One of the most disappointing feelings for your typical high-achiever or highly-skilled practitioner is the sense that a performance didn’t go to plan and wasn’t ‘a personal best’.

You work tirelessly on mastering technique, rehearse in perfect sequence every note - the soaring and the soft-aching that’s meant to have everyone lean in - and then, after the performance you wonder what on Earth happened to the magic!

Did you forget everything you knew?

Did your body rebel because of the pressure?

Was your training completely inadequate?

Are you just not good enough?

One of the stand-out feelings of my career was the sense that after a huge performance, I had somehow disappointed everyone - even though I won!

This is when I understood that there is a whole different toolkit for ‘peak performance’ that begins with training and ends with the moment you’re off the stage - whatever that stage may look like.