A Word On Performance

Work and our relationship with it, fascinates me.

The nature and function of work as it relates to happiness has been a source of interest for some time now, especially so since I began studying psychology.

The science of psychology provides a framework of understanding, a means by which we can explore our feelings and motivations towards not only work, but our entire existence.

One perspective we can adopt in this exploration, is human existence as performance.

Performance on stage, in sport, at work, in the home, in art and music, in our hobbies and pastimes.

In all of this, and more, we are required to perform.

Performance might be high level and intense such as that we might find in a surgeon's theatre, or it could be equally intense but hold a playful intent such as in music or stage performance.

Performance is human behaviour focused, intent, purposeful, even if the purpose is inherent enjoyment in the action rather than what we might get from it.

Indeed, this might be the purest form of human behaviour–the engagement in work, sport or otherwise for the enjoyment we get from it. I have written about this before, the resultant experiences of which I call Purposeful Accident.

In recent weeks and months as my family and I, like millions of others, have been under the cosh of lockdown, I have been exploring what the scientific literature has to say on the psychology of human performance.

The subject is deep and broad taking in many fields such as the psychology of behaviour, creativity, sport and work, biological science, nutrition, physiology, kinesthetics and many other disciplines.

I'm sticking with the psychological aspects of human performance although I have no choice but to dip my toe into other areas.

I'm compiling what I'm discovering and I'd like to share some of that with you.

This subject matter might seem somewhat distant from subjects I written about two or three years ago, but for me it is not. It is, instead, what I find as I go further down the rabbit hole of the meaning and purpose of life.

There's no end to it, I realise that.

But I have no choice.

I'm still working on the material and it may be a couple of months before it's complete, but crucially, I am enjoying the process. I am taking my own advice and following my curiosity.

I hope you'll come too.

Here's some of what I'm making. The password to access this page is “per4orm”.