Top 10 Performance Tips for Everyday Life

1. Be Grateful. Giving thanks for the things you have in your life is a fantastic daily practice. I personally like to write 5 or 10 things I’m grateful for each morning, and this starts my day off very nicely. 🙂 Since I’ve begun doing this on a regular basis, it’s amazing how much happier and calmer I feel throughout the day.

It’s not that I wasn’t thankful for what I had in my life before. But it’s fascinating that when I make the effort to write down the things I’m grateful for every day, it makes a big difference from only thinking them.

If you feel calmer and happier, people naturally are drawn to you and you are perceived as more confident. Why not try starting a gratitude journal and see how it makes a difference in your everyday performance!

2. Smile. Smiling is one of the best things you can do to lift your mood and make other people feel good as well. Do you ever notice how you feel happy when you smile? Or, even if you’re having a terrible day and force yourself to smile for a while, your mood improves. Soon, you feel much better, more peaceful and even perhaps on the verge of happiness again? The power of smiling is amazing!

In figure skating, an audience finds it much more interesting to watch the performances of skaters who are smiling and look like they are enjoying themselves. You have the ability to brighten someone’s day with just one smile. I like to remember a quote from Sri Chinmoy: “Just one smile immensely increases the beauty of the universe.”

3. Laugh. Laughter is another powerful tool in lifting your mood. Laughing takes your mind off stress and pain and makes you feel better. It releases the same type of endorphins that make you feel good after exercising. Talking to your friend who always makes you laugh, listening to your favorite comedian on the radio, dancing in a random way, watching a comedy or just thinking about something funny before an important performance can actually help you perform better!

When you take your mind off something that makes you nervous and release that nervous energy through laughing , you’ll find you’re calmer and enjoy performing more. That works whether you’re performing in a skating competition, job interview, big presentation or acting job.

4. Be Confident. I’ve mentioned confidence a few times already. Confidence is a huge part of performing well. When you feel confident about what you’re doing, your performance improves dramatically. When I teach my performance students, I often talk about having confidence.

Even if you’re doing the silliest movement or action, if you’re confident doing it, it still looks good. But if you do a movement without your full energy, it looks much worse than a silly movement done confidently. The more confidently you do a movement, action or speech, the better you look or sound and the more positive attention is received.

5. Exercise. To quote Legally Blonde, “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy.” As funny as this quote is when Elle says it in the movie, it’s actually very true. Exercise will help you perform much better in all areas of life.

Exercise is often one of the first things to be dropped when schedules get busy, but it is one of the most important things you can do for yourself. It will help you relieve stress, perform better at work or school, improve your sport through sports specific exercise, improve your body confidence, and much more. Visit my blog Fit Body Full Life for more health and fitness information.

6. Eat a Healthy Diet. What you put in your body affects how you feel. By having an overall healthy diet, you will feel better, your moods/emotions will be more consistent, and – guess what – you will perform better! When you feel good, you also look and act more vibrant.

7. Have Good Posture. Stand tall by imagining there is a string attached to the top of your head lengthening you, pulling your belly button in so your back is straight, and keeping your shoulders back with your head held high. Good posture helps your nervous system work most efficiently. In other words, having good posture means your body is working the way it is meant to, so you naturally feel better, look better to others and therefore have more confidence!

8. Make Eye Contact. Remember being told to look others in the eye when meeting them or when shaking someone’s hand? Well, this is very important. It is hard not to pay someone attention who is looking you in the eye!

If you’re in a group performance number, you have to work to be noticed. The best way is to catch someone’s eye and keep your head held high! This works in auditions, job interviews, or any place you want to be noticed, make an impression or just be thought of as a friendly person. 🙂

9. Show Versatility of Expression and Emotion. I’ve mostly been talking about smiling and positive expression so far. However, sometimes it is necessary to show a variety of emotions.

Maybe you’re speaking with your boss about approving your idea, which may call for a serious but confident tone and expression. Maybe you’re empathizing with a friend when they’ve had some bad news. Or maybe you’re performing a dramatic program or play. Having a versatility of expression and knowledge of emotions can help in many situations in life.

10. Perform Random Acts of Kindness. You may be thinking, what do random acts of kindness have to do with performance? Random acts of kindness actually have a great effect on the performance of your day. When you help someone out who is having trouble or help an elderly person carry their shopping to their car, you feel much better about yourself and emit confidence. By helping someone else, you actually are helping yourself.

Every day in life, aren’t you actually performing? When you make an elaborate meal for your partner or family, isn’t that a beautiful production? When you make a business deal, aren’t you adapting your personality to meet that person’s needs? When you’re at school, aren’t you living a role you think people will like, whether those people are friends or teachers? When you are performing on the ice, modeling, acting or dancing, aren’t you portraying a character for the specific setting?

You’re performing to be the best you can be, performing to do what you are meant to do, and performing to fulfill your purpose in life. Life is a performance! To quote a favorite playwright of mine, William Shakespeare: “All the world’s a stage.” Let’s perform life together! 🙂