This part of the “being at your best formula” emphasizes the importance of using Quick Charges to get yourself back on track when a situation throws you off. For many athletes, Quick Charges are the “trade secrets” that they rely on to maintain their competitive edge. Quick Charges give you the ability to turn a mistake into “part of the dance,” and if you use them well, no one around you will ever know that you missed a step. People who can continually come back strongly from one tough situation after another, and who don't let past failures affect present or future successes quickly earn reputations as “real pros.” We commonly give this label to business people as well as athletes who always seem to have their situation under control. These are people who react to tough challenges with aplomb.

Anchor Quick Charge
This Quick Charge for leaving work problems at work is easily implemented in the following way: Select something that you do every single night before leaving your workplace. Perhaps it is locking your office door or turning off the lights. The important thing is to select something that you do daily. The one thing you select will now symbolize the “end” of your working day. The Anchor Quick Charge is very closely linked to your hearing a “golden oldies” tune on the radio. As soon as you hear the song it brings back many fond memories. In essence, the song becomes the symbol for something else. When using the Anchor Quick Charge, you are selecting your own symbol and rather than bringing back many fond memories, this symbol will signify the end of your working day. Perhaps there really was some truth to Mom telling you to take off your work clothes after coming home—because it does help you to relax.

Wastepaper Basket Quick Charge
This Quick Charge is effective at eliminating negative thoughts and rebounding from mistakes. It's practiced by first envisioning a cloud, then dumping into the cloud all the negative things you are thinking at that moment. After saying everything you want to say to yourself (and it takes no more than three minutes to do an outstanding job of beating yourself up), visualize taking a great big paintbrush and making a huge X through the cloud, and then throwing everything into a wastepaper basket and burning everything that was tossed in. One of the rules of dumping things into a wastepaper basket is that it always gets burned.

Breathing Quick Charge
First, inhale slowly through your nose and then exhale through your nose even more smoothly and slowly. At the same time, relax all your muscles, progressing from your head and face all the way down to your toes.

Many people describe the sensation of relaxing their muscles as akin to a wave of calm that rolls downward through their body. Others envision a relaxing scene while they are exhaling. The real benefit is realized when the exhalation is slow and smooth.