Hey guys and welcome back to another episode of your Brain's Coach podcast. My name is Angela Shurina, I'm your host, I'm your Brain's Coach and it is my job here to bring to you all the best recent cutting edge research, but also very useful, applicable, effective and life transforming, life expanding brain body tools so you could take better control of your emotions, of your thoughts and, most importantly, of your actions. So you carve the life trajectory, the life path, the life journey that you absolutely love living. And here on this podcast we tackle three areas of human life human performance, human life design. We tackle it from the unseeable side of success, from setting up your around, doing your work so you could shape life closer and closer to the vision that you have for yourself. So you could close that gap between the life that you're living currently and the life in your head, the life you know you want to live and you could live the life you know you want to live and you could live Today. We're talking about getting the easiest way to succeed faster, or how to stand in our own way, less how to not slow ourselves down where we don't have to slow ourselves down. So I'm all. We talked a lot about the prize for your dreams being ready to work hard for what you want. Not just wanting the prize, but also wanting all the work that leads to getting that prize. Prize is a side effect. What you need to do to create your goals, your lives, your dreams is the work, and so that's where we need to focus on the daily work, the impact, the quality of that, which then creates the outcomes that are side effects of our work. So I'm all for doing and being ready and being prepared and loving the hard work, but not for the sake of it, not unnecessarily making it harder when it doesn't have to be, where it doesn't have to be that hard, where you could have ease, save your struggles, your motivation and your strength for when it's needed. Your motivation and your strength for when it's needed. Yes, yes, yes to paying the price, to paying the dues when it's needed, but when it can be effortless, why would you make it harder?
Speaker 1I wanted to share with you a conversation with a housemate. That happened this Sunday, so we're chatting around breakfast time and then we were sharing the plans for the day. It was working kind of Sunday for both of us and I asked so what's the plan for the day. And Mark said to me well, I'm thinking about either doing the work right now and then hanging out with some friends, or hanging out with some friends and then doing the work after. And I heard it that many times and I also worked through that conversation in my own head as well.
Speaker 1And so I asked Mark well, when do you know you do your best work? Like what's your best time? When do you get things done faster, when it's easier for you to focus, to get into your zone, into your flow and just to get through things, delivering quite awesome quality when it just flows through you, what's your peak performance, cognitive performance, time? And Mark said well, around this time, like 10-ish after I had my breakfast. And then I asked well, if you know that you're going to do your work faster and better and struggle with it less, and probably when you get to hang out with your friends, you're going to have much better time not worrying about the work that you need to do, only swatching your clock, knowing that you need to come back and you have this unfinished project and then kind of losing the presence and a big part of your fun. So what makes sense the most to do. What do you think? And he's like, yeah, you know it makes sense. And so that's exactly what he did, and, from what I heard from him, he finished the work and had a blast with his friends and had a blast with his friends. And the takeaway from this and the practice is that you know your best times. So why didn't you set yourself up for an easier success with daily work, like if I know that I create content much faster, much better, it's better quality in the morning compared to afternoon and night. So I'll do my best when it's possible and I'll do my best to make it possible to create content in the morning, because that's when it flows through me. It's almost impossible to contain it and I just want to pour it all on the page into this podcast, into videos. So I align my natural energy chronobiology Chronobiology, by the way, is a study of biology from the perspective with the connection to timing, to circadian rhythm, to wake-sleep cycle, right.
Speaker 1So when I know that I do my best creative output in the morning, why would I set myself up for a struggle later when and if I have a choice? Sometimes we don't have a choice, and so then you kind of have to learn how to put yourself in the state. But even then it's still not gonna be your best state, not gonna be your best work. You're gonna struggle more and the quality of your work probably not going to be the same. Let's be honest, in studies at least, when they tested people with different chronotypes basically morning people and then night hours, when they tested cognitive abilities of people in their peak times and outside of their peak times. So what they found is, objectively, you perform, if you're morning time, better in the morning and if you're late night type, then you perform better in the evening. But don't just let me to dictate you when you should work.
Speaker 1Ask yourself this is my invitation to you when do I do my best work, what kind of work is best suited for the time and how can I do my best to put this knowledge into practice so I struggle less, so I have easier time succeeding, so I need less time to do the hard work that I need to do. How can you set yourself up for easier way to succeed? So that's the main takeaway that I want you to get from today's episode. I want you to ask this question when are you making it harder than it needs to be, whether that's scheduling your work in your off times or constantly not investing in proper self-care, with sleep, with nutrition, with the right kind of people in your life, with stress management and breathing right. Where are you making it harder than it needs to be? There are going to be a lot of times, a lot of opportunities for you to strive the hardest, to push the hardest, to deliver your best work and put in a lot of effort. But is it this time? And I like this quote from the book Effortless and effortless make it easier to do what matters most that book, the title, the subtitle, and I like this quote from the author, gregory McKeown not everything requires the extra mile, and I would put here not everything requires the extra effort, right. So where are you making it harder for yourself than it has to be, than it needs to be?
Speaker 1The second takeaway I want to share with you also starts with a story. I was in the gym and I got to meet a manager. It was like 6, 7 am in the morning. I finished my workout and we started talking about stretching and flexibility etc. And Carmen shared with me her goal that she's working on running a marathon, and she said. You know, I just love having this precise, concrete goal. I just feel so much more productive and motivated and effective, and not just for the training but for my entire day, and I shared with her.
Speaker 1Well, you know that, actually, based on neuroscience, they did research in mice and in people and what they noticed is the more clear, the more precise, the closer the goal feels, the more dopamine is released. So they could measure dopamine release in mice and then the harder we work for not just that goal, but also we feel more meaningful, more purposeful, more like our life has this, you know, infused with this electricity of purpose and vision and everything flowing into the direction of something, and we are part of that flow. You know that like again, electricity inside of you and in your life. You start feeling that, believe it or not, because you have some goal you're working towards and that goal, folks, you're not separate in the dream, at work, in your personal life, you're one being. You have one brain which is aware of that goal, even if you do something differently.
Speaker 1So when you set a goal, like running a marathon or any sort of personal goal, personal development goal, that goal, the pursuit of that goal, will transform you and infuse the rest of your life with motivation, with zest, with energy, with a sense of purpose, of direction. So setting goals has this magic, power and biology which changes the way you show up for your entire life. So the takeaway from this piece of information is set a goal. If you feel right now like floating around purposeless, you don't feel a sense of direction and for a human being by the way, any human being it's very uncomfortable way to live and exist and feel every day. So if you are in that space, set any goal and the simpler actually, the easier it is to imagine, the easier it is for you to imagine the way, the step-by-step plan to that goal, the better you're going to do. So don't overcomplicate things here. If you are at this moment lost in the direction of where you want to go, what you should do, first step is not to figure out the purpose of your life actually, even though it is hugely important but first step is set a goal, like freaking, any goal that feels, that is concrete, that a little bit outside of your reach, that is inspiring, that is motivating, that for you personally means something. Just set this goal and get after it and see how, every single day, in every single arena of your life is going to be transformed. You have one brain and that brain is going to be changed by setting that goal, which then will change entire days of your lives. So set a goal, it will change you and it will change your life, and it doesn't have to be complicated. And the third piece of advice here how to help yourself relax better. And you know professional athletes, olympic athletes, high-level athletes and high-level performers in all arenas. They have one quality in common which allows them to reach extraordinary levels of results without burning themselves out. So they have this one quality of fast, effective switch between being on and being off, of fast, effective switch between being on and being off.
Speaker 1A former Navy SEAL commander, rich Devini, who I'm getting certifications with and just been following his journey and his teaching for quite a while, because he connects newer biology, newer science, with performance and character skills. So during our interview and during a lot of his interviews, he mentioned this fact that people think that Navy SEALs elite performers. They are on all of the time like they're just ready to battle 24-7. When in reality, he said, actually when we are going into a mission. Reality, he said, actually when we're going into a mission, flying on this helicopter ready to be deployed, and jump out of that plane, what most of us actually do is napping or taking it really easy, doing some nothing, just relaxing. And then, when it's time to go, we go. And the reason is or especially for Navy SEALs we just don't know how much effort it's going to require. We don't know when we're going to sleep, when we're going to eat, when we're going to rest, and so we need to conserve as much of that energy as possible and be able to give it on demand as much as possible.
Speaker 1Back to the idea of applying effort where it's needed, not just wasting all over the place where you're doing nothing. And so that ability to switch between on state and off state and truly relax, let it all go, let your mind to wander and unplug while you are in between action, that ability is what separates elite performers from everyone else who is pushing themselves so hard for no reason that it feels like there's some electric cord that you touch and you're going to be electrified because there's just so much pressure all the time, like a ball of thunderstorm, and that is not a great way to be, and that is from a biological perspective it's very wasteful. You're wasting a lot of energy and you're not allowing yourself to relax, you're not allowing your nervous system to recuperate and also you're not allowing your prefrontal cortex to connect all the dots to come up with the most creative stuff to play. All of that is switched off when you are in that state of charge and stress. People sometimes tell me you're so intense. Well, I'm only intense because they see me when I'm in the action. Most of the time I'm just chilling and doing nothing and my brain is like oh, there is a cat or there is a butterfly, and because of that I can give so much intensity when it's needed. And that's what I learned from high-performance psychologists, from elite performers like Rich Deviney, from listening and learning from Olympic athletes. That's what I learned from them. You get extraordinary results when you are able to relax.
Speaker 1But why I'm telling you this? Is because one of the things that doesn't allow you to relax is having too many things in your operating memory, in your working memory, if that's the right word, in your working memory. So there is short-term memory in your brain or circuits that are in charge for that short-term memory. And when you have too much stuff that you remember you need to get done, or you need to schedule, et cetera, when it's in your head, not registered somewhere, not scheduled, not out of your head and captured somewhere so you can relax, when it's all in your working memory, your nervous system is actually agitated and it's that state of readiness and it doesn't allow you to fully let go, fully relax and to be in that alpha state of relaxation, of wonder, of creativity, of awe and of recovery. And so very often also, when you're trying to focus on the most important thing, but you have another 20 things on your mind that you need to get to at some point, what will happen is and that's why my recommendation to Mark, my housemate, was to do the work first and then relax. When you have that on your mind that you have to get this work done, it doesn't actually allow you to be present for that relaxation, and so you're not entirely on, but not off either. And so that's why it's important, first of all, when you need to get something important done, get it done first and then schedule, rest. And the second thing get into a habit of capturing things.
Speaker 1David Allen, one of the world's top productivity experts get things done. Author that a system for productivity used and licensed all over the world. So he has this quote you'll have the thing that is on your shoulders. Your head is a crappy office, and what he means here is that your head is for creating ideas, for thinking, for making decisions, but not for storing stuff. Like I need to buy cat's food, I need to talk to this person, I need to take care of this, I don't know. Customer, I need to do this for my wife, my spouse, my kids. You need to capture all of that. You need to have a system to unloading your brain, your working memory, so your nervous system doesn't hold the tension, so you don't have those open loops Open loops, by the way, a commitment that you made or a decision that you made, but you did not do the next required step and you did not capture it anywhere, and so you have these open loops that keep your nervous system agitated in this semi-on state, which doesn't allow you to fully relax, to fully be off.
Speaker 1So get into a habit, create a system, get notebooks, use your calendar, use your file management system in whichever way you have notes, like Evernote app, whichever system works for you. There are many different ways to implement that and with my clients, we're always looking to create one. So, whichever way works for you, get into a habit of capturing everything that is on your mind somewhere else, even if it's like for me right now. I have three very tiny notebooks for different things. One is just ongoing throwaway thing. It's a small notebook, very tiny, with throwaway leaves and I just kept it there.
Speaker 1What I need to do later today, for example, bivocally, or get on the call with that person about this, at that time and I put it there. And when I'm finished with my work, I looked at this list. I'm like, ah, this needs to be done, this needs to be scaled. And so my head is never my working memory is never filled with this stuff. That doesn't really matter. It has to be done, but it does not need to be in my head, keeping me away from being able to focus fully and being off fully while meditating or taking my walks and recovering in other ways. We talked about recovery and how important it is to have those micro moments of recovery throughout the day, but this stuff that is in your head that you do not capture does not allow you to do that. So that's the second part of those micro recovery moments like walks or breath, works. So have a system to capture stuff that's on your mind and then capture it in a way so you don't worry about forgetting that. So that's very important.
Speaker 1But back to the quote from David Allen your head is a crappy office. Your head is for creating ideas, for thinking, for decision-making, not for storing stuff. Your head is a very bad place for that many reasons for storing stuff. And plus, again, it doesn't allow you to recover fully like a Navy SEAL or elite Olympic athletes or any high performer in business arena as well. It doesn't allow you to be fully off, which doesn't allow you to be fully on either. It's like you're not here, not there, as this ball of against thunder. You touch it and you're like electrified the person because you hold that mild tension all the time. I remember we were walking with a friend and he touched my shoulders and he expected actually me to be in that tension when you have your shoulders up, intense. And he touched me and he's like you're actually relaxed. I mean, yeah, because it's a walk, why would I be any different? But again, a lot of people think that I'm that intense person. I'm an intense person. When I need to be an intense person, the rest of the time I'm like an elephant in a China shop because I don't need to be a ballet dancer just going around my day. That ability, again, to switch between on and off, that's what allows top performers to deliver their absolute best when it matters and then just rest, chill for the rest of the time. It's a high-performance skill that you don't hear much about, but it's definitely a skill to be trained, and top performers train for it.
Speaker 1So the takeaway from this piece of information again, to allow yourself to be fully off, first of all, do the work first and then, second, close the loops, unload everything that is in your head in some capturing system. So what did we talk about today? We talked about how to create the easiest path for success for yourself. Ask yourself, where am I making it harder than it has to be by scheduling tasks that you need to do based on your knowledge of when you work best? I don't know when you work best, but you know. So do your best to schedule the most, the hardest, the most challenging work.
Speaker 1Then the second thing if you want to have this feeling of drive, of purpose, of connection, of direction in your life. You don't need to figure your whole life right now, no matter how in love I'm with this idea, but you just need to have a goal. You know, when I'm feeling like I don't have direction, like for whichever reason, I'm feeling a bit lost, disoriented. I'm like okay, so the goal for today is to finish that workout and call that many customers and finish my eating on the plan according to my fitness pile. I love those micro goals, daily goals, because then they infuse my day with that drive and purpose and passion, even if the goals I have are just simple goals of showing up and hitting the reps in the gym and in life. So create a goal. It will change your whole life experience. And number three again, dump it all out from your head on a piece of paper. So when you're off, you're fully off and you're recovering and recuperating. So when it's time for a show, you can get it on. That's it for today, folks.
Speaker 1I hope you found it a very insightful, useful and applicable to the life of a high performer, of a superhero that you are. Please do me a favor share this podcast with at least one other person who you want to succeed and you want to give them all the tools they need to succeed. Right now You're rooting for them. So share this episode with them and, plus, when you talk about that, when you share, when you learn together, you get to practice it better and you get better results. Using the words of one of my favorite brains coaches for Hollywood stars, jim Quick, when we teach it, we learn it twice. When we teach it, we learn it twice. So teach it by sharing this podcast and talking about that. Have an awesome rest of the day. Thank you for your time, thank you for attention. Share, because that's caring about other people and a better world. Thank you, and have an awesome, goal-infused and inspired kind of Wednesday.