We are living in the “age of anxiety.” Social anxiety, test anxiety, sports and performance anxiety…the list goes on. In fact, debilitating anxiety is now the #1 complaint of adolescents and young adults! Why is this so? Could it be that we live in a world where it feels as though we are being constantly measured and evaluated? Grades, SAT/ACT/GMAT/GRE scores, college admission standards, sports performance (did you win?), saying or posting the right thing on social media, etc…Based on this premise, it is no wonder that we end up constantly evaluating and judging ourselves!
The result is a tendency to assign a self-worth based on how we perform and interact. A Good performance or positive interaction means that I am a good person. A bad performance or awkward interaction must mean that I am a bad person. These cognitive evaluations lead to negative self-talk, which lead to unpleasant, and unhelpful, emotions. The inevitable outcome from all of this is that our thoughts and emotions become self-fulfilling behavioral outcomes…
So, how do we quantify “energy”, and how do we make it work for us? If we define energy as the way in which we engage with and apply physical or chemical assets, we get a fairly good idea for how to proceed. Performance psychologist Dr. Jim Loehr quantifies energy as follows:
Loehr’s Energy Pyramid
- Physical Energy
- Emotional Energy
- Mental Energy
- Spiritual Energy
According to Loehr, it is our Mental Energy (vigor, motivation, confidence, concentration, and calmness) that most directly associates with performance excellence. See Well-Being and Performance.
My Performance Coaching engages a four-step process for determining where your energy blocks are, and assesses the degree to which any of them could be holding you back. We then apply proven strategies for maximizing Loehr’s model of mental energy so that you are always focused forward, and ready to commit with the fullness of your being.
“You don’t have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you.”
Dan Millman