Top Performance AND Work/Life Balance: How Thinking of Yourself as an Olympian Can Help

Living Well

Written by: Meg Sharp, Fitness & Wellbeing Consultant, Cambridge Group of Clubs

I’m asking more and more of my clients to see themselves as high level performance athletes. I wonder if this “hat” would be a useful one for you to try on?

Professional athletes are talented, determined, physically and psychologically resilient. They identify and play to their strengths. They are expected to perform – win! – both despite of and because of huge stressors and pressure. They train for and excel under pressure.

Do you see yourself?

The Executives I work with have extraordinary amounts of stress in their lives. Some of this stress is an inevitable result of choosing incredibly stimulating, challenging careers. The stress can be powerfully positive: Part of a rich, rewarding, fast-paced life. The stress can be debilitating: Creating tension within important relationships, wreaking havoc on their bodies and minds, leading sometimes to unhealthy habits and poor work/life balance.

Olympians also shoulder extraordinary amounts of stress. However, from my vantage point, they differ from Executives in 2 important ways:

1. Athletes identify and train the specific weaknesses that are detrimental to their performance and their wellbeing.
2. Athletes have dozens if not hundreds of recovery strategies and implement them constantly. From ice baths to nutrition, careful periodization and soft tissue therapy, a great athlete cannot, I repeat cannot, reach their full potential without tons of recovery.

This second point is the one I’d like to explore today: What are you doing to ensure you are consistently recovering?

Let’s be clear, I’m not asking you to slow down. You can keep sprinting. I love that pace too. To maintain that outstanding level of performance, however, you need rest. Often. So, you too can regenerate, and come back to the table mentally, physically, and emotionally stronger.

The simplest area to start with is your physical recovery. This can mean making time for workouts that are less intense. Focusing on mobility, deliberate breathwork, and centering yourself. Walking in nature is an example of a powerful physical recovery strategy. Incorporating massage, ice baths, Hyperice tools, and other soft tissue therapies into your routine.

It means prioritizing your sleep. Remember sleep is the phase of the day when we do all our physiological and neurological regeneration. Without enough sleep we wear ourselves down. 

It means prioritizing your nutrition. Ensuring you are eating enough lean protein throughout the day to keep your blood sugars stable. 25-50 grams per meal. Eating enough fruits and vegetables of every colour to ensure you’re getting enough vitamin D, magnesium, calcium, and other elements vital for proper regeneration. These fiber rich foods as well as pulses, beans, nuts, and seeds can help keep your inflammation down which again helps with recovery.

Any uphill battle is easier when we are physically strong and refreshed.

Athletes create and embrace rituals at key times during the day and specifically when under stress. 

Every morning, they remind themselves of their passion and purpose. This drives their motivation and keeps them in a positive mindset irrespective of how grueling the training session is.

Close your eyes and picture a work day when you were flooded with purpose and passion. While that day may have been long, I bet the time flew and you felt fueled with positive affect. You were ON: Focused and enthusiastic, making your work more efficient, and inspiring creativity, support, and collaboration. You returned home spent and happy. Ready to engage with a loved one with stories of hope and optimism. While this type of day is taxing, it is not depleting in the way an uninspired, frustrating day is. As importantly, the positive energy you bring home, ensures your downtime is replenishing. An evening of venting, ruminating, or avoidance does not facilitate the same degree of recovery.

Is there a ritual you can put into place first thing in the morning to get in touch with your passion and purpose? If your current purpose is training to run a half marathon that works well too. Make the training your priority and start or break up your day with that. The energy from that positive project will bleed into the rest of your day.

Athletes create and embrace habits that help them recover during performance. For example, some of the best tennis players in the world have specific rituals they practice in between points, as they walk back to the service line, and as they prepare to serve. They have important rituals they follow when they’ve just lost a point. These rituals are what some attribute to the difference between the players that win and those that don’t. The rituals practiced by the pros, numerous times throughout a game, are essentially micro-recovery opportunities. They keep the athlete centered, determined, positive, and energized. So that towards the end of the match they have just that much more left in the tank.

Are there rituals you can put into place when you arrive at work and throughout the day?

Human beings can only function at 100% for 80-120 minutes before we need a break. We can train ourselves to keep going. We can use stimulants to keep going. But ultimately your very best work only happens during that short performance window. When you choose to take a break – especially if the break involves movement – for 5-20 minutes you can hit the reset button. And return to your work task with 100% again. You will counter you don’t have TIME to get those breaks throughout the day. I will counter that without the breaks you leak ENERGY. Mental and physical and emotional energy. Such that you are no longer able to give 100%. Your agility, creativity, and efficiency slow. More importantly, you might start to make mistakes. Which take time to correct.

As you fight to keep your engine roaring at 100%, your positive affect starts to shift. You become more impatient, defensive, dismissive. You may create interpersonal challenges that can create fires you will need to put out and can ultimately consume more of your positive energy.

Now, you are on pace to leave work in a depleted state. Such that your time at home is not as enjoyable (and therefore replenishing) as it could have been.

Take those breaks throughout the day. Scheduling a workout midday might be the most powerful thing you can do to boost your performance. Get outside for 10 minutes. Call someone you care about and connect for a moment.

You do have time, because the breaks will allow you to stay in a higher gear.

Small breaks – even 90 seconds – can also serve to centre you. Taking deep breaths to relax your muscles and your mind so you can head into a tough meeting or conversation with a calm, open, clear mind that better enables you to listen, problem solve, come up with creative solutions, and inspire people to act on your behalf.

A careful ritual at the end of the work day, before you walk in your home, will let you put down any heavy burdens and worries. Not shove them under the carpet. Simply put them down. Enter your home fully present, ready to engage with the people and activities you love. This – maybe more than anything – will facilitate wonderful rejuvenation and recovery. Mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and, therefore, physically too. As it will ensure you are living a life that is more enjoyable and filled with many purposes. 

Sprint as often as you need to my friend. Just make sure you stop and breathe.