Your state is a very important thing to consider when it comes to performance. It is single handedly the biggest overall factor affecting your level of overall performance. If you are looking to improve the results you generate in anything you do, learning how to identify and control the state you are in is crucial.
First off, lets take a closer look at the word state. For those of you who haven’t made it to high school biology yet, the word state is a scientific term that refers to the communication that your mind and body are having through something we refer to as emotion. In other words, your total experience right now is made up of your mental, emotional and physical states. Lets take a closer look:
State: the sum total of your mental, emotional and physical experience on a moment-to-moment basis.
Mental State: your thought process (the 5 +/- 2 bits of conscious information that you are consciously aware of or focusing on at this very moment). Your brain gathers very important information both from the internal and external environment through the 5 senses (sight, touch, smell, hear and taste), which it is processing cognitively (in your brain) in your mental state.
Emotional State: consists of your feelings (those things boys are said not to have). Wikipedia describes your emotional state as a “positive or negative experience that is associated with a particular pattern of physiological activity.” The pattern referenced here is a reaction to the mental state, which is communicated to the body via the release of neuro-chemicals in the brain.
Physical State: your body or physiology. In other words, the thing that is responsible for performing all physical tasks in athletics, made up of your muscles, your skeletal system, your nervous system, etc. The patterns and programs initiated in your brain are seen in your physical state through expressions of behavior.
Seem like a lot? Maybe at first, but trust me when I say, you will quickly become the master of state after working with me. Like I said above, there is nothing more important when it comes to teaching you how to positively impact your total level of performance, than teaching you how to be in control of your state.
Time to see if you understood all this mumbo jumbo scientific talk about state enough to apply what you learned:
Take a minute to sit with your eyes closed and see if you can notice what is taking place right now in your state by mapping out your mental, emotional and physical states.
What did you notice:_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Mental:
Emotional:
Physical:
Mapping out your mental, emotional and physical states when in a positive and negative state is the best way to start noticing when you are in one vs the other. Make the intention to start monitoring your state throughout the day as an entry point into identifying opportunities to manage your state to get the best results.
As always, if you have any questions or want to learn more about how to successfully manage your state as a high-performance strategy, contact me directly and I would be happy to help you out.
Until next time, make every performance count!
-Coach Susan
