Building Mental Fitness – How to grow the three core mental muscles to thrive
Mental Fitness is your capacity to respond to life’s challenges with a positive rather than negative mindset
Build your Mental Fitness and Increase your Positive Intelligence
How you show up, the energy you create, the presence you have, the ability to manage stress in the midst of challenge all impact the quality of your leadership, your relationships, trust, the quality of the results and your life in general. Your mental fitness impacts:
- Peak performance
- Peace of mind/wellness
- Healthy relationships
If you are not physically fit, you would feel physical stress as you climb a steep hill.
If you are not mentally fit, you would feel mental stress, such as anxiety, frustration or unhappiness, as you handle work and relationship challenges.
Breakthrough research by Shirzad Chamine, argues that organisations with teams and leaders that have high positive intelligence (PQ) can perform up to 35% better than those with low positive intelligence, staff are happier and report lower levels of stress. The saboteurs are automatic and habitual mind patterns. They masquerade as our friends but work against our best interests. Chamine says that around 95% of executives attending his lectures conclude that they have saboteurs preventing them from fulfilling their full potential.
Positive Intelligence is a synthesis of recent breakthroughs in positive psychology, neuroscience, cognitive psychology and performance science validated by over half a million people in 50 countries. It is a measure of strength of the positive mental muscles (Sage) versus negative ones (Saboteurs).
The Sage handles challenges through positive emotions like empathy, curiosity, gratitude, creativity, calmness, clear-headed, laser focused action. The Saboteurs handles challenges through negative emotions such as stress, disappointment, anger, self-doubt, frustration, shame, guilt, worry, blame. Chamine’s research identified 10 Saboteurs: The universal master saboteur - The Judge and 9 accomplice saboteurs. The Judge has us feel negative and unhappy by finding faults with ourselves, with others and with our circumstances. The accomplice saboteur that the Judge teams up with is different from person to person.
The relative strength of the Sage versus the Saboteurs is called PQ (Positive Intelligence Quotient) and is a measure of mental fitness.
Positive Intelligence is measured by the proportion of time our minds are working in favour rather than against us. There is a tipping point for this – 75% or 3:1.
There are 3 core muscles at the root of mental fitness
- Saboteur interceptor
- Sage
- Self-command
Your Saboteurs are primarily fueled by regions of your brain that were initially focused on your physical and emotional survival. Your Sage brain is based in different regions of the brain, referred to as the PQ brain.
I considered myself to have good mental fitness, resilience and positivity. However, while completing the PQ program for coaches my PQ score increased, I became strongly aware of my Saboteurs and how they were sabotaging me, increased my productivity and sense of self. It works. I am continuing my training with him and have partnered with Shirzad to bring the programme to you.
The PQ Program
The PQ Program works to strengthen the 3 core mental fitness muscles:
- Intercept your Judge and accomplice Saboteurs and weaken them
- Shift to Sage and strengthen it
- Strengthen your PQ muscles
The basic course:
- Designed like a mental fitness bootcamp, the PQ program gives you insights, motivation and structure to practice 15 minutes/day for 6 weeks.
- The program combines a weekly video session by Shirzad Chamine with daily app-guided practices to boost your 3 core mental muscles
- In the weekly video session, Shirzad guides you through experiential exercises that deepen and personalise your understanding of the mental fitness tools
- Learn about the 10 Saboteurs and take the free Saboteur Assessment by clicking the link Saboteur Assessment
- Be part of an accountability pod (2 to 5 people) and meet for 30-60 minutes once a week to lock in the learnings, answer questions and reflect on practice. In the final session, we will discover how to sustain the momentum and continue using your PQ tools for a variety of work and life situations as your core operating system
- Through the App, available exclusively to programme participants, Shirzad guides you through daily practice which builds one small muscle at a time. New neural pathways are laid down to form lasting positive habits of your mind
- Read the first 8 chapters of Positive Intelligence book (Audio/pdf of 1st 8 chapters provided)
- You have access to the App for 12 months
Breakthrough Results:
Within 6-8 weeks of mental fitness training you should be able to see the results in MRI imaging:
- Increased grey matter in the PQ Brain region, home to your Sage (positive mental muscles)
- Decreased grey matter in the Survivor Brain region, home to your Saboteurs (negative mental muscles)
Improvements in these competencies lead to substantial results:
- AtMetLife, trained salespeople outsold the control group by 37%
- Motorollarecorded improved productivity in 93% of trained employees
- Ina UK restaurant group, higher competency resulted in 34% greater profit growth
- AtSanofi/Aventis Pharmeceutical, the average salesperson with improved competency sold $55,200 more per month
- AtL’Oreal, strength in these competencies resulted in $91,370 increase per salesperson
- AtCIBC, strength in these competencies account for 32% of booked sales and 71% of pipeline sales
“This has been the most impactful training I have ever experienced. You develop powerful mental muscles to deal with challenges with much less stress and greater clarity, creativity, and resilience. Every sales professional would benefit greatly from this.” -Adam McGraw, Sales VP & GM, American Express