5 Ways To Align With Your Best Self And Perform At Your Highest Level

Forbes

18-07-2025

5 ways to align with your best self and perform at your highest level
We all have two competing versions inside us. Your higher self walks with confidence, stays present, and never rushes through life. This is your best state. Powerful, calm, and in control. Your lower self is the opposite. Impatient, restless, antsy. Always chasing the next dopamine hit, never satisfied with now.
Most people just accept whichever version shows up that day. They don't realize they have a choice. But you do.
Top performers recognise when their different versions show up. They can shift their state quickly. The same person feeling frustrated and rushed in the kitchen can transform into focused intensity seconds later for a presentation. They get in the zone in seconds.
Higher self versus lower self: know the difference
Your higher self sees life with clarity. Problems shrink to their actual size. You are chill where others are stressed. Your breathing slows. Your shoulders drop. But your lower self magnifies every issue. That email becomes a crisis. That comment becomes an attack. That delay becomes a catastrophe. Your breathing gets shallow. Your muscles tighten. Your voice pitches higher.
Your higher self responds thoughtfully, taking time to consider options before acting, while your lower self reacts instantly, often saying things you later regret. In meetings, your higher self asks clarifying questions and builds on ideas; your lower self interrupts, defends, and needs to be right.
Your happiness, work and life quality comes down to which self you embody most often. Luckily, you can change states within seconds once you know how.
Five ways to shift to your higher self immediately
Your body sends signals when you've dropped into your lower state. Maybe it's tightness in your chest. Or a buzzing in your head. Or tension between your shoulders. These physical symptoms arrive before the mental spiral. Catch them early.
Create a checklist of your personal triggers. When they show up, name them: "This is my lower self taking control." It takes practice, but you'll begin noticing their presence more often. Next time, you catch them quicker. Awareness itself begins the shift.
Have specific actions ready for when you notice yourself slipping. Make them simple and accessible anywhere. It might be eating a healthy meal. Taking a five-minute walk. Listening to a specific song. Reciting a mantra. Drinking water. Breathing deeply ten times.
Keep this list on your phone or a post-it note by your laptop. Reference it when those physical triggers appear. These small pattern interrupts work better than you'd think.
You can't jump straight from frustration to joy. The gap is too wide. But you can move from frustration to annoyance. From annoyance to acceptance. From acceptance to contentment. From contentment to optimism.
Know which emotions sit just above your current state. Aim for those first, not the top of the emotional guidance scale. Telling someone to "cheer up" never works. You need to meet them where they are, then guide them one step higher. Apply the same approach to your own disposition and watch it change with ease.
Ask yourself: "Am I actually upset, or do I just think I'm upset because I'm in a pattern from something that once upset me?" We develop emotional default settings through repetition. Your brain creates shortcuts. The meeting is delayed, so you get frustrated, because meetings that get delayed have frustrated you before.
First step, notice when you're in your lower self purely out of habit. Awareness enables the switch. Then, to get out of the habit, challenge the behaviours you have been defaulting to. Recognise that the situation itself holds no inherent emotion. Your interpretation creates your experience. Change that perspective and you change everything.
At any moment, you can decide who you want to be. Your higher or lower self. Nothing is fixed. Make it a game. When you feel yourself in that lower state, say: "Not today." Then consciously select your higher self. Smile, even when you don't feel like it. The act of smiling releases endorphins until you feel happy for real.
Naming your higher and lower self versions might help take this further. The more you practice returning to your optimal state, the more it becomes your default. Recognize challenges and rise above.
Choose your higher self now
Your higher self is already within you, waiting for you to claim it. Recognise your physical triggers. Create your intervention list. Understand the emotional guidance scale. Question your patterns. Exercise your power to choose. These five practices don't require years of meditation or therapy. They require awareness and decision, moment by moment. Step into your power.