Performing at your peak
What are we truly capable of achieving? How close can we get to realising our full potential? What stops us? What can we do to shift things up?.
Many of my coaching clients - highly resourceful men and women - fear that they fall short of realising their full potential. They struggle to navigate the overloaded inbox, or to manage others demanding their instant attention. They see their time and energy swallowed by continual organisational churn. Many experience a sense of disappointment and self-criticism at their imagined performance failings. Some experience imposter syndrome.
I am as much a victim of these beliefs as anyone. What stops me from reaching higher, stretching further, achieving the kind of peak performance I aspire to? What are the barriers? Is the issue simply lack of time or does it run deeper? If so, how readily can my habits, behaviours and beliefs be shifted?
As a coach I have explored and tested many of the resources that claim to yield higher levels of sustained performance. These include visualisation tools, techniques for nurturing a growth mindset, mindfulness, neurological theories of self-awareness and reward, and time optimisation techniques.
In time, the material I found most useful was consolidated into a bespoke performance development framework. I then put the framework to a practical test - setting myself an eighteen-month programme of deliberately (over) ambitious personal stretch goals.
"Self-awareness is the difference-maker; it creates the space to consider our options. When we pay attention covert triggers become apparent."
Marshall Goldsmith - Triggers
"The more you notice what's occupying your attention the faster you can refocus your attention."
Chris Bailey - Hyperfocus
"Treat normal activities as opportunities for purposeful and deliberate practice."
Anders Ericsson - Peak
"Habits are the compound interest of marginal gains improvement."
James Clear - Atomic Habits
As a result, my performance dial has shifted significantly and continues to do so. I get much more done. I am more innovative. Flow - that elusive state of sustained concentration and productivity - is achieved much more quickly and for longer. I use my time more wisely and feel more persuasive and authentic in my interactions with others.
The framework is now woven into my coaching and training, encompassing topics such as leadership and team collaboration, resilience, transformative coaching.