#11 - How to Unlock Peak Performance (Using Behavioral Psychology)

Corey Wilks, Psy.D. (: 00:00

What if you could kick into a flow state without having to go through some long, elaborate pre-productivity ritual, or make yourself sleepy and ready to go to bed without any effort, or kick into beast mode at the gym without having to wait for your pre-workout to kick in? You can, and you don't have to buy some fancy gadget or shady supplement. All you need is a basic understanding of behavioral psychology, which is where I come

So the other day after a hard jujitsu training session,

I was talking with one of my friends who's an MMA fighter. He'd lost a recent fight and he was looking for strategies to help him kick into peak performance for his next fight. He said, when I was younger, I trained MMA to learn to control my anger. But as I've gotten older, I've got the opposite problem. I'm so calm, it's hard for me to find the anger to fuel myself for my fight. And when it comes to something like MMA or any sort of peak performance, we know that mental conditioning is as important, if not more important, than physical conditioning.

Right? Some people are physical freaks of nature, but mentally fragile. A couple jabs to the face and they lose their nerve. Other people are physically average, but mentally unbreakable. My friend was struggling to tap into the mental state he needed to be in to reach peak performance for his next fight. Here are some of the strategies I walked him through that will also help you to improve your performance in the octagon and the library and the bedroom, wherever.

First, let's lay the foundation with some basic concepts from behavioral psychology, specifically around what's called classical conditioning. Now, if you don't give a shit about classical conditioning and learning all the psychobabble, cool, skip this part, just skip to the next section. But if you want to fundamentally understand how this works, here's the explanation. So in psychobabble terms, there are five kind of terms to understand. So the name Pavlov might ring a bell. Pavlov's experiments changed how we understand behavior.

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because he realized he could condition dogs to drool at the sound of a bell, which makes no sense at first. And the simplified version of how this experiment went was he would ring a bell, which is called a neutral stimulus. And all that means is when you ring a bell, a dog doesn't do anything naturally, right? Like there's no natural reflex around hearing a bell ring. But when he presented food, the dogs would naturally salivate, right? Like it is a natural reflex to salivate when you see food.

So in this context, food is what is called an unconditioned stimulus, which elicits an unconditioned response. All that means is the dog hasn't learned anything. It just naturally is reacting to this thing in the environment. Well, what Pavlov found was that when he first rang the bell, the dog didn't do anything, just kind of looked at him funny, that was it. But when he gave it food, it would drool. As soon as the dog saw food, it would drool. Well then what Pavlov did was he rang the bell.

then presented food, then the dog drolled. The dog didn't give a shit about the bell at first. It was still only responding to the food being presented. But over time, the dog learned to associate the sound of the bell with food because the bell meant that food was coming. So over time, the bell became what is called a conditioned stimulus, which then elicited a conditioned response, meaning eventually,

As soon as Pavlov rang the bell, the dog drooled. No food was presented. It just heard the bell and then it drooled. That is why it is considered a conditioned response because the dog has associated the sound of the bell with food. Okay. So over time, you can just ring the bell and not give food and the dog will still drool. So then how does this relate to peak performance? In an episode of the Tim Ferriss Show, he interviews Josh Waitskin. Waitskin is a master at deconstructing

g was my trigger song for the: 2004

Corey Wilks, Psy.D. (: 04:38

Jack up my physiology walking out and it's amazing how well it works. Like they just hear two bars of that song and I'm ready to fight like 10 dudes. So here we are. You pick them out and they want to volunteer. I listened to that in the three months of training camp for the worlds. And then during the tournament, during the competition and then between the finals and the sudden death playoff the worlds. And so it, which was the wildest state of my life, maybe. So it has a powerful triggering impact. Wait, skin learned to tap into the power of classical conditioning.

And so can you. So how can you use this concept to improve your performance in any area? All you have to do is pick a novel stimulus. So something you can smell, something you can taste, see, hear, touch, then pair that with an activity. Here are a couple of examples. So like with athletic performance, you ever wonder why so many athletes have all these weird rituals they do before a game or a fight? Some eat grass off of the soccer field, some wear super smelly socks.

Some dunk their hockey stick in a toilet, or they eat exactly four pieces of black licorice. All of these serve the same function, to help them get in the zone. So you can listen to the same song every time you train. Over time, your brain associates listening to this song with this mental state. If you're a fighter, you can make this your walkout song too. So you listen to the same song when you're training at the gym, and you listen to the same song right before you go into the octagon.

Because when you hear this exact same song every day, when you were in this specific state of performance, and then you hear it again, your brain will instantly kick into high gear. Because it basically hears the music and says, okay, this song means go time. Let's fucking go. My MMA friend, he plans to use Tiger Balm to ignite his performance. Because a lot of fighters use it to relieve pain during training. He plans to dab a little bit under his nose during training, then do the same thing right before a fight.

Cause Tiger Bomb, if you don't know, has a very strong smell. Let's say you want to use classical conditioning to kick into a flow state to either study or work more effectively. Again, you can do these with any sort of sensory thing, but music is usually the simplest thing to use as an example. So like for me, I can't really focus or really function in any sort of performance capacity without music. I'm just, too distractible. So for me, I will create a specific playlist that is for

Corey Wilks, Psy.D. (: 07:04

writing or reading or researching, studying, whatever. You can do the same thing because this will prime your mind to kick into work mode or study mode. A playlist can condition your brain to focus and to perform. This bypasses having to rely on motivation or having some super long elaborate ritual. That's just thinly veiled procrastination. All I have to do is hit play in my brain.

instantly kicks into, okay, it's time to be in a flow state. It's time to focus to read. It's time to write. It's time to come up with a script for a YouTube video. It's time to do whatever. And I have different ones for writing, for reading, for earlier, for workouts, all that. You can do the same thing with like, if you only wanted to chew a specific flavor of gum when you were writing, that works. Or if you have a study beverage that you

only drink when you are studying. It doesn't have to be like coffee or an energy drink or some shit. It can be like herbal tea or grape kool-aid. It doesn't matter what it is, right? As long as you only do that thing during that activity, it can work. Or let's say you want to use classical conditioning to improve your sleep. So there's a lot of bullshit out there around like, lavender essential oils will make you go to sleep or this thing or that thing. I don't know any of that. I just assume it's all bullshit.

There might be some science to some of it, but I'm super skeptical. But you can use something like a lavender candle or lavender body lotion or some shit to go to sleep. But it isn't the lavender. You can do the same shit with fucking blueberry muffin scented candles or something, right? Like the scent itself largely is irrelevant. You can create a sleep playlist. It doesn't matter really if it is a relaxation.

beach, ocean, soundscape, or fucking slipknot. If you only listen to slipknot at bedtime, then over time, probably, if you try to listen to slipknot like in the afternoon, you start to get sleepy. Okay, because your brain associates slipknot with sleep. That's fine. Now, yes, usually more relaxing music is probably going to help more, but not necessarily. If you're focusing on using classical conditioning to get to sleep,

Corey Wilks, Psy.D. (: 09:30

faster. So pick a specific playlist, a specific scented thing, or anything else that engages your senses right at bedtime. You only use it at bedtime. It may take a few days or weeks, but eventually your brain will associate this sensory input with bedtime. And eventually you will go to sleep faster. This can also happen accidentally. So for example, like I only set my alarm for the next day when I'm laying down to go to bed.

So if I were to get my phone out right now and set my alarm, even though it is nowhere near bedtime, I would instantly start to get a little tired because my brain associates setting the alarm with going to bed. It's called higher order conditioning. It's a whole separate conversation. But feel free to experiment and play around with this concept in your own life to prime your mind and your body.

to kick into whatever gear you need when you need it. But a huge word of warning when it comes to doing this classical conditioning stuff and conditioning yourself. Make sure whatever stimulus you use, right? Whatever song, scent, taste, whatever is novel. Meaning you only use that stimulus with that activity, right? So like if I have a

workout song or album or playlist and I'm trying to condition myself so that as soon as I hear that I'm instantly ready to go. I'm amped up for the gym. I'm amped up for my next lift. I cannot simultaneously be listening to that at the gym and then also listening to it on my way home or when I'm trying to read a book or when I'm bored because in my brain, well, not only not

create the association, but if I had already had that association, it will break. So then my brain will no longer associate that stimulus with that state of being. Okay, so whatever this is, just make sure you keep it to that one thing. Right, so like if I'm gonna do like lavender body lotion or some shit for bedtime, I can't put that on in the afternoon, okay? It has to be novel, specific to that situation, that mental state you're wanting to be in.

Corey Wilks, Psy.D. (: 11:55

Otherwise what's called extinction will happen and it's just, you break the association. Also, quick bonus, your breath can also be used for classical conditioning. Your breath itself can be a stimulus. I know Dr. Andrew Huberman has a lot of breath work stuff. He knows about the science way more than me. So I'm sure there's a lot more to it. Definitely check out some of his content with that. But from a purely behavioral psychology perspective, you can use your breathing as a stimulus for different mental states. So for example,

When I am lifting, I will take three quick breaths when I'm getting ready to do a set or when I'm getting ready to step onto the mats for a jiu-jitsu training session. I only do that right when I'm doing that. See, like even now, like I'm getting amped up, right? I only do that in training. I don't know the actual neuroscience behind all that. I'm talking purely behavioral psych stuff. You can do 10 slow diaphragmatic controlled breaths.

at bedtime. Yes, diaphragmatic breathing itself will relax you, but the fact that your brain is associating taking these 10 deep breaths with bedtime will stack on top of that. So not only will diaphragmatic breathing itself help calm you down, but the very association your brain is making will make it even more effective. But when it comes to conditioning, you don't have to get super elaborate. It's actually more effective if you keep it as simple as possible. Complicated rituals and systems have too many moving parts and too many points of potential failure.

Keep it simple. Pick one behavior, one stimulus, one association, and then let that get good and burnt in before you try to add any more on top of it. Let me know in the comments below, how do you plan to use this concept of classical conditioning to improve your own performance? What stimulus are you gonna use? What association are you going to try to condition in yourself? I'm super curious. So let me know how it goes. If you want more deep dives into psychology,

online business and content creation, consider checking out the Creator Alchemy newsletter. New issues go out each week and it's completely free to join. Check out the link in the description for more. Until next time, take it easy.