Peak Performance

I was reading an online article and came across this very interesting study on Peak Performance.

Psychologists Robert Yerkes and J.D Dodson show that performance improves as levels of mental and physiological arousal increase – until a point when further increase in arousal leads to poorer performance. In other words, when levels of arousal are too low (lethargy or complacency) and when levels of arousal are too high (anxiety or fear), performance is likely to suffer. So when are people most likely to perform at their best? When they experience excitement, the midpoint between feeling lethargic and feeling anxious.

Top performance in sports, business, science, politics and every other area of human achievement are usually very disappointed when their efforts fall short of their high expectations. However, they are not paralyzed by an intense fear of possible failure and when they do fail (as we all do, from time to time) they do not catastrophize their failure. The combination of on the one hand striving for success and on the other accepting failure as a natural part of life enables them to experience the kind of excitement that leads peal performance.