Are you wondering how to give yourself a boost in business? Performance training could be the answer. Suz Hawkins, performance mentor with The Elite Sales Academy, and founder of Iron Rose coaching, explains.
One of the keys to success as a professional athlete is in preparation, and finding excellence in sport is no different to creating excellence in your everyday. We tend to underestimate the effect that lifestyle factors such as sleep, hydration, nutrition, stress and environment have on our performance. When you neglect these, even a little, this can influence your cognitive function, resulting in dips in energy, brain fog, anxiety or headaches. These problems often impact how you feel throughout the day and could make a difference to how you conduct your business, cope with objections or go about solving problems.
If you’re wondering how to give yourself a boost, here are three ways to use performance training to raise your game:
Strength Training
Strength training is a great way to get in shape, burning more calories over a longer period of time than cardio does, it helps improve mobility, strengthens bones and soft tissue aiding in injury prevention, as well as making every day functional activities easier. Not to mention making you feel much more confident in yourself. The list of benefits is endless. I love seeing how much my clients enjoy it once they dare to give it a go and I think it surprises them too!
Strength training for women still sadly has the misconception that it is going to make you big and bulky and masculine, but this really is not the case. Both women and men need to treat our bodies like a vehicle taking us on a long journey. We need to look after it, ensure the correct fuel is put in it and we drive it as it is intended (most of the time).
Mindset
Our mind is the real driving force behind everything we do. If we have the right mindset and we are giving the body everything it needs then we really can be unstoppable! There are plenty of times in competitive sport when, for whatever reason, one door closes, and you have to find the next challenge for yourself rather than focusing on the negative. Doing something that gives you confidence, and a sense of achievement, really helps with building those positive associations.
Habit-Stacking
Habit-stacking is making the most of your everyday routine by adding in new micro-habits at certain points in your day. The aim is to start to build new habits without feeling like you need to clear the diary and buy special equipment. To begin habit-stacking, look at your routine and identify where you can add a new habit. For instance, if you’re trying to be more mindful, you decide to meditate for one minute after you pour your morning coffee. Or if you want to move your body more, you decide to put on your running shoes the moment you get home from work.
By fine-tuning these factors so you’re firing on all cylinders and performing as the best version of ourselves then this can be the difference between closing a deal at work, communicating with others, or even just negotiating the everyday hurdles in life.
So, what new habit are you going to make part of your daily routine today?
Leave a comment below and together we’ll make those small changes make all the difference.
About the Author
Suz Hawkins, The Elite Sales Academy and Iron Rose Coaching.
Strength trainer and performance coach Suz is founder of Iron Rose Coaching, working with clients online and in-person to help them reach peak performance, both physically and mentally. Suz has an extensive and varied background in sport, winning Essex Strongest Woman 2022, as well as The South’s Strongest Woman (U73kg) 2022 & 2023 (U63kg) and a double England’s finalist in 2022 and 2023.
Studying Sports Science at Brighton & Hove, Suz has always had a passion for strength in sport, whether riding for the U21’s British Dressage Squad or training as an AASE Boxer and competing internationally. Suz is passionate about the importance of strength conditioning for everyone but especially women and works hard to ensure that training with Iron Rose Coaching is fun, empowering and fills clients with confidence.
Not content with running her own growing business, Suz has recently joined her partner Nick at Elite Sales Academy to bring her deep knowledge of athletic performance to those training for success in sales. As a mentor, Suz will work with students to help them understand the importance of preparation, good habits, and discipline, and demonstrate that with the right approach, anything is possible.