The key to high performance isn’t pushing harder, but mastering relaxation.
How do you master relaxation? A mentor of mine was a college athlete at an Ivy League in rowing. Curious why another team would win year after year by a long shot, he asked the team leader “What’s your secret? Do you have a special workout or take certain supplements?”
The team leader smiled and said “No, it’s what I’m not doing. See, between every row forward, I focus my energy on relaxing and recharging before the next push. That’s why our team has plenty of energy to burst through the finish line and win the race!”I was struck.
Who wins in life is about who can relax the best–not push the hardest.
Contrary to conventional thinking, top performance–whether an athlete, an entrepreneur, a parent, teacher, or student–hinges on how well you relax.
How quickly are you able to recover and recharge between sprints of work?
What if our society’s work performance metrics were based on one’s ability to fully relax?
How much vacation did you take off? How slow was your heart rate? What if our society as much funding and investments into technology apps for productivity, efficiency, and high performance into funding mastering the art of relaxation?
Consider winners are who can relax the best, not push the hardest. After hitting financial success as a wealth advisor in my first business 2 decades ago, but at a cost to health from burning out, I’ve discovered the biggest key to shift from burnout to brilliance is relaxation.
Relaxation?! Yes, just as any high performer must deeply breathe and remain calm when the stakes are high, it’s actually the most painful and dire of situations that are the best accelerants for you to discover how to relax and surrender control. (Watch the full TEDx talk on Burnout to Brilliance here.)
Right before sparring a national champion fighter in taekwondo, my heart nearly beat out of my chest.
Taking deep breaths, I entered deep meditation and to my surprise, time slowed down and I could easily see the next move my opponent was about to make to dodge and counterattack.
Shortly after, in this flow state, space disappeared the noise went quiet. I felt an immense downpour of calm, bliss, joy, gratitude all at once flowing in my body.
It was a spiritually enlightening moment–One with all that is–that lasted several minutes. Shocked, this blissful flow state is what I’d experience in silence on top of mountains at meditation retreats many times before.
But never in a fear inducing situation such as sparring–where my heart’s leaping out of my chest knowing my 14 year old national champion opponent might kick my head and injure me for life as a 41 year old.
Instead, I won the match.
In meditating amid the fear- I was able to fully relax and surrender. Winners are who can relax the best, not push the hardest.
👇 Comment below: What are situations you’re afraid of–that you can practice being relaxed? How can you slow down to go faster?
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Anna Choi is an Author, TEDx speaker, and Founder of SolJoy, where she helps female founders and high-performing leaders 40+ feel more vitality to look and feel 20 years younger.
At 40, she became a Taekwondo Black Belt, Certified Qigong Energy Master, and Performance Artivist teaching thousands of global students—from 7 figure CEOs, NFL players, Harvard neuroscientists, and platinum artists to King County government employees, teachers, parents, and students. She distills ancient wisdom into modern day somatic practices of movement, mindfulness, and meditation.
She loves cooking plant based Korean meals, singing and songwriting on the piano, hip hop dancing, or relaxing in nature. Her proudest accomplishment is water birthing her son Eli, now a teen. She’s married to her sweetheart Leo of 21 years living off Miller Bay in Poulsbo, WA with their cat Max.
If you want to look and feel 20 years younger, book a discovery call here.
