Being Brilliant Every Day

For a long time coaches and consultants have claimed you have to be psyched up or relaxed to perform at your best. These contrasting views do little more than confuse us about which level of arousal is best. So what’s the solution? Actually, you don’t want to be psyched up or completely relaxed to reach your peak performance.  When people talk about relaxation and excitement, they are referring to the action of our autonomic nervous system (ANS). What really determines the quality of our performance, or our output, is our neuroendocrine system (NE). The NE system determines the quality of our emotional experience whereas the ANS determines the degree of our arousal. Two critical hormones; cortisol and DHEA control the NE system. Cortisol is linked to a negative emotional state and is catabolic, meaning it breaks down molecules to release energy. When we feel negative, high performance is extremely difficult and when we get ‘stressed’ about the fact that we’re feeling negativ