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Create the Eight – Reset & Reflect for Peak Performance
Reset, perform, reflect, grow. Enable your best version to show up, every time.
Ground & Stabilize
Steps 1-4 create safety, awareness, and sovereign choice
The Full-Cycle Performance Protocol
Peak performance isn't just about showing up—it's about showing up with intention. The Create the Eight model offers a complete framework for optimizing your mental, emotional, and physical state before any important activity, then capturing insights afterward to fuel continuous growth.
This evidence-based protocol takes just 3 minutes before your activity and 5-10 minutes after. Whether you're leading a critical meeting, facilitating a workshop, competing in athletics, or engaging in creative work, this structured approach helps you access your highest capacity and extract maximum learning from every experience.
Pre-Activity Reset
Duration: 3 minutes
Purpose: Ground yourself, activate agency, and prime for peak performance
When: Immediately before important activities
Post-Activity Reflection
Duration: 5-10 minutes
Purpose: Capture insights, integrate learning, and identify growth opportunities
When: Within 30 minutes of completing your activity
Pre-Activity Reset: The Eight Steps to Readiness
These eight micro-practices create a progressive arc from grounding to activation. Move through them sequentially in three minutes, spending approximately 20-25 seconds on each step. This isn't about perfection—it's about intentional presence.
Understanding the Pre-Activity Progression
The eight steps follow a deliberate progression from stabilization to activation. The first four steps—Orientation, Containment, Congruence, and Agency—create psychological safety and clarity. They help you acknowledge where you are, hold whatever emotions are present, ensure alignment with your values, and reclaim your sense of choice.
The second four steps—Aliveness, Relationship, Integration, and Possibility—shift from grounding to generative energy. They activate your engagement capacity, attune you to connection, affirm your wholeness, and open you to creative potential. Together, these eight steps create the optimal internal state for performing at your highest level.
Deep Dive: Steps 1-4
Deep Dive: Steps 5-8
Post-Activity Reflection: The Eight Questions
The post-activity phase mirrors the pre-activity reset but shifts from preparation to integration. Within 30 minutes of completing your activity, invest 5-10 minutes working through these eight reflection questions. This practice transforms experience into insight and insight into growth.
You can journal your responses, discuss them with a coach or partner, or simply contemplate them mindfully. The goal isn't exhaustive analysis—it's conscious pattern recognition. What worked? What didn't? What did you learn about yourself? What will you do differently next time?
Making Reflection Actionable
From Insight to Integration
Reflection without application is just contemplation. The real power of the post-activity phase lies in converting observations into commitments. As you work through the eight questions, identify 1-3 specific, actionable insights.
Strong commitments are:
- Specific: "I'll pause before responding when I feel defensive" not "I'll be more mindful"
- Observable: "I'll take three breaths before speaking" not "I'll be calmer"
- Realistic: Small changes you can actually implement consistently
- Written: Documented somewhere you'll review before your next activity
Over time, these micro-adjustments compound into significant performance gains. You're not trying to overhaul your entire approach—you're making deliberate, incremental refinements based on real experience.
The Cumulative Impact
What happens when you practice the Create the Eight protocol consistently? The benefits accumulate across multiple dimensions of performance and well-being.
3
Minutes to Reset
A small investment with exponential returns on focus and effectiveness
8
Steps to Mastery
A complete framework addressing every dimension of peak performance
10
Minutes to Reflect
Brief but powerful integration that transforms experience into wisdom
Enhanced Self-Awareness
You develop a refined understanding of your patterns, triggers, and optimal conditions for performance.
Enhanced Self-Awareness
You develop a refined understanding of your patterns, triggers, and optimal conditions for performance.
Enhanced Self-Awareness
You develop a refined understanding of your patterns, triggers, and optimal conditions for performance.
Enhanced Self-Awareness
You develop a refined understanding of your patterns, triggers, and optimal conditions for performance.
Begin Your Practice
Getting Started
You don't need special tools, extensive training, or perfect conditions. You just need commitment to the practice. Start with your next important activity—whether that's a presentation, a difficult conversation, a creative session, or a competitive event.
Set yourself up for success:
- Block 3 minutes before and 10 minutes after in your calendar
- Keep the eight steps accessible (screenshot, printout, or bookmark this page)
- Start with the pre-activity reset only if that feels more manageable
- Be patient with yourself—this is a skill that develops with repetition
- Notice what changes, even subtle shifts in presence or clarity
The path to peak performance isn't about perfection—it's about practice. Each time you complete the full cycle, you're training your nervous system for greater capacity, your mind for sharper awareness, and your heart for deeper integrity. Welcome to the practice. Your best version is waiting.
