I was speaking with sports psychologist and high performance coach Sean Richardson today about the 10% rule.
Sean is an expert in sustaining physical and mental well being while performing at peak levels.
Sean mentioned the additional dimension that there is a phenomenon in sports psychology called periodisation – athletes can sustain peak workloads for 3 to 3 1/2 weeks. After this time they need a week of reduced volume and intensity of work and and an increase in activities that promote recovery. This period of recovery is required for athletes to recover physically and emotionally, and is an important phase of accommodating to increased levels of performance and growth. After this period of recovery, elite athletes can resume training again at their previous peak levels – plus an additional 10% workload
Because the stress under peak workloads is typically emotional and mental as well as physical (and potentially includes anything else happening in our lives from relationships to living arrangements to finances) the principles of periodisation can apply in our business and personal lives as well.
The lesson from the 10% rule is that we need to allow rest and recovery time, in addition to sustained peak effort or training or making significant changes, in order to accommodate and incorporate significant changes in our lives.
This lesson may be particularly relevant in high pressure and high performance environments such as Management Consulting or Sales where there is continued expectation and demand sustained over long periods of time.
I like the concept let me try it