, author Jerry Lynch states to “Let the meat just hang on your bones. Relax your face. Relax your eyes. Relax your shoulders. Breathe deeply. Run happy from the inside and let it flow. Don’t apply power, but float with strength. This may feel weird at first, because you must concentrate in order to relax. However, in time you’ll find that you can run more effortlessly. And your body will work with itself, instead of against itself.”

This strategy is not only great advice for physical activity, but also sound when you’re at your desk concentrating on a difficult task, or in a meeting presenting on a Long Range Plan. Relax your face. Relax your eyes. Relax your shoulders. Breathe deeply. Operate happy from the inside and let it flow. Don’t apply power, but float with strength.

This can be practice in two ways:

1.?????? Practice flipping your physical On/Off switch

Smile and then count down 3-2-1- RELAX. Tense your shoulders and then release them fully. Make a fist and then relax. This can be done with every muscle group. You can practice tensing a muscle fully and then completely relaxing it. It will make conscious the tension you might create unconsciously. Then what will be displayed is the full contrast of what is the Relaxed state versus the Stressed state.

2.?????? Practice clearing your mind

Dr. Maxwell Maltz speaks on clearing our minds as we would a calculator. Just like a calculator, aiming to achieve the answer to the next equation without first clearing the last one, we will get a wrong answer. Or it will err out completely.

This is true even if we are still processing the last conversation held in the back of our mind while we’re in a new one. It is identified as “cognitive spillover”. Before we start a new task, a new project, new conversation, or a new meeting, we must first clear our minds of the last one. We will then fully relax our minds to pay attention only to what is present and needs every aspect of our cognition. Don’t allow it to be dispersed to other thoughts simultaneously. Relaxing increases our cognitive power and focus.

Can you identify areas in your life where you’re not as proficient as you desire to be (physical fitness, work, family, etc.)? What tasks have tension and stress fail you? What areas do you need to apply a relaxed state? Share in the comments below.

References: The Secret Weapon of Winners by Darren Hardy