Tuning the Signal | Ep #107

Zoran discusses the Harvard study on the "Wandering Mind" and how 47% of our lives are spent in mental noise. Featuring a story from the Olympic Games, this episode provides a structure for "Tuning the Signal" using breathing and "Controllables Journaling."

 🎙️ Built for Pressure is a short-form podcast for high performers, leaders, and decision-makers who thrive under pressure. Hosted and produced by Zoran Stojković.

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Transcript

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Welcome to the Built for Pressure podcast episode 107. I'm Zoran Stoikovic. We've talked about the law of the lever. Now today we address the static, the mental noise that prevents you from seeing where the lever is. In 2010, researchers Killingworth and Gilbert at Harvard University published a landmark study titled, A Wandering Mind is an Unhappy Mind. They used an iPhone app to track people in real time and found that our minds are wandering approximately 47% of the time. That means that nearly half of your life, you aren't actually in the moment. You're living in a past rumination or in the future anxiety. No, this is the mental noise of high performance. 90% of what we worry about, the what-ifs, the projected failures, the social judgment, never actually happens. It's a mental signal chain. It adds massive internal pressure without providing a single Newton of useful work. I saw this clearly during the last Olympic Games while working with a high-level hockey player. Now we're talking about national level hockey player on the biggest stage, on the world's biggest stage. His nervous system was screaming. He was focused on the third period before the puck had even dropped in the first. He was thinking about the opponent that would play in the semifinal, but potentially while he was still in the quarterfinals. He was stuck in future noise, which led to heavy legs and a clouded read of the game. We had to tune his signal and we knew this was going to happen, but it still happened. And we worked on some of these tools I'm going to tell you about here. So we had to tune his signal though. We, we used a two-step protocol to clear the cache of his brain, if you will, breathing and journaling. So first we use breathing exercises. We practiced on our Friday resets and, and similar exercises that I sent him. And in, you know, this isn't just relaxing. It's a physiological override. It signals the nervous system to stop the cortisol spike, dropping the noise floor so he could actually hear the game. Second, we used controllables journaling. Between periods, he didn't just ruminate. He took out his notebook and he wrote just a little bit, but that enough to let him, help him reset. So he separated the noise, which is the score, the scouts, the crowd, the things he doesn't actually control from the signal, his next shift, his positioning, his breathing, a little focus cue that he had for himself on the ice. This is subtractive journaling, right? We're subtracting, we're stripping away everything he couldn't control until only the singular quest of the next 45 seconds remained. And he got a medal out of it, which is massive. When you live in the past or future, you're fighting a ghost. When you tune into the present, you're fighting a reality that you can actually influence. So to tune into your signal this week, you need to practice inept filtering. When you feel that 47% wandering start to take over. Use a brain dump. Write down every worry currently occupying your RAM, your memory, and then ruthlessly cross things off a list that aren't controllable. And what's left is your signal. That's where you can apply your effort and your energy. Today's invitation for application. For the next 24 hours, notice every time your mind wanders to a future fear. And I want you to take out your phone, do this on your phone or keep a little notebook in your pocket or a little like cue card or something with a pencil and label this, right? Future noise is what it is. And use a one minute of rhythmic breathing to return to the present moment, right? And ask yourself, what is one thing you can control right now? I'll see you next time.