Better Every Week Episode 2: The Common Denominator of Performance

Better Every Week with Brynnan and Toby Brooks

This week we learn why Brynnan thinks she's celery and why Toby can't make 10 free throws in a row...even in his own mind. Tune in, share with your friends, and become an OG fan of the podcast now before it's too late and you end up just following the crowd later :)
Episode 2: Performance: The Common Denominator

• Opening question/episode summary: In movies and usually in real life as well, sports and the arts are pitted against each other. It’s the jocks vs. the theatre kids, the athletes vs. the band kids. But when you reach a stage of life where your sport or artistic pursuit is no longer just a hobby but a potential career, these two groups of people have more in common than it might seem. As an athlete and an artist who have both dabbled in both, we are going to discuss these similarities and differences.
• Opening quote: “Musicians are practicers who play or perform out of necessity. Athletes are performers or players who practice out of necessity.” —Dr. Bill Moore
• Questions and Discussion
  • Differences between artists and athletes
    • Discuss opening quote
    • “The egos in sport are much lower than the egos in music (except gymnastics).” Discuss. What do you think of this statement?
    • Everybody watches sport because they want to see excellence, but people watch or listen to musical performances or artistic things because they want to be brought into the feeling and emotion. So, art has a focus on emotion, sport on excellence and results. How do you think these different focuses affect people? How do you think performance is affected if a person in one arena focuses too heavily on the wrong thing?
  • Similarities between artists and athletes
    • Performance: the common denominator. Discuss any thoughts, positives and negatives, interesting performance stories.
    • How would you define high performance? What techniques or things do you use to achieve this? “High performance is getting 85% of your very best out of you 85% of the time.”
    • How does training and preparation affect a performance?
    • Performance is not about getting better, so you must accept all mistakes that happen during that time.
  • Perfectionism: compare between art and sport. To retain your passion you must embrace what you do well and lean into it and let go of the remaining perfectionism.
    • What does embracing what you do well look like in sports? In music or art? Where are the similarities and differences there?
    • Your worst performance is stored in the limbic/sensory area, but your best performance is stored in the periphery, so it is harder to remember the positive parts of your passion in a vivid, sensory way. How can visualization help that and as it helped you before?
    • Discuss visualization techniques you’ve used and Dr. Moore’s method here. Write out “When I am at my best during performance, I am like a…” statement. Talk about my statement, can you think of one?
• Sprouts and Seeds
  • Discuss our sprouts and seeds goals from last week.
  • Do your own visualization exercise. What would a positive, successful (not perfect) performance look like in your life (whether that’s in arts or sports or something else).
  • Write your own performance script. In a few sentences, catalog your visualization and lean into the positive sensory experience of pursuing your passion.
  • What have you learned or what has surprised you in this conversation? Have you changed your mind on anything?