How to Achieve Peak Performance

Building Your Forever Business – Step 10: Rhythm of Heroes

In Step 9, we looked at how Heroes are made through their actions and habits. By doing things repeatedly, they create a pattern of excellence that becomes difficult to break. By doing simple easy productive actions repeated consistently over time. It’s about doing ‘real work’ that achieves goals that brings you step by step closer to your Ultimate Goal and Desired Future. Moving along the Happy Path towards the desired future needs to become a rhythm. Putting yourself in the groove, the flow. In this step we’ll focus on how you take previous learning’s and apply them to your Ultradian Rhythm move further along the happy path towards your success.

For those just joining us at this point, you can continue and learn about the ultradian rhythm, but it’s worth starting at step 1, My Current State, to give you better context. And its the starting point of this adventure.

Let’s get started. In our Happy Path Flight Plan illustration, we are touching on Rhythm, now in orange and bold below.

Without rest, we cannot function optimally. The human body is in a constant state of stress, and when stressors are prolonged, our bodies break down.

When we don’t give our bodies time to recover from everyday activities and stressors, we risk losing the ability to perform even the simplest of tasks.

Resting is just as important as working—perhaps even more so. Even though rest may seem like an unimportant and unproductive part of the day, it’s actually essential to keeping your mind and body at peak performance levels.

When you fail to rest adequately, you risk a number of negative consequences as we shall find out below.

What is the Ultradian Rhythm and Why is it Important?

A rhythm is a strong, regular repeated pattern of movement or sound. The word “ultradian” refers to a cycle that repeats every 90 to 120 minutes in the human body. Your brain’s ultradian on average lasts for approximately 110 minutes.

In a sense, we have an internal clock that helps us regulate biological functions. The Ultradian rhythm is responsible for regulating important tasks such as metabolism, immune function, and hormone release such as cortisol. The Ultradian rhythm also plays a key role in regulating mood, mental performance, and even our ability to learn new things. The Ultradian rhythm is closely linked to the circadian rhythm, which is responsible for regulating sleep and wakefulness. Unlike circadian rhythms, ultradian rhythms can be altered and regulated through conscious actions. This means that you can help your body achieve a healthy ultradian rhythm simply by resting.

Under normal conditions, without any stressors, cortisol is secreted by the adrenal glands into the bloodstream in a circadian and ultradian rhythms.

Our Bodies Require Rest to Repair and Regenerate Tissue

The human body is constantly undergoing a process of breakdown and regeneration. We break down our muscles and tissues with physical activity, and then we use rest and sleep to repair and regenerate these tissues. As you engage in physical activity, your body releases a protein called cortisol, which raises your blood sugar level. This is helpful to an extent, but prolonged periods of cortisol release can have negative consequences. It can lead to increased body fat, suppressed immune function, and impaired cognitive abilities.

Cortisol is crucial for helping us survive during periods of prolonged stress and physical exertion, but it should not be released during rest or sleep. This is why we require rest to repair muscle and tissue and regenerate our bodies. This is why we should not be doing physical activity in the evenings as it elevates cortisol prior to sleep. And cortisol continues to be released while we sleep. This could impact you by making it difficult to fall asleep much like caffeine does. Physical activity should be completed ideally before 2pm and no later than 4pm.

Sleep is Essential to Mental Performance

We’ve already discussed the link between mental performance and cortisol levels. It’s also important to note that sleep is the only way that we can regulate our cortisol levels. When we go to sleep, our bodies release cortisol and other hormones that help us feel rested. As we sleep, our bodies are able to regulate our cortisol levels and keep them within a healthy range. Generally, midnight is the time point with the lowest concentration for cortisol. Two to three hours after sleep onset cortisol levels increase, and keep rising into early morning peaking at around 9 a.m.

When we don’t sleep, our cortisol levels remain high, making it difficult for us to rest and repair our bodies. Our brains are also unable to properly regulate our circadian rhythm and perform other important functions. In fact, a lack of sleep has been shown to affect mental performance more than any other factor. A study done in 2011 found that people who sleep for eight hours each night have more cognitive abilities and creative insights than people who sleep for six hours or less. The researchers concluded that sleep is essential to creative problem-solving and innovative thinking. Hence as we follow the happy path it is essential you remain happy and adequate sleep is a vital ingredient on your adventure to your desired future.

Short-Term Effects of Lack of Rest

As we’ve discussed, a lack of rest can have negative effects on your mental and physical health. However, even if you don’t notice these effects, they are still present in your body. If you consistently fail to rest adequately, you risk short-term side effects such as:

1. The first signs of symptoms of high cortisol are anxiety, depression, or irritability.
2. Bruises and purple stretch marks on your skin and increased risk of injury – When you don’t give your body adequate rest, your muscles and other tissues are unable to repair and regenerate properly. This is especially common among athletes, who often push their bodies to the limit without taking time to rest and heal. This can lead to injuries and an increased risk of being sidelined by an injury.
3. Decreased metabolism – When your body doesn’t get enough rest, it has trouble regulating your metabolism. This can lead to weight gain and a loss of energy and motivation.
4. Poor immune function – When you don’t get enough rest, your body fails to release the protein necessary to fight off infections and disease.

Long-Term Effects of Lack of Rest

If you consistently fail to rest adequately, you are at risk of developing chronic health issues, such as diabetes, heart disease, and even depression. A lack of sleep has also been linked to an increased risk of death.

1. Diabetes – When your body doesn’t get enough rest and fails to regulate insulin properly, you are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. This is especially common among people who are overweight and inactive.
2. Heart Disease – A lack of sleep can cause your body to release too much cortisol, leading to high blood pressure and heart disease. When your blood pressure is high, your risk of heart disease is significantly increased.
3. Depression – Studies have found that people who sleep for less than seven hours per night are almost twice as likely to develop depression than people who sleep for eight hours or more.

Taking Time to Rest Can Increase Productivity and Creativity

Sleep is essential to creative problem-solving and innovative thinking, but what about other tasks such as writing/blogging, making vlogs/videos and studying? When it comes to writing and studying, it’s important to have the right environment that helps you achieve the best performance possible. When you are consistently pushing yourself to your limits, you are unable to perform at your best. This is why taking time to rest is essential for maximizing productivity, creativity and maintaining positivity and drive.

The below diagram illustrates the 3 mains rhythms the body has and which parts of our daily lives it impacts.

The Importance of Breaks and the Ultradian Performance Rhythm

While resting is important, we also have to consider the importance of breaks during the day. Breaks are just as essential to our mental state as resting is. When we push ourselves to the limit, we risk burning out and suffering from mental fatigue. By taking regular breaks, we allow our bodies to recover and rejuvenate. Most people take breaks during their free time, but it’s also important to take breaks during work. For example, you should take a 20-minute break every 90 minutes to allow your brain to take a short break and recharge. Taking breaks during work can also help you avoid cognitive overload, which is an unsustainable level of mental load. This can lead to mental fatigue and reduced efficiency.

The diagram below is a full 24-hour Circadian rhythm with the Ultradian rhythm wavelengths flowing from 10pm (22:00) to 9pm (21:00) the next day. If you look at this overall cycle, you can see the sleep cycles in the beginning where we have shorter wavelengths of peaks and troughs. This is when your cortisol levels are the lowest around midnight and cortisol will start to then increase in the waking hours. Upon awaking the first Ultradian rhythm is normally the biggest, the morning peak. The morning peak is slightly higher than the following noon peak. And then as we go into the afternoons, we generally see those peaks dropping. Each ultradian rhythm is roughly 110 minutes long and the peak occurs in the first 90 minutes.

The peaks and troughs start to get smaller and reaching the peak becomes shorter too where the resting period increases. This explains the afternoon ‘slump’ many experience which is just the body requiring more rest to recuperate before the next rhythm starts. So, ‘power naps’ are very essential and will have a positive influence in your productivity for the next cycle.

Think of your first ultradian wavelength when you wake up as your first cycle so that you can start tracking it. And the best place to track it is in your journal. This will help with your planning and scheduling for the Systematic Approach from Step 8.

How to Achieve Peak Performance Through Resting

The Ultradian rhythm impacts our performance. For us to maximize our effort in completing our daily tasks, we need to make sure we’re in the right rhythm and generally for most people that is in the morning. But there are a portion of the population where they peak in the afternoons or even in the evenings.

There are a few steps you can follow to achieve peak performance through resting. They are as follows:

1. Find Your Optimal Resting Rhythm – Some people require more sleep than others. This is because everyone has their own individual resting rhythm. Some people require more hours of sleep, while others require less. What’s important is finding your optimal rhythm and consistently adhering to it. This will help you avoid insomnia and other harmful effects of not getting enough sleep.
2. Create an Environment That Supports Resting – You need to create the right conditions in which to rest. This means turning off all sources of distraction, such as your phone and other devices. It’s important to be comfortable, as well.
3. Find a Routine That Suits You – We all have different rhythms and preferences. Some people prefer to sleep early in the morning, while others prefer to sleep in the late hours of the night. Some people like a long nap in the afternoon and others prefer a short nap in the morning. What’s important is finding a resting routine that suits you and your lifestyle.

The Habit Setting Sheet, see diagram below, breaks the day into tasks so become aware of your ultradian cycle and fine tune your ‘Planned Start Time’ for each task accordingly. This sheet was covered in Step 8 The Systematic Approach, link provided if you are new here.

After an activity of 90 minutes, it is then important to rest your brain for 20 minutes before then picking up on your second peak. The average ultradian cycle is 110 minutes. This is why we have the habit setting sheet in 90 minutes sprints with 20 minutes rest to total one full ultradian cycle, so that we then maximize the period of your peak performance. And then when you need to rest, we make sure you rest before continuing.

And there you can see the 90 minutes checkpoint talks to your ultradian rhythm. We call that the ultradian sprint. This is also when your brain is the most focused to work and you get the most done. Hence why it is important that we then align our bodies into this rhythm.

Once you know when your peaks and troughs occur, adjust your schedule start time accordingly. Please be aware that not everybody’s rhythm is exactly 110 minutes. If you find that you can maybe do 100 minutes, then work for 80 minutes, then take a rest for 20, but always make sure you are taking a rest between tasks and always remember to start with the biggest, hardest, and most important task first. That is where your maximum performance occurs, and you should be able to get the biggest tasks done and get them out of the way and makes the remaining activities far easier to accomplish.

Finding the Proper Amount of Rest for Your Body

Whether you’re an employee or a business owner, rest is important to your overall success. You may have heard that “work hard, play hard,” but it’s just as important to rest hard. Resting is just as important as working and playing, if not more.

In fact, studies have shown that a lack of rest is more detrimental to your productivity than over-working. Your body will tell you when you need more sleep or when you need less sleep. This is why it’s important to pay attention to your body and create a resting routine that works for you.

As long as you’re getting adequate rest, there’s no wrong way to do it. Resting is essential to staying healthy, happy, and productive. While it may seem like an unproductive part of the day, it’s actually essential to keep your mind and body at peak performance levels.

Assignment

1. Monitor your Ultradian Rhythm by writing the times in your journal when you are most productive, and your brain is most alert.

2. Track and monitor this for a few days to see if its consistent.
3. Identify when your first peak starts, it should be either early morning or afternoon / early evening.
4. Once pinpointed try use the first productive peak with Task 1 in the All Systems Go – Habit Setting Sheet. Refer to Step 8: Systematic Approach for details.
5. Become more and more aware of your ultradian cycle and fine tune your Planned Start Times for each task accordingly.

Lastly, always ensure you get a minimum 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night to get proper rest. This ensures maximum productivity and keeps your ultradian cycle consistent.

If you are new here then I’d suggest starting with identifying your Current State covered in Step 1. For those who have been following their adventure along the happy path let’s move onto Step 11, Finding My Niche.