Book Title:Peak Performance
Book Chapter:The Paradox of Rest
In our life, we experience a lot of different kinds of stress. Everyone of us has different mission that needs to complete in life. Life is not easy provided it is not empty. Life always has different missions need to overcome by ourselves. Everyone of us needs to go through some difficult periods to achieve our dream and mission in life. Therefore, stress is our life companion. It accompanies us until the end of our life.
Stress is a word that may sound harmful to you. When people look at you and say, hey, you are too stressed! What do you think at that moment? You might think that stress is something that may affect your performance. However, it is not true! Stress is good for us if you look at it from a different perspective. Stress helps us to growth and cultivate a growth mindset. Stress is a feeling of growth. When we encounter a task beyond our ability, it is normal that you feel stress. Take this stress as a challenge-response. Stress pushes you to the edge of your comfort zone and motivates you to expand it. You can view stress as something productive because stress can help you to achieve a difficult task in a short period. Response to stress correctly. View stress as something productive and motivated. The correct response to stress will help you to grow.
I have experienced stress last year when I dare to take up a challenge and join the toastmaster international speech contest. Firstly, I am afraid of public speaking but I like to share my ideas and knowledge with others. Therefore, I need to take up the challenge and practice public speaking! I feel stress because I need to practice public speaking before the contest. After two weeks of preparation, finally it is the day! Before the contest start, the contest chair asks me to draw the number to get my speaking order. I am the third speaker ! I feel nervous and stress before my turn. I keep recalling my script because I scare I will forget the content in the middle of speech delivery. My heartbeat increases and I can feel the stress. How can I overcome this stress? First, I view stress as something that helps me to ready to deliver my speech. I try to reappraise pre-performance anxiety as excitement. Instead of pushing the stress away, I welcome stress and stress helps me to focus my performance during public speaking. Finally, I can deliver my speech in 7 minutes ! I feel touched and satisfied when I receive big applause from the audience and I get third place in the public speaking competition. Therefore, when you need to prepare for an event or competition, interpret stress that can aid your performance.
After we know about the benefits of stress, it is time to rest ! Rest is important because it re-energizes us in our long life journey. We are human and we are not a robot. Human needs rest to perform better in the next challenge. At first, you will doubt why rest is important. I believe you hear some of the people say that we need to work hard to achieve what we want. Yes, it is true. Firstly, ask yourself, how hard is it? Is it work non-stop long hours? Definitely not. Most of us have the wrong perception that rest is wasting of time. When you observe other people have shown their achievement and results, you think that you can be better if you sacrifice your rest time and work hard to achieve something more. It is not true! Overwork is detrimental to your health. Arrange your time wisely based on your ability and don't look at others. Do you know that our brain has the own natural way of rest ? Our brain is working when we are rested. There are two modes in our brain, there are focus mode and diffused mode. We are in focus mode when we try to solve a problem and focus on a difficult task. After you have complete a task that demands your mental and energy, take a break. The more stressful the task, the longer your break should be! Perform activities that demand little effort and energy such as listening to music, cooking, meditation hang out with friends and volunteering. When you are in resting mode, your subconscious mind is working and your brain is in diffused mode. Here is the moment where the creative idea will appear in your mind. You can help you to solve a complex problem or help you generate a new idea in your business or career. Moreover, you perform better in your career after you have rest sufficiently. Creative idea not always there, it comes only when you have good rest. Ah-ha moment will appear in the middle of the rest time.
Rest at the correct moment creates your new energy and powerful attention. Rest after you have focused on your task for around 30 minutes to 1 hour. Try to avoid tools such as smartphone or electronic gadgets when you are paying attention to your task. Our concentration only can maintain 30 minutes. Take a 5 minutes break after 30 minutes and then you continue your task. After you have finished your task , have a good rest. Try to perform relaxing and joyful activities when you are rest. High quality of rest can help you to re-energize and you will have better mental health.
Lastly , you can view stress as our goal in life and the rest is the people that we love. we stress ourselves to achieve what you want. You rest when you are trying to carry out activities such as cooking, playing with kids and volunteering. High quality of rest is when you doing something that can bring happiness to you and to the people around you. Life is always full of challenges. Stress level varies from time to time. When stress comes, we must accept the challenges and just react to them positively. We must embrace stress instead of avoiding stress. Practice a growth mindset and have a good rest will enhance your life tremendously. Start practicing a growth mindset and have a good rest!
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