Peak mental performance

Peak performance.

This powerful phrase generates images of Olympic athletes poised at the starting line with their muscles coiled into a ball of dynamic energy ready to be unleashed in an explosion of Herculean force.

Of course, as common as this image may be, it's also a misconception.We struggle under the idea that increasing effort will produce increased results."If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." So we structure our lives on the principle that we failed because we didn't try hard enough.

Repeated failure is abject laziness.

With this curious work ethic imbued in our personality,we have slogged forward, albeit energetically, into a strange reality landscaped by under- and over-achievers existing in a matrix textured by personal dissatisfaction.

Somehow there must have been an error in the belief that "The harder you try, the better you'll do." It seems so ... logical.Until you really think about it.

Four ways to learn According to learning theory, our brains absorb new information by four methods: Transmission,Acquisition,Accretion and Emergence.

* Transmission is essentially classroom learning.While it's by far the most common method of teaching, it also has the lowest retention.

* Acquisition is the act of seeking information.

This method has a higher retention possibly because it's driven by desire, but it's limited by our past experiences.

* Accretion is the gradual, subconscious absorption of information through culture and personal experience.While it does account for the vast majority of our knowledge base, since it occurs outside of our conscious awareness, accretion is a difficult quality to control.

* Emergence, however, is the type of thinking directly involved in the development of new ideas and novel interpretations that results from the insights gained during reflection, creative expression and problem solving.

Despite the popular agreement that the emergent type of learning is highly desirable, it has been estimated that current traditional educational practices intentionally utilize emergence about 2 percent of the time.

Which brings us back to peak performance and under-achieving.

It seems curious that as we progressed through these four types of learning and thinking, three qualities inherent in each type shifted their relative importance.

Utilization by traditional teaching practices decreased.

Retention and effectiveness increased.

Each type became increasingly more passive.

So it would seem that as your method of thinking and learning becomes less forceful, it becomes more productive.

This may sound counter-intuitive, but it's actually quite logical.

Our brains are literally hard-wired to absorb, process and reformulate information.How easily we accomplish this is one of the unique attributes of our species.

Recombinant creativity Creative thought is a product of permitting the accretion of amassed experiences and observations to recombine.

Creative expression is the result of our heightening self-awareness and our desire to influence our environment.

Yet neither of those processes can be forced.

It's as fruitless to attempt to force creative expression as it is to assume that the formula for doing better is simply to work harder.

Achieving peak mental performance cannot be accomplished by spending grueling hours trying to beat some knowledge into your head.

For that matter, peak physical performance can't be forced either.

Learning how to permit your brain and mind to do what they already know how to do and learning how to identify and remove internal obstacles to these processes will carry you to mental and physical dimensions far beyond those attainable by those dusty old bromides I mentioned earlier.

In a remarkably simple book,"The Creative Spirit,"Goleman, Kaufman and Ray identified characteristics they associated with "killing creativity." They are the following: surveillance, evaluation, excessive rewards, competition, restricting choice and pressure.

These were the six foremost qualities that they observed to be adverse to creative thought and expression.

And oddly enough those six qualities are both the essence of our traditional educational process and the mainstays of our work environment.

And that absolutely includes the world of athletic performance.

It's as if we have gone out of our way to impede the very successes we hold in such high esteem.

To truly perform at your peak - mentally or physically - is not necessarily to engage in emotionally and physically exhausting behaviors.

Finding your peak necessitates first becoming aware of your obstacles then creating a scenario for removing or controlling them.

Then you can begin to develop your awareness of your inherent accretive and emergent capabilities.

A first productive step in that direction is to become an outstanding observer.As you become increasingly adept at observing how other people create and defend their own obstacles, you will learn how to remove your own.

From there you will start to accrete a profound knowledge base from which can emerge a phenomenally effective you.

A curious acronym you can use to help this process is AOL.Assumptions about Obstacles create Limitations.

If you assume that something is blocking you, then you empower that obstacle and will never challenge it to discover a creative solution.

Just as you would inspect a physical obstacle from all sides before deciding a course of action, permit yourself the freedom to consider as many perspectives to a particular problem as you can possible gather.As you acquire new information, you accrete broader information and, once again, a new idea emerges which brings you closer to a solution and strengthens your thought process for the future.

If you permit it... In practice since 1976 at the Biofeedback Center in Reno, Dr.

George Green holds degrees in physiology, stress physiology and psychophysiology and is a published author.

He also leads weekend workshops to help people achieve their personal peak.