Overcoming fear to reset mind and body to achieve

How did fear, drive anxiety that drove backing down in a challenge that then drove a reset of mind and body to achieve?

There are ten realisations that PCE discovered recently.

The story goes a little like this.....

PCE recently visited our Canadian friends and Aussies working at the Ski Resorts in BC and took the opportunity to hit the slopes.

First step was to find the ski legs again and then get challenged by some of the harder terrain.

One morning a decision was made to try a black run called "Dragons Tongue". With no information on what to expect the run began. As the moguls got larger and the terrain steeper, technique fell away and anxiety crept in. As a ridge approached that seemed to fall away a look to the right through the trees caught a glimpse of a red jacket fly past on clearly an easier run. Fear had set in and a lack of positive talk was replaced by a lot of negative chatter.

The decision was made, through the trees and onto a blue run "Born to Run".

Safely home later that day a piece of paper was torn out of a scrap book and two goals written down.

1) Complete "Born to Run" in it's entirety

2) Finish "Dragons Tongue".

The next morning off the lift towards "Born to Run" what ran through the mind was this:

- activate the body : form, technique; let's start feeling how it feels, feel the muscles activating
- activate the mind : fun, belief, positive talk

The run started. This seemed a lot harder than "Dragons Tongue". It was steeper. Longer. Narrower.

You can do this.

Remember the technique.

Feel every turn.

Control every turn.

Vocalisation took effect over each mogul: "turn....turn..turn...turn..."

Awareness of breathing.

A shout up from a skier below "be careful there's lots of exposed rocks here". "Thanks!", a quick reply.

The last few moguls before the run opened up and flattened. The exhilaration the vocal celebration "whoohoooo!!!"

It's done!!

Tomorrow bring on "Dragons Tongue".

Later that night at dinner, as the run was described, the fellow skiers looked puzzled. "That wasn't "Born to Run"

"Born to Run, starts through trees and it's steep but it's not overly moguled".

Having missed the entrance to "Born to Run" the right fork has been taken onto a black run "Goats Kick". That was what was conquered.

The next day "Born to Run" was a dream to ski down. And "Dragons Tongue" was completed not once but twice. On all three of these runs the same attitude and process taken down what was thought to be "Born to Run" was followed.

Technique, belief, positive talk won the day.

So what was learnt?

1) Fear can cripple

2) Fear without knowledge makes for bad decisions

3) Fear causes doubts in self

4) Attitude can be programmed

5) Mindset can be programmed

6) With the right base you can programme your body to perform

7) Visualisation is a powerful tool

8) Positive self talk drives you forward

9) Vocalisation of your process keeps you on track

10) Writing down a goal makes you accountable to it and drives your mind, body and spirit towards finding ways to fulfil the goal.

Taking these lessons and applying them everyday to every challenge is the next step.

Winning Behaviours : where do you sit above or below the line

As we move back into more psychological / behavioural research in 2013, many of the articles around practical client engagement tips will be interspersed with some behavioural topics especially motivation, high performance and personality.

At a function today a discussion with a senior executive in financial services led into above the line and below the line mindsets.

Roger Connors (http://www.ozprinciple.com/self/steps-to-accountability/)highlights that below the line behaviour is seen in individuals and businesses with a blame mentality.

True success comes from above the line greatness : determination, accountability, hard work and collaboration.

Connors espouses the : see it, own it, solve it and do it method as steps to accountability.

We at PCE totally agree.

What is especially interesting to PCE though is working with individuals and companies below the line : who are unaware of their behaviours and subsequently have no momentum to shift above the line.

How do you engage a business or an individual without self awareness?

The intervention that must occur is one of honesty and the hard conversation that what is occurring does not meet the expected standards that will lead to success.

But under who's definition is that success. PCE knows of companies and individuals whose success is defined often by numbers and the corporate creed and values are nothing but a page on a website that has no life within the organisation as it is not demonstrated in its leaders, not embraced by staff and certainly not measured in performance metrics.

Worse still is where there are such defined values but leaders have not the skills or courage to ensure staff are employed because they embody these values, educated on how to develop these values and counselled when they do not adhere to the values.

The underlying sub culture that eventuates is one of tolerance of poor corporate culture and a lack of coherence about what it is that the company stands for.

So what to do?

It's about harnessing the power of a few leaders in the business, rewriting the script and delivering a clear message to the business or the individual and providing the resources to set people up to enable them to see it, own it, solve it and do it.

That's a difficulty corporate culture change piece and surely fails when poor behaviour is ignored or tolerated or worse rewarded: the corporate revenue requirements never justify means that are detrimental to the workplace.

What we need then is passionate positive and transformational change agents to live a set of values that are accessible to those around them.

Finding them : we'll that's a little harder.