Have you ever wondered if there were things you could be doing differently to increase your productivity or have a greater sense of mastery and satisfaction in your work and life in general? If you answer “YES” to this, you are not alone!
Let’s examine what skills and practices are important and essential in helping you to produce outcomes you desire. Professional sports have a lot to teach us and are ahead of the curve in understanding and implementing skills and practices that allow them to extract their best performance and achieve satisfaction, even when they don’t win.
Professional sportsmen (and women) know the value of good self-care and how it positively impacts their performance, success, and sense of wellbeing. Pro basketball players and pro cyclists have made dietary changes such as going gluten-free to give their bodies better recovery and nutritional balance with surprisingly good outcomes. They have learned the benefits of rest/recovery in order to recharge their systems for the next challenge. They understand the benefits of meditation, and quieting their minds and central nervous systems as a way to harness energy and creativity. They know that visualization and repetition decrease anxiety and fear, as well as enhance their self-confidence and mastery in their ability to deliver optimal performance.
Professional athletes’ training and preparation provide a helpful and workable template that anyone can incorporate and use to better their performance to meet desired and targeted goals. Why should lawyers, students or judges reinvent the wheel when they can borrow some of these same ideas and techniques? If this interests you, call LCL and come and speak to one of our clinicians about ways you might look at developing your own “optimum performance” in your practice and life in general.
Barbara J Bowe, LICSW
