Perform Beyond Pressure… Why I Wrote The Book

If it helped me, then it can help you.

There is stuff that you can learn about the mind and performance that makes it so much simpler, but does not seem to be common knowledge.

Much of what is suggested to help with performance psychology and well-being is ‘outside-in’. It says if you do this then you will get this. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with any of these outside-in suggestions. It is just that they overlook something that I found to be far more powerful and, indeed, liberating.
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Everything became far clearer, effective and efficient when I discovered that what we are looking for already lies within. Your potential lies within you. Confidence is within you. Concentration is within you. Have you ever found those things anywhere other than within you?

When I realised that these capacities are already there, the challenge, the opportunity and the journey became less about adding something from the ‘outside-in’ and instead, allowing these to come to the fore from the ‘inside-out’. And this process requires some learning, but even greater, it requires unlearning. Unlearning and letting go of beliefs – from how we define success and failure, the cause of our feelings/emotions and our conception of ourselves (self-image) - and finding out the possibilities that arise from what then remains.

In 2018, I published my first book ‘Pressure Myths’. ‘Perform Beyond Pressure’ evolves the ideas in that first book and brings to light the most impactful things that I have learned and unlearned subsequently about performance and well-being.  Like most people, I found myself with plenty of time to reflect during the summer of 2020 and to explore what it is that can make the biggest difference. I find writing to be the best way to clarify my thinking and perspective. It embeds my understanding. Then, once the narrative is clear, publishing it as a book to share it with others who might resonate with it is the method that feels right to me. I have loved reading books since I was a child and they remain my preferred approach of learning and unlearning.

So, here it is, Perform Beyond Pressure: 28,000 words about how we can realise our potential and enjoy the game for what it is. Available here on Amazon.Perform Beyond Pressure… Why I Wrote The Book

If it helped me, then it can help you.

There is stuff that you can learn about the mind and performance that makes it so much simpler, but does not seem to be common knowledge.

Much of what is suggested to help with performance psychology and well-being is ‘outside-in’. It says if you do this then you will get this. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with any of these outside-in suggestions. It is just that they overlook something that I found to be far more powerful and, indeed, liberating.

Everything became far clearer, effective and efficient when I discovered that what we are looking for already lies within. Your potential lies within you. Confidence is within you. Concentration is within you. Have you ever found those things anywhere other than within you?

When I realised that these capacities are already there, the challenge, the opportunity and the journey became less about adding something from the ‘outside-in’ and instead, allowing these to come to the fore from the ‘inside-out’. And this process requires some learning, but even greater, it requires unlearning. Unlearning and letting go of beliefs – from how we define success and failure, the cause of our feelings/emotions and our conception of ourselves (self-image) - and finding out the possibilities that arise from what then remains.

In 2018, I published my first book ‘Pressure Myths’. ‘Perform Beyond Pressure’ evolves the ideas in that first book and brings to light the most impactful things that I have learned and unlearned subsequently about performance and well-being.  Like most people, I found myself with plenty of time to reflect during the summer of 2020 and to explore what it is that can make the biggest difference. I find writing to be the best way to clarify my thinking and perspective. It embeds my understanding. Then, once the narrative is clear, publishing it as a book to share it with others who might resonate with it is the method that feels right to me. I have loved reading books since I was a child and they remain my preferred approach of learning and unlearning.

So, here it is, Perform Beyond Pressure: 28,000 words about how we can realise our potential and enjoy the game for what it is. Available here on Amazon.