Lindsay Briner Breaks Down a New Approach to Peak Performance for Modern Leadership

Is the go-go-go mode for executives and entrepreneurs really the healthy way? Behind the scenes of a high performer’s life, there is often an addiction to stress and adrenaline, a pattern that gets locked into the nervous system based on the dopamine rewards of achievement. Therefore, many executives, leaders, entrepreneurs, and high performers alike are all secretly unfulfilled.

They stretch themselves too thin, driving themselves to burnout and feel the toll physically.

They push themselves to achieve company goals, while cutting corners on their personal health and making rash, impulsive decisions.

Behind closed doors, they experience existential anxiety. Sometimes feeling like it’s not worth it, what they do is meaningless, and lose connection to their purpose.

They are so on-the-go that they lose sight of the impact of what they’re doing, and even forget why they started doing it in the first place.

According to performance coach Lindsay Briner, there is a novel way to approach performance excellence in not just work and career, but in all areas of life. This new approach can resolve the all too common dysfunctions of the average person striving to be a better leader whether in their family, community, business, and world at large. 

Lindsay has been working as both a research scientist and working 1:1 with clients for nearly over a decade now. Her recently published research in the American Psychological Association Journal of Consciousness is the first of many of hers to come out that demonstrates this new perspective. https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2021-81896-001.html

The new approach to performance is a novel distinction between a state and a trait. A lot of people want to reach the popular “flow state” without considering it’s temporary nature. The constant chase to reach this state can cause a lot of inconsistent ups and downs. 

The roller coaster ride of stress and adrenaline is already at a high for entrepreneurs and executives, why add to that flurry? This creates the physical and psychological issues and patterns mentioned above, chronically. The antidote is stability; stabilized flow. 

Here Lindsay shares key distinctions on the differences between leadership development without consistency, and leadership development that strives for stability, which is especially critical while living in the uncertainty of a post-pandemic world. 

Ordinary Leaders:

  • Uncertainty and confusion
  • Lost in Fear, doubt, and disbelief
  • They react to change/chaos  on instinct (rather than strategy)
  • They’re distracted
  • Moody
  • Prone to addictions to food, substances, social media, etc
  • Irritable
  • Forgetful
  • Chronic health issues 
  • Disconnection and imbalance between work and life
  • And ultimately, seriously at risk to all of these physical and mental downfalls of chronic panic and stress

Modern Leaders:

  • Unshakable calm and inner peace
  • clarity of mind
  • skillful decision-making for the long-term benefit (rather than impulsive short-term vision)
  • Creative complex problem solving
  • Innovative insight
  • sense of purpose and meaning
  • Sense of service, and authentic compassion
  • Unlocked hidden gifts or capacities spontaneously 
  • Little irritability in reaction to chaos/stressors 
  • Skillful sense-making in the face of misinformation
  • Stabilized flow, a feeling of effortlessness in all areas of live
  • Fundamental wellbeing

According to her neuro-psychology research, the difference between these two types of leaders is that one is striving for temporary moments of flow state and peak performance, while the other is striving for a stabilized flow. 

It all comes down to needing a permanent nervous system reset. Everyone’s patterns in how they respond to stress are different. Lindsay’s unique approach to performance uhooks those patterns and rewires the limbic system to help clients reach stabilized flow; when inner peace, calm, creativity, and motivation keep you  “in the zone” not just temporarily, but permanently. Self-awareness of these patterns, meditation, mixed with peak performance practices are key to achieving this. 

This is especially valuable in a post-pandemic world when there is so much external uncertainty for what the immediate and long term future holds. Not to mention staying healthy and beating any and all viruses. Lindsay teaches how the immune system is referred to as our ‘floating brain’ because of its ability to communicate with the brain through chemical messages that float around inside our body. It has a direct line of communication between the body and the brain to signal distress. This means a strong mind equals a strong body. So there are high expectations and values for modern leaders to stay healthy, rise above adversity, and stay calm in the eye of any storm. 

To learn more about Lindsay and her work, visit her website here.

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