March 15, 2024
With Susan Hobson, High Performance Coach, Elite Performance
No matter what field you’re in, the rule is: the more successful you are, the more self-care you need. “In high pressure, high stakes environments, it becomes a prerequisite for you to do active recovery or self-care,” says Susan Hobson, High Performance Coach at Toronto-based company Elite High Performance.
Top performers understand that to consistently perform at their best, they need a routine that keeps them in peak condition to handle whatever challenge comes their way. Here are four self-care routines from some of the best in the biz.
Talk It Out
NBA superstar LeBron James advises talking to someone about the stress and pressure we face in our lives. Before a big game, he always talks to people he trusts to release any inner tension he might be feeling. His mental health advice is to surround yourself with friends, family and people who support you—cultivate a group of people that you can trust and share your inner struggles with.
Family Time
Despite his hectic schedule when serving as President of the United States, Barack Obama always made sure he ate dinner with his daughters every evening and prioritized the family taking vacation together every year.
“Connection with other human beings is very important for our neurochemistry,” says Hobson. “It’s what produces oxytocin, one of the brain chemistries we need in order to have resilient mental health.”
Get Moving
Christine Lagarde, President of European Central Bank, credits her professional success to her synchronized swimming background. “I learned humility as well as discipline [as an athlete],” she said during a talk at Dublin City University. Lagarde believes maintaining physical fitness is tied to one’s success at work. She still goes to the gym every day, cycles 20 to 30km once a week and swims as often as she can. Hobson adds that exercising is also one of the best ways to flush stress out of our system, so go on a jog the next time you want to scream at someone.
Clock Out
Pop queen Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” is sold out everywhere. It’s one of the most ambitious concert tours ever in which she performs 44 hits from 10 albums in a 3-hour continuum nearly every night. So how does she do it? Lots of rest. In between tour legs, she rests for 24 hours. “I don’t leave my bed except to get food and take it back to my bed and eat,” she explained to Time.
“All high performers make time to wind down because it’s unsustainable to keep performing at that level otherwise,” says Hobson. Research on peak state says humans are only capable of being fully engaged in a task for 60 minutes at a time. “We need to build buffer blocks in between to recover our mental resources and prevent burnout,” says Hobson.
She disciplines her clients to take a walk, do breath work and meditate in between tasks at work. If all this sounds foreign to you, start with 5-minute breaks at the start and end of the day, says Hobson. “Overtime if you keep it up, you’ll notice your mental capacity and performance will improve.”