Achieving your peak performance, your body goals, or any goal for that matter, is determined by the behaviours that you engage in, and I don't just mean exercise.

Your behaviour is determined by the emotional state you are in. In this case the behaviour is dragging your feet over getting into your exercise workout, but it applies to any behaviour - how you feel directly affects what you do and how well you do things.

If you want to behave differently, you have to feel differently. The problem is we might want to behave in a certain way but we sometimes seem unable to. It's almost like we have no control over how we feel and therefore no choice over how we behave. Consequently we succumb to urges, lack discipline and react to stimuli that trigger undesired behaviours and are then at the mercy of our habits.

Now most people try to change this state directly, through sheer effort of will. Unfortunately willpower is a very difficult way of changing behaviour. It involves increasing struggle within oneself and has little likelihood of success. Willing yourself into a peak performance state is impossible. Willing yourself to exercise results in a poor effort and sets you up for injury. So if discipline and willpower don't work, what does?

Well if you really want to change your behaviour you have to change your emotions. Any top athlete will tell you that if their emotional state is not right they won't even come close to peak performance. Once you have different feelings you will automatically engage in different behaviours.

With these 3 steps you can take charge of your mind to direct your power to make a peak performance exercise workout.

Step 1:

Once in your workout gear and ready to start find a quiet place where you won't be distracted. Take three deep slow breaths.

Clench your fist as you recall (with eyes closed) previous occasions when you felt strong and motivated. It can help a lot to set up this trigger mechanism beforehand by creating the mental association between the clenched fist and the feeling of enthusiasm, motivation and power. You mentally anchor these feelings to the action of clenching your fist so that when you clench your fist it triggers off the feelings like a conditioned response.

Feeling the feelings is most important.

Step 2:

Once you feel the sensations, mentally see yourself performing your exercise routine. See it in specific detail and feel what your body would feel exactly as you know it would be if you were actually working out.

Step 3:

Now think of a word that encapsulates your peak performance at the degree of workout intensity you desire. This power word could be anything but you might choose a word like "power", "force", "focus", "impact", "drive" or "yes!" etc.

Keeping your fist closed, mentally exclaim the word several times, letting its meaning sink into your consciousness. Then unclench the fist, open your eyes and take a deep centering breath before getting into your exercises.

Through this process you are programming your subconscious mind to deliver the mental and physical power you need to drive your behaviour for a peak performance workout.

Your power word serves as your workout reminder trigger. If you find your mind wandering or your enthusiasm flagging, simply repeat your power word (out loud or mentally) three times with emphasis.

Each time you perform this refocusing technique you are reinforcing the conditioning and strengthening the neuromuscular link to promote peak performance. For more details on exactly how to create powerful triggers beforehand so that you can almost instantly create a change in emotional state and your behaviour, read my article "Peak Performance Shape Up".

You don't have to be a top level athlete to aim for peak performance. Aim for peak performance in all areas of your life and you will find more success and satisfaction all round. Trigger techniques enable you to nip the problem times in the bud so your peak performance is not only more achievable but easier to do.