#Verified: Rachel Jones

"Training your brain can give you a key advantage in all performance contexts and is often the difference between average achievement and excellence in what you do."

This bold statement comes from Rachel Jones, the founder of Lift High Performance Consultants, and we love it. A sport and exercise psychologist with over ten years of experience in everything from cricket to horse riding to rugby, Rachel knows a thing or two about the brain and its role in peak performance.

Here, Rachel speaks to us about our most vital organ, shame spirals, and the importance of mental health.

It's awesome that you've already done some work with performing artists. In your opinion, what can actors learn from athletes?
Rachel Jones: Identity is a really big piece. So often, we find our identity in our performance. But that can sometimes take us too far down the rabbit hole where we get so connected to this identity of ourselves as a performer that we forget everything else that actually defines us. And that can potentially be really dangerous because if anything goes wrong – in sport, if you stop getting selected; as an actor, if you're going for audition after audition after audition – that rejection can become internalised, and you feel like they're rejecting you rather than rejecting you for that part.

If we feel like our identity is our performance, then we're more likely to spiral into shame because shame is about identity: "I'm not good enough" as opposed to "What I did wasn't good enough" – which are two very different things.

So it's separating the two and being able to go, "I'm not defined by my outcomes. Yes, I'm working towards outcomes, and there are outcomes that I want to get to, but they don't actually define who I am as a person".

Ooof... What strategies do you have for managing this? Especially in fields like ours, where the line between person and performer can be so fine?
RJ: I like to think of identity like a stool – it has different legs to it. If you have a one-legged stool, it's going to be a really thick leg and it's going to be really strong, right? But if anything happens to that leg, you're on the floor pretty quickly.

So, if you think about it like that, you can build other legs for your chair. That might be investing in relationships, investing in a hobby... Not something that has a deadline or that you have to invest a lot of time in, but that gives you another piece to your life and some stability as well.

Also, if you think about the seat of the chair as who we are – our strengths, weaknesses, values, and purpose – that should spread over all the different areas of life and not just that performance area.

You've spoken about the ability of sport psychology-based coaching to "enhance creativity". Can you talk more about this?
RJ: When we start to put pressure on ourselves and start to get super anxious or super busy or super stressed, we stifle creativity. So, a lot of what we do is about creating space to be creative – things like mindfulness, being in the present, and removing some of the distractions.

There are also performance routines that you can use to get into flow. We talk a lot about being "in the zone" in sports, but it's the same thing with creativity. It's about creating optimal conditions to perform at your best.

Your work emphasises the role of the brain in peak performance. How can we look after our brain so it looks after us in the moments that count?
RJ: Always start with the basics. As high performers, we can get into this all-or-nothing routine where, when it's really busy, the basics fall off the wagon: exercise, good nutrition, good sleep, and self-care. They're the basics to start with.

Connection is really important for brain health too. Connecting with other people, but also connecting with nature, with things that we enjoy as well.

And then linking everything back to purpose. Our brain does really well when we are linked to our purpose and values. Even if you're doing something that is a means to an end, finding a way to link it to your purpose makes it so much more meaningful, and will keep you going longer as well.

On longevity, a goal actors and athletes share is that of consistently high levels of performance. How do you help your athletes bounce back when they fall short?
RJ: There's a big clue in the question: consistent performance. Sometimes we don't even have that mindset because we're looking for perfection, we're looking for the best performance every time.

The greatest performers – both on the field and off – are consistent. They have good days and not-so-good days, but the ones you remember are the ones that are consistently at the higher end. They might not be great all the time, but they're consistently good. It kind of averages out over a lifetime. Aim for that consistency rather than perfection.

Errors are going to happen. That's part of learning. You can't learn without making mistakes because you don't know what you don't know. But if you learn from those mistakes, then you're going to be better next time. And you're going to be better the time after that as well.

We don't need to be afraid of saying, "That performance wasn't up to scratch". Disappointment can be empowering. It can prompt us to improve our performance. But if we're in a shame spiral – if we feel we're saying, "I wasn't up to scratch" – that can be very disempowering and keep us stuck.

Performer well-being seems to play a big role in your work. Can you talk to us about the link between mental health and performance?
RJ: In terms of sustainability of performance, mental health is extremely important. But it's hard because history is littered with examples of people who had poor mental health and were exceptional performers. But that also begs the question: imagine if they were mentally healthy.

Looking after your mental health doesn't have to look the same for everybody. It's [about] understanding what you need – just like any type of health. It's understanding what's important for you, what helps you function at your best.

One thing that we haven't touched on is having good coping strategies in place so you're not leaning on unhealthy coping strategies – things like drugs and alcohol. In the short term, those things might feel fun; in the long term, they have pretty severe consequences.

To double-click on good coping strategies, actors often fail to implement – or even create – a post-performance routine. What might you suggest this look like?
RJ: It's always helpful to have some sort of wind-down routine – journaling, reflection, or debriefing with somebody else – to help make that shift.

I think of these transitions as different rooms in a house. If you imagine that the event [performance] is like a room, you leave through the door and do a bit of a debrief. Maybe you jot down some things you really enjoyed about the show, some things you want to work on for the next day, some key points you need to remember or pass on to someone else. Then you close the door on the event and switch off in the hallway. Then, you go through to the next room and focus on the next thing.

Travel is [another] really good way to do this. Getting changed out of your costume can be part of that as well. Something clear that symbolises that finish.

Rachel's qualifications: BA (Hons) Psychological Science, Master of Applied Psychology (Sport & Exercise).

Big props to Rachel for her time. You can learn more about Rachel's work and say hello here. If you do, let her know you’re from the Dojo 👊