‘Consistency and enjoyment are key to high performance success’ - Caroline Currid

CONSISTENCY and enjoyment are key to high performance success. That's the view of leading performance psychologist Caroline Currid, who was speaking at the Limerick Business Breakfast in aid of Peter McVerry Trust at the Castletroy Park Hotel.

Currid, who has been a vital part of Limerick's All-Ireland hurling successes, spoke to the 390 people in attendance on Monday on a range of topics.

In a conversation with, Enterprise Development and Business Liason Manager at TUS, Gillian Barry, Currid gave a major insight into what is important when it comes to high performance in both sport and business.

She highlighted courage, commitment, integrity and humility but cited consistency as the vital component to success.

"We can talk about commitment, we can talk about courage and talk about integrity but it’s the consistency of carrying that through day on day, week on week and month on month.

"I think it’s great to have that motivation to make a difference and to have that courage to take on that decision but i think it’s the consistency that’s key.

"When we talk about high performing teams, it’s that consistency that travels through to getting the outcomes that we want."

Getting consistency in any walk of life can be a very difficult thing. Currid spoke about how easy it can be to get overwhelmed when one thinks of how to go about consistency of purpose.

"When we think about the how it becomes this massive journey but what’s more important is the why. The why is really key in what intrinsically motivates us. A lot of the time we know what extrinsically motivates us.

"We know that the money, the material goods, the material wealth; that’s all there to give us an internal feeling that we are striving towards, craving really.

"I think in order to get the best out of ourselves, best out of our teams, best out of us individually and our organisations is to understand what intrinsically motivates you. What is it that’s underneath that layer? What sings through to you? What resonates with you?

"I always say, to understand that you have to go back to who inspires you? Who do you look up to? When you were young what resonated with you? What were your values when you were young? There are so many different values when you are young that resonates with us." 

Another area that Currid covered was the importance of enjoying success when it comes your way. "As high achievers we can get caught in thinking that’s done now what’s next rather than stopping and reflecting. If you don’t do that you miss the whole journey.

"One of the strongest and most important values is enjoyment. If you ever hear different sports teams that are successful and hear them talking, they talk about enjoyment.

"Enjoying the journey. Enjoying the training. Enjoying working hard for each other. Enjoying the craic that you have after training or getting time together. I think that’s what makes sports teams successful.

"Courage would be a huge value of mine. Breaking through that barrier or fear and keep moving forward. It’s a massive value I always speak about for myself. We all get that fear inside us and say I can’t do that or I’m not able to go through that obstacle.

"It’s about having the courage to reframe that in your head and move forward. When you get that feeling of fear you know that you are going to learn something about yourself and you keep moving through it."