BBF090: Work Life Balance and High Performing Teams with Mark McKeon

Are you enduring your career, or are you enjoying your career? Our guest this week has kindly given us the toolkit to make sure we enjoy our careers. Mark McKeon has become a master of the art of mind control and high performance, thanks to 20+ years as a performance coach in the AFL and beyond.

What sets Mark apart from many gurus is that he is qualified in the physiology of performance, as well as the mental side. He’s just as comfortable talking about adrenaline and cortisol as he is about positive thinking and prioritising. His book, “The Go Zone”, is a culmination of his years of work and study, so we talked to him about how his “Go Zone” framework can be used by people to achieve maximum performance. Here were some of the highlights:

** Be in control of events rather than letting events control you.

** Stress in itself is not a bad thing – in fact, we all need a certain level of stress to remain healthy – but not recovering from stress is extremely harmful.

** Know your diary three weeks in advance and compartmentalise everything from the most important tasks right down to time off.

** Consider using a buzzer or some kind of automatic mechanism to help you compartmentalise your days.

** Have no shame in letting people know that you are not to be disturbed when you’re in your most important time slot of the day (AKA, your “Go Zone”). You could wear a hat, lock the door, turn your phone off etc. etc.

** Mark’s optimum length for being 100% focused on your own tasks is 2 hours

What’s in your mind has a clear physical impact which, in turn, affects the way you think and the way you perform. This is why getting a hold of each day is so important. The “Go Zone” is part of a framework to make sure you don’t sleepwalk into bad mental and physical habits. In this episode of Business Brain Food you will learn:

** The value of business coaching

** How to buy yourself more time

** How to get over the guilt of not doing work

** What a “Go Zone” means

** How to handle the weekend

** The control of adrenaline

** How cortisol can create unhealthy habits

  Resources mentioned in this episode:

** Mark’s email address: [e-mail]

** Mark’s website: http://www.markmckeon.com/

** Business Brain Food Facebook Group – What should we do for the 100th show? Post your ideas to the group! (www.facebook.com/groups/businessbrainfood)

** Free, no-obligation business coaching chat with a member of Ben’s team: (http://actioncoachanz.com/free-business-coaching-session)

** Ben’s Daily Business Tips podcast (http://www.dbtpodcast.com)

** Facebook (www.facebook.com/businessbrainfood)

** Twitter (https://twitter.com/bfewtrell)

** ActionCOACH (http://actioncoachanz.com/itunes)

** ActionCOACH (http://actioncoachanz.com/stitcher)

  Remember that there is some concrete science behind the ups and downs of the working day - it can be physically measured in terms of adrenaline, blood sugar etc. – it’s not just the random factor of “having a bad day” or “having a good day”. The good news is; you can control it. Have a listen to Mark and he’ll show you how. The science behind it is complex, but the way to apply it is very simple indeed. Now get in that Go Zone! Also, if you are enjoying these Business Brain Food podcasts, then make sure to share them via social media sites or email the links to family and friends. A lot of time and effort goes into producing each of these podcasts with the goal in mind of the more people we can inspire about business the better. You can help us do just that! Until next time, have a profitable day. Cheers, Ben Fewtrell [phone]