Personal Best - your personal best: tips & hacks for your everyday life

When it comes to sports, you chase your personal best, you want to develop your full potential at work – and in everyday life? What does a best performance look like there? Does this even exist when it comes to shopping, raising children or spending your free time? Of course! And this story shows you how.

Every person wants to get the best out of themselves. And there are countless guides, books, coaches and internet tips on how you can achieve this in sport or at work. But for everyday life? The offer is a bit poor.

We want to change that. In this story we talk about top performance and expectations, about complexity and flow, about under- and over-challenging. And above all, about how you can achieve what you set out to do in a relaxed, sustainable and more fun way in your everyday life.

So: read on quickly! Personal Best , here we come – full steam ahead!

The best way to perform at your best: relax!

 

Do you know Usain Bolt ? The Jamaican sprinter is the fastest man in history and a multiple world record holder and Olympic champion. And he is very, very relaxed - even seconds before the race in front of millions of spectators.

But this isn't supposed to be about world records and Olympic victories. It's more about the secret of many famous, successful people: They master their challenges confidently and relaxed , simply because they are more relaxed. Because they mentally reduce negative stress and pressure - and convert it into positive stress and productive effort. They can do this because they are very aware of their skills and weaknesses.

Negative stress and pressure are not good if you want to reach your full potential. Of course, sometimes stupid situations cannot be avoided - but with the following tips and hacks you can reduce them and, in an emergency, handle them better and more relaxed. Because: Best performances are always the performances that you can achieve to the maximum in the respective situation. Which brings us to expectations .

Expectations: Personal Best means something different to everyone

If we take Usain Bolt and an average hobby runner, they both have very different goals and views on what their personal best can be. And that's perfectly fine. Things only get bad when the amateur runner sets his sights on Usain Bolt's best time. We can also translate this into everyday life: pressure and stress arise when our expectations are too high - and we set unrealistic goals for ourselves.

Then there is the external pressure that comes from being on social media or constantly being asked by advertising or other people to improve ourselves. Everything doesn't have to be that way. You can do this to approach things with realistic expectations - whether at work, during sports or in your everyday life. And you'll achieve your very individual, relaxed and happy best performance:

Don't compare yourself to others. And if you do, choose very carefully who you use as a role model. Did Person X really achieve their physique without illegal tools or Photoshop? Can you and do you really want to work as much and as hard as person Y? And is Person Z really the ideal role model for the household if they can finance child care and you can't?

Pay attention to yourself and your likes and dislikes. Why do you enjoy hosting but not marathons? Why do you fall asleep straight away while reading, but can binge-watch an entire series in one sitting? Why do you like being around people but not so much alone? Why are you more productive in the evening than in the morning? Sometimes it helps to be very aware of who you are. Take a look at our story about chronobiology .

Know your strengths and weaknesses. You will find this again below. Find things (especially in your free time) that you love and are good at. They should still be challenging (otherwise it will be boring). But going mountain hiking just because everyone else is doing it on Instagram isn't really a motivation. Especially if you don’t have the physical fitness for mountain hiking at all.

Get feedback. Whether it's friends or family, colleagues or your hairdresser: they can all give you important tips on how you look, what you're good at, and what you find difficult (from the outside).

The route is the goal. It sounds trite, but it is true. It's better to set yourself many small milestones than one huge one. This way you can celebrate many small successes or digest a few small setbacks more easily. Do you want to do more with friends again? Organize a small barbecue instead of a huge party with dozens of guests. Would you like to do more sports? Start slowly instead of immediately thinking about the Ironman in Hawaii.

Set priorities. What is important to you? What is not so important to you? Write a list. And look at how many of the good things you do. And how. This way you can quickly see what might still have to wait. The dust under the couch is annoying, but it's not important to you? Then focus on the upcoming board game evening or on other things that are really important to you.

Clean up. And that applies to all situations in life. Best performances always have something to do with order, structure and clarity. Whether it's your room, your desk, your thoughts or your diet: if you consciously clear out everything that threatens this clarity, you'll get a new boost in everything you do.

And above all: don't put pressure on yourself. You are you. With all your talents, quirks and peculiarities. And that's how it should be.

 

The flow: as if in a trance to achieve your best performance

The flow is almost like a magical creature. Those who know him adore him - and those who don't know him have probably heard rumors about it. It is such an important factor in everyday life (both professionally and privately) that we have written our own story on how you can experience flow . At this point we'll be brief: According to the inventor of flow theory, Mihály Csíkszentmihályi , flow arises when we tackle a task that neither overwhelms nor underwhelms us. The flow itself represents this almost spiritual experience because we perform at our best in a highly focused manner - quickly, concentrated, precisely and, above all, completely relaxed.

The flow in everyday life: Personal Best thanks to full concentration

You cannot force the flow state. But there are things you can do to make it more likely. These tips apply to every challenge. Whether sporty, professional or just in your free time. The flow can occur while you're jogging, making spreadsheets, or cooking. Like I said: It's magical.

Get things organized before you get started. A tidy workplace or ideal preparation for sports and leisure time make many things easier.

 

Make your challenge appealing. If something comes to us too easily, we quickly get bored. If a task is too difficult, it puts us off. That's why you can make sure to design your task so that it offers exactly the right balance. For example, if tasks are too easy, you can try to achieve your personal best time; if tasks are very difficult, you can try to split them into many small sub-tasks - and flow will be more likely.

Personal best is what is good for you. This way you can achieve your best performance in a more relaxed manner.

 

Complexity and best performance : The essentials are crucial

A book is an incredibly complex thing. Thousands of words and often hundreds of pages that hardly make any sense independently of each other. But when we read it, we read letter by letter, word by word, page by page. And make the complex simpler. We concentrate on what is important by taking one step at a time, ignoring what is unimportant and approaching the task in front of us (e.g. reading the next page of the book) calmly. The result: Given a little perseverance, we can read and understand a thousand-page tome.

What does this mean for our best performance in everyday life ? Above all, one thing: less stress . And more success. Because we literally develop our potential little by little and get the best out of ourselves. If we combine this with the other tips and hacks in this story, everything becomes easier.

• The day in the gym becomes easier because we approach it machine by machine, exercise by exercise. No matter how extensive the training plan is for that day.
• The day at work becomes more relaxed because we master one task after another. We deliver, even when the schedule is overflowing.
• Leisure activities are becoming more sustainable because we can play board games in the here and now, enjoy a hike or experience a long car journey as an adventure.

This way you can reduce the complexity in everyday life

Five tips on how you can approach even complex tasks more clearly and in a more relaxed manner - for your very own best performance in everything you do:

• Perfection is an illusion. That's why you can safely forego perfectionism. It costs time and energy – and often has the opposite effect.
• Order and creativity in balance. Rituals and systems are good. But if they are too rigid, they can limit creativity or motivation. Always run on Wednesdays? Yoga every Friday? If it rains on Wednesday or you get a spontaneous visit on Friday, you're stuck: the mental pressure increases, the challenges become unpleasant - bad for the flow.
• Solutions instead of problems. When you focus on solutions, problems tend to disappear into thin air. Take a step back, recognize the problem – and then look for ways to solve it. This takes a lot less energy than constantly thinking about the problem itself!
• The important things first. Think about which task is really urgent or which challenge you would like to tackle. Anything that doesn't immediately come to mind can be pushed down your to-do list. Take a look at our story, in which we tell you how you can increase your concentration
• Strengths and weaknesses. Knowing yours gives you an advantage - whether you're organizing a family barbecue, planning your workout or preparing a presentation. You can use strengths, compensate for weaknesses - and above all, don't get upset when your weaknesses become noticeable. Is just the way. And that's just as well.

Nutrition, sleep: Top performers need food and rest

Our bodies and especially our brains need food and fluids to function. So far, so known. To optimally support your body and brain, you can take a look at your nutrition plan . You should drink at least 1.5 liters a day (preferably water and preferably two to three liters). You should eat everything that is good for you. Lots of vegetables and fruit, plenty of proteins, wholesome carbohydrates and fats. To see what your body needs, you can have a blood test and a general check-up done by your family doctor. Always good in everyday life: snacks and supplements that help you deliver on all challenges. This is where we come into play. Take a look at our dice , our school material , our bars and the Dextro Energy* minis . This way you can treat yourself to something tasty when you get hungry, sweeten your challenges and concentrate on what's important .

 

Sleep is just as important as drinking enough water and eating well. If you are tired, you can forget about personal bests and other best performances. You should get at least six hours of sleep per night, and you can also consider taking a break during the day if you feel like you're falling into a motivation hole. Even 30 minutes of power napping can work wonders. You can find out more about sleep and what roles owls and larks play in our story about chronobiology .

* contains carbohydrates

A varied, balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle are important.