I’ve been keeping up with my daily reading on my commute. As I mentioned in the previous post, I’ve been reading The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance by Josh Waitzkin. I really cannot recommend the book enough for anybody who wants to improve their performance in whatever they do. There’s been so many things I’ve been struggling with in my life, certain inconsistencies, that are addressed in the book. In fact, this post is part of an exercise that I’m starting based on a recommendation in Part III: creating a trigger.

In Part III of the book, Waitzkin helps his friend “Dennis” create a routine for triggering a serene, focused state of mind. The idea is centered around finding something that one enjoys, yet requires a decent amount of focus, but in doing the activity could easily lose track of time. For me, at least for now, it’s writing and the act of “bringing something to life” (this will also help me be more consistent with these blog posts for the time being). The whole point of the routine is to trigger the serene, focused mindset even if one isn’t about to do the activity that initially allowed them to trigger the focused state. The routine I’ve made for myself is as follows:

1. Push-ups/Burpees/Jacks (or any other heart raising activity)
2. Mini Yoga
3. A light snack (probably fruit or nuts)
4. Listen to my “Trigger” playlist
5. Write a blog post

The idea is that I will perform steps 1-4 in a consistent manner then write a blog post to trigger a relaxed state of mind. After doing this consistently for a certain period of time, I will perform steps 1-4 but instead of writing a blog post, I will do something where such a relaxed, yet clear state of mind is needed: play Melee, go to a tournament, create something. I’m looking forward to see how far this gets me.