BBF068: Achieving High Human Performance with Dr Adam Fraser

Achieving High Human Performance With Dr Adam Fraser

Every day in business – in life in fact – we face challenges. That’s obvious, right? But what is less obvious is the importance of the downtime between each challenge. If you treat it with the right amount of respect, your success can go through the roof. Play it wrongly and you set yourself up to fail, time and again. Dr Adam Fraser has done mountains of research on the topic and has kindly offered to share some of the results with us on this week’s podcast. It really is astonishing just how much more happy and successful people can be once they implement some very simple rules. In short, if you are able to reset your mind in between each challenge, your chances of succeeding at the next one are greatly increased, and this is backed up by some seriously compelling data. But how do you ‘reset your mind’? Dr Fraser has a simple three-point method that anybody can do. Having worked with elite athletes, the military, and the high-fliying corporate world, he developed the method when trying to answer the question of “what makes these people high achievers?” The answer was in how effectively they moved from one action to the next, e.g. how a pro tennis player thinks in between points is the difference between them being a champion and an also-ran. Dr Fraser’s book, ‘The Third Place’ explores this murky and often ignored part of the human psyche. In the podcast he elaborates on the methods in the book, which can do a lot more than merely prepare you for the next challenge. They can actually be the first step in achieving some of those holy grail aspirations like “work/life balance”, “being a good leader” etc. etc. Below are some nuggets from the chat:

** Between every challenge, you must: 1. Reflect on the last one. Rest your mind afterwards by doing something that brings you into ‘the now’ (a call centre worker achieved good results by pulling out one piece of jenga after every call, for example).  3. Reset your mind by then focusing on exactly what you want to achieve from the next challenge.

** Humans have a default negative bias, so there is no shame in needing to use a method like this in order to be happy and successful.

** Spending a long time at work away from home doesn’t automatically make for an unhappy family life. Your mindset when returning home has actually been proven to be more important than the amount of time you are there.

In this episode of Business Brain Food you will learn:

** The difference between ‘respond’ and ‘react’

** How to be a better manager and leader

** How to achieve a work/life balance

** How your behaviour affects others

** Why struggling is actually a positive thing

Resources mentioned in this episode:

** Business Coaching (http://actioncoachanz.com/businessrich)

** Dr Adam Fraser’s website (http://www.dradamfraser.com)

** Dr Adam Fraser’s twitter (http://www.twitter.com/dradamfraser)

** The Third Space book (http://www.thethirdspace.com.au)

** Facebook (facebook.com/businessbrainfood)

** Business Brain Food Facebook Group (facebook.com/groups/businessbrainfood)

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

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

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

  It is very reassuring to know just how many good results Dr Fraser’s simple methods have achieved, but you don’t need to be a doctor to actually implement them.  In less than an hour of conversation, he has provided some of the best shortcuts to success you will ever hear.  If you follow them, you can literally change your life tomorrow… and we’re not exaggerating! 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]