Beside the tangible benefits that competent performance can bring (e.g. recognition. financial rewards) it also enhances self-esteem and a sense of achievement. Moreover, psychologists claim that ‘human beings have an innate need to be competent, effective and self-determining’(1) – in other words, doing well feels good. So, we will focus here on what contributes to competent performance.

Precursors to competence

These steps can prepare you to perform competently:

• Practice: competence depends more on how effectively we utilise our abilities (whatever they are) than what abilities we have. Research supports the notion that talent plays a smaller role in an achievement than effort and time put into an activity(2). So, saying ‘I am not good at it’ is just an excuse. The more you practise, the better you will get.
• Doing everything well: trying always to do well regardless of what you are doing and its importance will help you perform competently when under pressure because it becomes a habit.
• Importance: giving too little importance to what you do can make you overly laid back, while giving too much importance can increase anxiety to the point of being paralysing. So try to find your own ‘Goldilocks zone’ in regard to this and keep importance within that range – this simply means taking what you are doing seriously but not too seriously.
• Being your own judge: if your priority is to satisfy your own standards rather than those of others, their praise or criticism can still have a positive effect on your performance but the negative effect will be reduced.
• A good physical and mental shape: if you don’t feel well or are tired or worrying about something, you will hardly be able to concentrate and perform well.

This area focuses on the ways we structure our lives and activities. Organisation is often perceived as an imposition, a chore that many people engage with reluctantly. So this is firstly an invitation to consider that organisation not only has many benefits but it can be a creative process – there is more than one way to plan and organise your life and activities!

Why organisation matters

There are a number of reasons why organisation may be of value:

• It saves you time and makes your life easier
• Harmony outside contributes to harmony inside
• It helps you achieve your goals
• It is socially desirable (e.g. always being late is not cool)
• It reduces stress – and it can be nice

How do you feel about organising? It is easier if you feel good, so spare a moment to consider how you can make it more appealing. For example, do you want to be more creative in your life? Be creative in organising your files, kitchen, clothes or music files!

This area is important as our energy level not only affects our performance, but also our emotional state and cognitive functions. We will address first the factors that affect our energy (body – mind; rest – activity) and how it can be preserved. Exercises that can be used to enhance energy will be suggested at the end.

Maintaining energy

Body care: taking care of your body is crucial for retaining an optimal level of energy. This is what body care requires:

• Good conditions and maintenance (warmth, nutrition, hygiene).
• Being responsible with what may be harmful (drugs, alcohol, tobacco, processed sugar and fats, etc.).
• Poised posture and the balanced use of the body (e.g. if you carry something, try to distribute the weight evenly rather than carrying it on one side). These not only save energy but also prevent wear and tear of the spine, joints, ligaments and muscles as well as protect against injury.
• All the above is common sense, but probably the most important and often neglected element of body care is listening to your body. Try to remember to listen to your body as often as you can and you will see what difference it will make.

State of mind: it is well known that our state of mind can affect the level of our energy (compare, for example, the level of energy exhibited by winners and losers after a sport competition). Emotions can have a debilitating effect (as in the case of depression), but they can also increase energy extraordinarily. Emotional blocks and inner conflicts consume energy and make you weaker. On the other hand, good moods, enthusiasm and laughter can release energy trapped by tension or worries and provide an energy boost.

Motivation is an inner push to act. Psychologists suggest that it ‘is an innate human drive and begins in infants as an undifferentiated need for competence and self-determination’.(1) There is no doubt that being able to affect our motivation is of great value, as little can be done without it. We are all too familiar with the debilitating effect that a lack of motivation can have. Learning about it is important not only to motivate ourselves, but also to be able to motivate others. This area will consider various types of motivation and how it can be increased.

Negative and positive motivation

• Negative motivation (an aspiration to preserve the existing state and avoid whatever threatens to make it worse) is associated with negative feelings (e.g. fear).
• Positive motivation (moving further, expanding, improving the existing state) is associated with positive feelings.

The former can sometimes be stronger, but the latter is more effective in the long run. Besides, negative motivation often ends in experiencing a lack of energy and desire for rest – not from the trigger, but from the unpleasant feelings that one is motivated by. It is interesting though that whether motivation is positive or negative often depends on our perspective (e.g. you can run from an attacker, or you can run for safety). To transform negative motivation into positive, you need to focus on what can be gained, rather than on what has been or can be lost; for example, you can motivate yourself to prepare for an exam by the fear of failure, or by a desire to do well. The former can jolt you into action but the latter is better in sustaining your motivation because it feels good.

Now, there are several categories of positive motivation – it can be useful to become familiar with them as they can help us expand our repertoire of possible ways to motivate ourselves.

Having a sense of control is a universal need. An infant’s crying, for example, is a way for her to control her environment. Yet what control really means can be easily misunderstood. So in this area we will consider various types of control, what affects control, and the difference between control and being controlling. But let’s see first why this subject is important.

Why a sense of control matters

Experiments on both humans and animals show that ‘the organism responds differently to conditions characterised by controllability on the one hand, and lack of control on the other’.(1) Diminished control increases feelings of insecurity and discontent, and reduces efficiency. On the other hand, having a sense of control has a positive effect on coping and also decreases the after-effects of distressing situations. The evidence from several sources indicates that this sense is an important factor not only in coping with stress, but for health more generally.(2) This is because it reduces excessive anxiety and physiological stress responses (such as adrenaline and cortisol secretion). Furthermore, it can also enhance motivation (e.g. if you feel that you are in charge of your kitchen, you may be more enthusiastic about cleaning it).

Control feeling: remember a situation when you had a sense of control. How did it feel? Where did you feel it in your body? Make a mental image or draw a picture of that state (e.g. sitting on top of a big balloon). Next time when you feel that you are losing the sense of control, recall that image in your mind and this should bring with it the sensation of control too. Beside an image, word or even movement (such as flicking one’s fingers) can serve the same purpose, as long as it is not used in other situations.

Coping is defined as an attempt to overcome or come to terms with difficulties or occurred losses. We will focus here mainly on coping strategies, but let’s have a look at stress and distress first.

Stress and distress

Two broad groups of situations require coping: losing situations that cause stress (e.g. running late for work), and situations in which a loss has already occurred, that cause distress (e.g. losing your job for being late). Stress relates to setbacks, distress to loss. Distress typically has a more profound effect because a loss cannot be prevented any more, but stress is far more common.

What triggers stress

Stress is usually instigated by your perception of a discrepancy between demands on you and your ability to deal with them. In other words, stress arises when there is a conflict between what you want or would like and what is actually happening. This means, for example, that you don’t get stressed when you are in a hurry but when you have to force yourself to stop despite being in a hurry. Such situations are common in modern society (waiting for a bus or lift, queuing, traffic jams, crowds, etc.). So, taking into account that something may go wrong, stop you or slow you down can go a long way – although it cannot eradicate stress completely, as things are not always predictable. Accumulated stress can affect our body (e.g. the immune and cardio-vascular systems), mind (e.g. the sleep, concentration), as well as relationships. Sometimes we use food, alcohol or drugs to deal with stress and distress, but the trouble is that they make us feel even worse after their effect is gone. Prescribed medication can be useful in providing a respite so that we can gather energy to deal with the situation, but they do not provide answers, they are not a solution. This is why we need coping strategies (to deal with both stress and distress).

Achieving refers to our ability to meet challenges and complete tasks. We are all born with the motivation to do so, although some life experiences may weaken it.(1) To increase our mastery over it, what contributes to each stage of the process will be highlighted.

Choose a challenge

To get most out of this area chose a task that you will keep in mind while reading and apply what you have read to (e.g. passing a driving test, winning a game, climbing a mountain). Try to pick a task of the right size for you. A task that is too easy may not be challenging or interesting enough to bring much satisfaction; too difficult a task may undermine your confidence and motivation. This said, there are ways of making big challenges manageable.

Making big tasks manageable

• A big project can be broken into several smaller tasks that are tackled in turn – this can bring a sense of accomplishment sooner and so maintain motivation. Let’s say your project is to sail around the world: one task could be to learn to sail, the other to save money to buy a boat, the third getting sponsors, the fourth sailing itself. But this is not all.
• Each task may be broken further into sequences. For routine tasks it is better, if you can, to start with the hardest one while you still have a lot of energy (e.g. if you are going to clean the flat, start from the dirtiest room). For challenging tasks start with the easiest sequence – this will give you the confidence to tackle more difficult ones if successful, or a more realistic view of the project if you can’t complete even the easiest part.

Assuming that you have chosen what you want to achieve, let’s now turn to each stage of the process.

Strategy is a general course of action (rather than a detailed plan). We often choose one out of habit, so it is common to be blind to some possibilities and recognise them only retrospectively. The purpose of this area is to reduce this occurrence. To do so, the basic ways of approaching problems are considered first and then a number of specific methods are suggested.

Facing the problem Problems

themselves are not a problem – we like them and create them when we don’t have them (e.g. crosswords, games etc.). The real problem arises when we don’t know how to solve them. But to be able to solve them, we need to face our problems first. Putting them off might bring temporary relief, but this often allows them to grow and makes things worse. However, it is usually not a good idea to deal with several problems at the same time, so when you decide to face your problems you need to prioritise. To choose which one to tackle first, take into account their importance and also which ones may grow if unattended.

What’s the problem?

Once you have made a choice, the first step is to clarify what the problem really is. This is often neglected, and it is more difficult than it sounds. Saying, for example, ‘I am not happy at work’ is not sufficient. You need to specify the cause of your discontent (e.g. ‘I am not paid enough’, ‘I am not getting along with my colleagues’, ‘my workload is too heavy’, etc.). If you think this is easy or that it doesn’t matter, try this example: John’s wife has left him, he is drinking too much, and is in danger of losing his job. What is his problem? (The prospect of losing his job? Drinking? Not coping well with the break-up? Something else?) Perhaps there isn’t a definitive answer, but there is no doubt that whatever you come up with will affect your choice of possible solutions.

Having goals is important, but to put them into practice (especially long-term ones) you also need sustained resolve. Resolve can be broken down into determination and persistence, so these two topics will be covered here.

Determination

Determination is resoluteness to do what you intend despite temptations, drawbacks, obstacles or contrary desires (your own or somebody else’s). In other words, it means not giving in to yourself or others, and following your goals despite internal or external pressures that go against them. This implies that nothing should divert you from acting upon your decision, except another decision based on new insights or information (e.g. you hear on the radio that the place you want to go fishing is flooded). This ability can be a great personal asset, because even if everything else fails, you know that you can always rely on yourself.

The first step – make up your mind!

Do you sometimes still weigh up your options even after you have taken an action? Once you are clear about your aim and start making steps towards its realisation it is not helpful to keep thinking about it. An overlap between deciding and acting (i.e. mulling over other choices after having already moved in a certain direction) increases insecurity and negatively affects the quality of performance.

Doubt, as a part of the process of assessing and deciding, may help you avoid mistakes and make right decisions, but it is unproductive when it interferes with the already taken action. Your state of mind can contribute to the sense of being on the right track, in the right place at the right time, which, in turn, increases confidence and improves performance.

Setting aims (or goals) refers to the ability to conceptualise in specific terms not only what you want, but also how to get there. Being able to translate desires into aims is the way of fulfilling them. We will consider here the purpose of aims, how to formulate them, and some other related issues, including flexibility.

The purpose of aims

The main purpose of aims is to give us a sense of direction. Without them it is easy to become indifferent and let events dictate our course. Setting your goal is also the first step towards realisation. A goal creates an inner tension as there is a difference between where you are and where you want to be. A tendency to resolve that tension enables the goal to become a driving force, to pull you in a particular direction. Not only do aims increase motivation and persistence, but they also have a positive effect on attention, information processing, remembering, and performance. This is because a clear aim enables you to be selective and focus your energy. Furthermore, research indicates that ‘having valued goals and experiencing progress in goal pursuit are vital to our subjective well-being’.(1) The aim, though, is different from the reward. Reaching an aim provides satisfaction because the action has been accomplished, which may, but does not need to, bring an advantage or reward. In other words, crossing a finishing line is one thing; getting a medal for doing so is another.

Staying on track: when you feel that you are losing your sense of direction, self-guided imagination can help to focus your mind on your aim again: for example, you can imagine that you are heading in a boat towards the light-house, or aiming and shooting at a target. This does not need to take long, just a few moments can be enough.