Why De-hyping is Good for Performance

Peak performance isn’t always about pushing harder. Sometimes, real success comes from lowering the stakes and redefining what it means to win.

In a Mexican restaurant, selected because the ambiance was so lacking that the food must be incredible, we connected with a group of new friends. Sipping “mezcalritas” that were too-smokey for our tastes, the conversation quickly became a round robin of ambitions. One guy talked about how stressful planning his family vacation was. Another shared that he was working “way too much” to get a promotion. Lastly, one of our new friends – we’ll call him Brandon – said, “I’m marathon training. I’ve got a 10-mile run tomorrow and I’m dreading it. I’ve been training so hard that it’s making me physically ill. But I know I can push through it.”

Turns out, this new friend was not just training to complete a marathon. He’d already done that. He was training to beat his previous pace and, ideally, place in the top of his (very competitive) age bracket.

Our advice to everyone at the table. It’s time to de-hype that sh*t.

It might sound surprising, but in the realm of peak performance coaching – a meth…