Why do we need “performance rituals” to bring out our A-game?

Self-talk based routines for high-pressure situations

A footballer has a game face. A tennis player has a match strategy. A golfer has a “self-talk” routine to break her negative loop.

What do you do when you are called into a sales meeting haphazardly? Or a colleague tries to steamroll you in a performance meeting? Or a manager forces you to take a project that is biased to fail from the beginning?

We live in a world of constant distraction. World’s best technology companies compete for our attention and we are alone in our fight for focus and outcomes.

Our contemporary life has become more and more like competitive sports. In sudden high-pressure situations, we are supposed to face and deliver despite all the distractions. It’s like playing in a stadium of fifty thousand people chanting against us consistently. This is the reality we live in. This reality triggers fears that make us lose the will to focus and execute.

We need routines that help us focus. We need rituals that help us shift the gear from negative self-talk to constructive self-talk inside our heads. We need methods that help us become aware of the way we talk to ourselves. We need help to build self-talk that is constructive and helpful.

We all need rituals for performance. We need exercises that help us prepare for big and small moments. We need routines that help us access the best parts of our minds that are crucial to our decision-making.

Armies have rituals. Warriors have rituals. Sportspersons have rituals. Rituals help us depend on ourselves leading to higher self-confidence. Rituals are ways we can prep ourselves mentally for a specific situation. And in a world of constant distraction, we need “high-performance” rituals to constantly bring out our A-game. This is what Konvos does. Konvos helps us build performance rituals for ourselves. Konvos delivers rituals that are tailor-made for us to emotionally perform better in difficult life contexts that are important to us.

Welcome to Konvos Bites.

Harish is the co-creator of Konvos — the Self-Talk app for Emotional Health.