Jeff Meyer is one of the foremost experts in helping everyone from professional athletes to inspiring founders reach a ‘flow state.’ He’s devised a system for training people in blending physical and mental strength that lets them be their most productive, creative, and best selves.
He has been coaching clients in reaching flow states before the mindset even had a name. For those that are not yet familiar, he describes it this way: “Flow state can be explained as an incredible synchronicity between progress, accomplishment, motivation, and the inner feeling of being unstoppable.”
The former NCAA men’s basketball coach — who earned the nickname ‘the Yoda of coaching’ — has, over the last 30 years, created a unique, neuroscience-based peak performance program designed to coach C-suite executives, founders, and entrepreneurs. By the conclusion, they will have reached their own flow states using the same principles that athletes use. The system is called the Alpha Flow Executive Performance Series.
Though he never saw himself moving out of the sports field, after years of requests to apply his teachings beyond the world of sports, he began researching channels for inducing flow states in non-athletes. His tireless learning taught him that much of what he’d been teaching on the field could easily be translated to the boardroom and beyond.
Today, the social-psychological kinesiology and pedagogy expert has changed the lives of thousands of individuals, teams, companies, and organizations with his program built to create mental clarity, ultimate performance, and more.
And he’s on course to begin teaching people around the world about reaching a flow state with his first book, the highly anticipated Athletic Genius: Activating Alpha Athleticism Through Heart Intelligence, Mindset and Vision.
His clients thrive under his unique approach to coaching that favors gentle, mindful leadership instead of criticism and harsh ultimatums. He sees each person he coaches as an individual and seeks new ways to inspire them to greatness.
“My athletes have contacted me, even years later, to tell me that they had applied what I taught them on the sports field in the business world. And those lessons had been priceless to them and integral to their success,” said Meyer.
We met with the Alpha Flow Athletics Founder to learn the top three things entrepreneurs can learn from Olympic athletes.
Teamwork is King
On the sports field, athletes quickly learn that they can’t accomplish much without a deep sense of commitment to their team. But, unfortunately, it often means making your individual wants and needs — say, for glory and recognition — secondary to the group’s needs.
This lesson translates nearly seamlessly to the business world, where founders and entrepreneurs learn fast about delegating, responsibility and accountability. They are on a fast track to business burnout if they don’t.
Meyer teaches that team leaders need to train mental toughness skills, and be part of the team, not just its creator. “Under pressure you don’t rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your training. That’s why great training is so critical, and motivational quotes don’t work,” said Meyer.
Sharing responsibility for mistakes, training the team to be deliberate and mindful in their effort, and accepting consequences are all concepts that apply equally well to football and founding a company.
Push Yourself Harder
To be the best, athletes constantly need to improve. They need to train differently, learn new techniques, and find new ways to encourage their minds and bodies to work at their optimum.
This is the same in the business world. If you start a good, profitable company, you’ll be drawn to making it better and more profitable. Again, it’s simply the nature of business and entrepreneurship.
From trying new things to launching new products and figuring out how to excel over the competition are other takeaways that executives can learn from Olympians. As athletes and founders know, any minor setback will often reveal the path to greater glory.
“When it comes to struggle, embrace it and dive in. Once our prefrontal cortex clicks off, we get in the zone. As a result, a superhuman cocktail begins stirring in us, and we become recession proof and develop the ultimate competitive advantage,” Meyer explained.
Throw Off Your Balance
Rocking the boat is one of the surest ways to test your limits — and figure out how to exceed them. Being in a space on the field or at the computer that is new and uncomfortable is an almost sure way to reach a flow state.
“When someone has reached an optimal state of flow, that is when they will perform at their best. About 77% of our daily thoughts are self-defeating, so when we can find focus and clarity and cut out the rest, we can thrive,” he said.
Using these Olympic-level tips from Meyers, executives can become the best, strongest versions of ourselves.
About Jeff Meyer
Jeff Meyer, a lifetime sports coach, has worked with well-known professional and Olympic athletes, Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 Executives, and world-famous universities. To learn more about Alpha Flow Executive, please visit https://www.alphaflowexecutive.com/r/a
