3 High-Performance Facts You Need To Know

High-performance seems to be in high demand these days.  Whether you’re an athlete, a parent, a student, or a business mogul, you’re probably looking for how you can be the best at what you do.

Our culture is partly responsible as it is with many things today. But let’s remember, succeeding is not a bad thing.  As a matter of fact, wanting to win and achieve greatness is a really good thing.

The desire to be the best at what you do will not only produce great results but when pursued the right way brings enjoyment and excitement to your life.

There are three facts you need to be aware of if you plan on reaching for those stars though.  You need to know achieving excellence takes more than having the desire, talent, and skill.  Also, you need to know what actually has the power to stop you.  And don’t forget, you need to know what builds your abilities and stamina over time.

That’s what we’re going to look at today.  I’m jail-breaking these from my High-Performance Blueprint. You can get a free copy of the entire blueprint here.

We’re going to cover these three facts, right now.

The High-Performance Foundation

Energy is the foundation of high-performance.  Most people think what drives them to greatness is how talented they are or our much experience they have.  Talent and experience are necessary, but no matter how much skill, desire, or talent, a driver has the car can’t go anywhere without gas in the tank.

Just to clear something up.  I’m not only referring to physical energy like what is provided by food.  I’m talking about the driving force deep within you that is made up of spirit, soul, and body; heart, mind, and will.

Think of the gas in the tank as the energy needed to fuel the skill, desire, and talent.  Energy is what gives life to those.

What happens to a car with an empty tank of gas?  Without the right energy, you can have all of the talent, skill, and desire in the world and it won’t matter.

This first fact is that Energy is the core driver of your potential.  This fact is often missed as a fundamental when pursuing performance excellence.  Not having the right kind of energy and the right level of energy can mean the difference in success or failure.

• Runners that don’t fuel up properly ahead of race day, bonk on mile 17 or 18
• Managers sign up for projects and let them fizzle
• Parents make rules, but fail to enforce them
• People make commitments to grow their careers, but end up settling

Take a look around.  It isn’t hard to find someone with talent, skill, and desire that is also struggling to succeed.

Energy Zappers

In my COR.E Performance Dynamics (TM) training from IPEC, I teach about Energy Influencers.  There are six of these influencers that work to boost or zap your short-term energy.  Short-term energy is the energy that affects us in the moment.

Imagine you are in a sales conversation with a client.  You know what you need to cover and you are doing your best to listen to hear their needs because you pride yourself on being the salesperson that is different and listens to their client’s needs.

You can’t help feeling like something is off though.  There are so many thoughts on your mind about making the mortgage payment, the orthodontist bills, and getting all of your stuff done so can finally just sit down for a moment.

You can’t stay focused.  To the client, you are presenting yourself energetically as disengaged or worse is if all you want is to close the deal.  What do you think they will do?

They will mirror your energy and disengage too.

That is an example of a mental influencer.   Working with the different energy influencers provides awareness about your how you feel and how others see you.  Understanding the big six energy influencers can greatly increase your ability to perform consistently at a high level.

Think about your last performance, sale, race, event, etc.  As you think about that, what were your results?  What was it that most influenced the outcome?

Now think about a time in the last two weeks when your performance mattered and answer these questions…

• Did you know why you were pursuing your goal?
• How clear was your vision and strategy?
• What was on your mind?
• How were you feeling emotionally? Sad? Happy? Confused?
• What was your health like?  Did you have a broken wrist? or Were you in tip-top shape?

Practice, practice, practice

The final fact you need to be aware of is without practice, nothing gets better.  In the program I teach, there are 10 disciplines.  These disciplines actually build up your capacity for energy over time.

Just like a soccer player gets better by practicing soccer, you can build your ability to master your energy by practicing these 10 disciplines.

Let’s take confidence as an example.  Many people approach confidence as something they will have after they experience a win.  Whether the win is an athletic event or closing a real estate deal, they believe they need confidence in order to secure the win, but feel like it will only come after the win.

What if confidence wasn’t something you get?  What if confidence is something you become.

Confidence is something you are. What you are produces the experience you want to have.  Read that again. Write it down. Tweet it.  Whatever you have to do, but remember it.

Therefore, if confidence is something you are, then confidence is something you can practice and get better at.  That is how the 10 Core Disciplines work.

When working with clients we work on how specifically they practice the Disciplines.  That’s when the magic happens.

Summary

• Energy is the foundation to high-performance — Hands down
• Learning to master what influences your level of energy leads to high-performance
• Building the energy capacity needed to perform at a high level consistently is something you develop by practicing