What’s your definition of performance?
Whatever your answer might be, I’m here to tell you it goes hand in hand with your capacity for success. It also tells me how deep your potential really runs.
Most leaders are not operating anywhere near their peak performance.
How do I know this?
Because we’ve been taught to believe that performance is just the ability to execute on strategies or plans that result in quantifiable growth.
This growth is then considered a measure of whether you’ve attained success.
But for the prominent leaders I work with, this is NOT the case.
They’ve learned to surrender this antiquated notion of performance and they’ve jumped with me into the realm of what it means to access one’s fullest potential.
See, real performance isn’t something so easily defined by compartmentalized thinking – it’s not about how much you can accumulate, create, or your ability to stay on track to complete tasks.
Performance is just as complex and dynamic as you are.
However, most coaches, consultants, or mentors would have you believe otherwise, leading you to the notion that if you just stay the course and follow all steps from “A to Z,” you can and will achieve greatness and success.
Think back to when you were a child. You didn’t know what “performance” meant. You just did it – no doubt, no worry about judgment or failure.
I’ve seen this time and time again working with leaders and influencers who have been indoctrinated in that belief but are constantly left on some never-ending quest for the next best or bigger solution meant to “increase or improve their performance.”
Yet, if those antiquated ideals were truly the solution to your problems or the optimal tools for your goals, you would never be left searching for more.
You’d be waking up each day like an unstoppable force, fulfilled and free to take on anything you choose to put your focus towards.
You’d experience peak mental fortitude, increased wealth, and more peace from within – which, by my standards and the standards of those I support, is the true end goal in which we define success.
It means you arrive at your optimized place of power and productivity and experience daily what my professional athletes call, “being in the zone.”
Circling back to what I mentioned earlier, performance is complex and dynamic. I can best describe it as the transformation of ideas, opinions, dreams, and even one’s esoteric impulses into outward actions.
And these actions are themselves the byproduct of where a person is at any point in their life.
Simply put, real performance is the truest measure of who you are in relationship to yourself.
We can also say it is an act of discovery in a perpetual cycle. To achieve real performance, you must be willing to go beyond your “comfort zone,” break away from repetitive patterns, cultivate new levels of attentiveness and awareness, and consider not just the “what”, but also the “why” and “how” of your life and business.
It means we’re aware of our emotions, can control responses and reactions, and maintain equilibrium and stability no matter the stimuli.
However, this kind of performance is often elusive, yet not impossible to achieve
with the right type of support.
Think back to when you were a child. You didn’t know what “performance” meant. You just did it – no doubt, no worry about judgment or failure.
Now, access to that unencumbered part of yourself is somehow harder as you’ve aged. You’ve started to doubt and scrutinize your own efforts.
Why?
Because self-doubt springs from a place deep within, formed from limited information and intrinsic fears.
And becoming “successful” starts to feel harder and more exhaustive affecting how we perform in life and business.
This all leads to unnecessary stress, which has long been known to disproportionately impair thinking, creativity, and manifestation.
And the more unresolved about stress you are, the more volatile your performance.
No matter how much you get done or how much money you seem to make, you will only be operating at a fraction of your power and potential from this position.
After all, volatility isn’t an uncontrollable external force — it’s a condition that tells the story of the internal struggle within us.
The unceasing battle between who we think we are and who we really are.
It’s this divorced relationship that is the kryptonite to performance, perpetuating stress and significant issues within our lives.
Most leaders are unconscious to this issue. And those who might suspect something is “off” will exert more energy and waste time trying to marry the two versions on their own, undoubtedly straight to failure.
And when our performance fails, we become desperate for relief of any kind and end up forming compulsions and even addictions for anything that promises a sliver of reprieve.
In my years of experience connecting to and working with prominent professionals and leaders alike, I’ve seen and heard it all.
The most costly and detrimental have been:
- Pilgrimages to extravagant and high-level masterminds or conferences around the world
- Treks to sit with sensationalized shamans or gurus
- Overuse of ceremonial psychedelics that promise enlightenment
- Excessive consumption of thought leaders’ content and perspectives
Unfortunately doing this leaves you outside of who you are and disconnected from your own leadership- neutered from your own creativity, impact, and distinctive potential.
In today’s hectic environment, leaders must make mastering their inner volatility a top priority so they can achieve peak performance and stay there.
They must be willing to face what has caused this battle to rage for as long as it has, and then discover the ability to turn it into a powerful asset.
If harnessed the right way, with the right support, you’ll jump beyond your limits and enter a level of performance that will have you achieving in ways you never thought were possible.
If mastering your inner volatility sounds like the type of challenge you’re ready to step into then contact me to find out how our time together will have you operating at real peak performance.
Not sure you have what it takes to do this work? Take the Character Index.
Read on to learn why psychedelics and other hacks keep your performance limited.