Ride with the Tiger to Tame Your Brain & Maintain Peak Performance

 Dr. Douglas Polster, Performance Psychologist

“The first thing I do is set the record straight about expectations versus reality. . . I work in the present but respect the past. . . and stress is only a bad thing when we don’t have a reset button.”— Dr. Douglas Polster

 

In today’s episode, Dr. Shah and Kevin Peake speak to Dr. Douglas Polster, a performance psychologist and professor of neurobiology, who helps us to quiet the nagging inner voice which keeps us from achieving our highest goals and standards. Move past traditional cognitive behavioral therapy and lean into peak performance with Dr. Polster’s fascinating insights about how the brain actually works. Discover the most cutting-edge research and what it tells us about how to manage our state of mind.

With tools introduced by Dr. Polster, you can achieve higher levels of performance, quiet the nagging fear that the levels of success you’ve already achieved can not only be maintained, but tweaked to their maximum levels, and understand how fear doesn’t haven’t to cripple you, or keep you in a perpetual state of fight-or-flight.

Dr. Polster normally works with high achievers that are already knocking it out of the park, but are uncertain how to maintain their peak performance levels. He has invaluable advice for everyone though, no matter where they are in their journey to an optimized life.

Referencing a Will Ferrell movie as the perfect teaching tool to visualize what must be done cognitively to maintain high-performance levels, this podcast with Dr. Polster is brimming with entertaining quips and eye-opening moments.

 

Highlights:

• Learn how to stay at the peak of your game (life) when the stakes are already high.
• Understand how that voice in your ear that says, “you’re not good enough, or you can’t do it,” can’t be fought, but acknowledged and kept in check. In other words, realize how to make friends with your fear.
• Find out what the movie Talladega Nights can teach us about how our brains work, and how our best asset can become our Achilles heel or our best teacher.
• Learn what to do about burn-out.
• How to constantly increase reach, even without a magic coping skill.
• Understand why what you do matters.
• Uncover your values without living to check off boxes.
• Realize that your “why” is your North Star.
• Learn why cognitive success isn’t a one and done thing.
• Know what to do when you can’t remove failure as an inevitable part of life.
• Put realistic effects in place.
• Get a 101 explanation of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
• Understand how the way you think, affects the way you feel, which then affects the way you act.
• Use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy tools as the next wave of CBT.
• Learn how to diffuse negative or unproductive thoughts.
• Discover the Pomodoro technique (why breaks are invaluable to break up stress).
• Discover mindfulness techniques to get “back in the zone” in every moment.
• Learn how “automatic rules” instilled in childhood can be changed.

 

Next|Heath:

Website: https://www.next-health.com/

Instagram: @next_health

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nexthealth

 

Dr. Darshan Shah:

Website: https://www.drshah.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DarshanShahMD

Making the Cut: https://www.drshah.com/making-the-cut.html

 

Dr. Douglas Polster

Website: https://www.polsterperformance.com/about-1

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drdougpolster