Cultivating Peak Performance: Incorporating Creativity and Adaptability in Health Care Providers

Self-efficacy is an important factor of acquiring new skills as an individual is unlikely to apply a new skill if self-efficacy is low. In lifestyle medicine, health care providers (HCPs) are often trained to provide treatments that may be outside of their original expertise due to the varying and interrelated needs of their patients. Current models in training often do not intentionally incorporate self-efficacy. Additionally, as behavioral health becomes more integrated into lifestyle medicine, practitioners in this arena will need confidence to adapt their approach utilizing new skills and techniques. Literature on elite athletes can provide considerable insight into enhancing self-efficacy through creativity and adaptability for enhanced performance. Overall, this commentary draws from sport science literature that encourages HCPs to incorporate creativity and adaptability when attempting new skills for practice and enhancing their "performance" with patients.