154 Part III: Opening the Toolkit
✓ Olfactory – smells, chemicals, scents
✓ Gustatory – tastes, food, drink
Return to this framework every few weeks or so to help you get more of what
gives you pleasure. If you have a dominant sense – for example, more visual
anchors than auditory ones – check whether you’re missing out and filtering
information unnecessarily.
Your anchors are going to change over time. As you concentrate more and
more on the things that give you pleasure, you may begin to notice that those
that upset you become less relevant over time.
Here’s an exercise that you may want to turn into a healthy daily habit. As
you go through every day, pick out five events or experiences that have given
you pleasure. Keep a private notebook of what’s going well for you. Often, the
small things are what make the difference – a pleasant conversation, a kind
gesture, the smell of a bakery, or the sun breaking through the clouds. When
you’re feeling under pressure, refer to your notebook, and ensure that you
spend at least part of every day on the important things that matter to you.
Going Through the Emotions: Sequencing States
Think back to yesterday. As you review the events of the day, ask yourself
how you felt at different times. Were you in the same state all day? Unlikely.
Just as with a temperature gauge, you may have blown hot or cold or expe-
rienced all the dimensions on the scale: you may have been cool and calm,
warm and interested, hot and excited, plus any number of degrees of permu-
tations along the way.
Humans are blessed with behavioural flexibility and the wonderful ability to
change state. In fact, you need to shift states. If you operate on a constant
high, you soon become exhausted. Peak performers have to be able to switch
off and regenerate, recharging the batteries. Otherwise they suffer burn-out.
During a presentation, for example, varying the pace and rhythm is important
so that your audience stays interested. At times, you want them to be relaxed
and receptive to what you’re saying, at other times highly alert to the details,
at other times curious and interested.
While working in one-to-one coaching sessions and facing up to difficult prob-
lems, clients regularly demonstrate a full range of emotions from extreme
anger, frustration, and worry to laughter in a very short space of time. At
times, when the going gets tough, the territory constantly sways to a point
where someone exclaims: ‘I don’t know whether it’s best to laugh or cry!’
