I’ve been reading a lot lately about achieving peak performance in life – from the woo-woo side of things to positive psychology and will power to the science of the brain…

This weekend I started an interesting book called “The Leading Brain: Powerful Science-Based Strategies for Achieving Peak Performance.”

I thought you might find a few points fascinating…

You’re probably familiar with the fight-or-flight response. It’s meant to save your life – from your ancestors dealing with saber-tooth tigers to you today quickly responding to a deer running out in front of your car.

You get a surge of stress hormones. Your heart spikes. Your muscles tense. Your pupils dilate.

You get tunnel vision. You take immediate action without even thinking about it…

You live.

Thank goodness for the fight-or-flight response…

“But this fight or flight reaction was designed to be acute, not chronic.”

In other words… it’s meant to turn on and off when your life is actually threatened…not when you’re dealing with deadlines…worried about finances… arguing with your spouse… running your kids all over the place… or dealing with traffic.

Unfortunately… that’s exactly what happens. It’s like our brains are running on ancient software in a modern world. We’re still reacting to these threats as if our life depended on it.

Not good…

“If your body remains on constant alert, it leads to a physiological and neurological state called allostatic load, which is damaging to your health and cognitive performance.

…There is an almost immediate reduction in working memory capacity… but even more ominously… prolonged high levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the bloodstream lead to shrinkage of the hippocampus, which is essential for long-term memory and the intake of new information…

At the same time that stress is flooding your bloodstream with cortisol… it is reducing the levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain… which can lead to depression and burnout.”

So, basically… we pretty much become the opposite of a peak performer.

Yikes!

But wait… there’s more…

Stress also feeds on itself.

“The more stress we perceive…the more anxious we become…

The focal point of the fight-or-flight response, a region of the brain called the amygdala, becomes over-activated. As a result… chronically stressed people become hypersensitive to any potential stressor…real or imagined.

This can lead to a vicious cycle of responses that make things worse…

Feeling pressure from work unfinished… we skip a trip to the gym to spend more time at our desks.

Once home… we sit like zombies in front of the television… clutching a glass of wine or a bottle of beer along with a greasy snack we swore we’d never eat again…

and then finally head to bed for a night of restless sleep before starting the process all over again.

In short… the people most likely to feel stress are the people who are already stressed.”

Any of this sound familiar?

If so…you’re not alone…

According to the American Institute of Stress,

“75 – 95% of all visits to the doctor are for stress-related conditions.”

So… even when you don’t think you’re stressed… the symptoms you’re dealing with are most likely a result of stress.

Oh… and the fact that there’s even a need for the American Institute of Stress is pretty telling…isn’t it?

Now what?

Well…while I love the getting things done side of the “performance equation” and I’ll continue to look for ‘hacks’ to be more efficient and effective there, you can bet your butt that I’ll be paying more attention to my stress levels and stress management – looking for ways to get the best results there.

To be a peak performer, you have to play both offense and defense…