Meet Peak Performance PT 1 | Occupational orgasm

Not a day goes by without one person asking me what this whole peak performance thing is all about. That’s because not a day goes by without someone referring to me as a motivational speaker and I have to quickly correct them. I have tried to answer the question in many ways and this article will be another attempt to bring clarity to the matter.

We have all had that magical moment when you did something beyond what you believed to be our standard. That moment when you surprised yourself and everyone else; you felt fantastic and rightfully so. It is a powerful moment when you felt on top of the world. Not even superman could stop you. The downside of this phenomenon is that, whiles it is impossible to forget, it also seems impossible to repeat. You have thought about it and longed for it to happen again but that has at best, remained an exercise in futility. So you gave up and called it a fluke. Perhaps you have even imagined what a wonderful life you will have if you can repeat it regularly and permanently be this phenomenal person. Won’t it be wonderful?

That is peak performance and here is a piece of comforting news; according to psychologists this moment can be repeated consistently if you could trace all the events that led to it and follow it again to the letter. It is a state of mind that triggers a physical output that has always been there. You just didn't know. For this reason it can be triggered at will only if you knew how. In most cases one will need the help of an expert – a coach. Someone who understands the mechanism that creates the state in which this peak performance can be experienced and how to create it at will. There are many people who experience it almost by default. Whiles it appears to be natural for some, some have found it by accident. Others are very aware of it and have taken steps to find it. Yet many are they who know nothing about it all (You will not among that lot from today).

Most people do not know that some of the world’s top performers go through certain specific routines before they engage. Many have personal coaches who ensure they are always tuned up to perform at their peak. It doesn't really matter what it is they are involved in. An entrepreneur needs a performance coach as much as an athlete does.

In sports they refer to it as being in "the zone”. Some refer to it as "flow". It is when you enjoyed what you are doing so much that you become one with the task you are performing. You are functioning from somewhere deep within. You are so united with the task that you seem to be on autopilot. The feeling is earth shattering. Writers experience this very often: that moment when you are punching away on a keyboard and you do not even know where the information is coming from. You totally ignore all the physiological needs and you continue to type as if that is all there is to life. You do not want to stop! You cannot see a separate you from what you are doing. You and the task are one. You have found beauty and it is worth dying for so you give it the best and you do not even have to try. Actually it is not you trying to do something anymore. It is something using you to manifest itself. It is what I described in my book “the philosophy of peak performance” as occupational orgasm. You can experience this feeling regardless of what you do. The world’s best psychologists have studied it and shared their findings with the world. It is not a secret anymore and you too can learn to be the best that’s possible for you to be in your occupation and in your larger life.

Roger Banister is one person who describes this very clearly. His comment after his four-minuet-mile record is one of my very favorite quotes ever;

"No longer conscious of my movement, I discovered a new unity with nature. I had found a new source of power and beauty, a source I never dreamt existed."

Please readthe part two here. I noticed long articles are intimidating for some so I broke them into parts for easy reading. That’s because I really want you to get this thing.:)

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Gain jet-speed performance with Compact Thinking

Compact thinking develops the mindset that insists on things being tightly put together-- nothing is left loose. It requires one to ensure a well-structured life where every asset is useful and focused on a set objective. Unnecessary gaps, loose components and unsure destinations have no place in the scheme of things if performance is desired.

Often we are not aware of the things that weigh us down and stop us from giving our best. Consider the case of an athlete who is wearing heavy clothes and high heeled shoes.  Perhaps even carrying a backpack whiles trying to win a hundred meter race. You can’t even imagine it- I know? Athletes do not dress like that for a race and there is a reason why. They strip till they are almost on birthday suit level and they run in very light shoes designed to ensure fast movement of the feet. Everything about them is organized to lose baggage and make them as light as possible. Well… the idea is simple: lighter is faster. It is the reason high performance cars now have engine blocks made of aluminum and TVRs have fiberglass bodies. It makes them lighter and hence faster. It allows the full performance of the engine to be released as it has less to carry.  You can do the same for great results in your current occupation and larger life.

However, compact thinking is not only about minimizing your baggage or weight. Most importantly it is about tightening the loose screws and a careful selection of essential tools and maximizing their application. This part of the idea while simple can also be tricky. There are a countless number of tools out there but what you really need is one that can give you the maximum while demanding very little from you.  Tools must not become liabilities and they can. A long distance biker knows he needs water to keep him going but he doesn't bring a whole drum with him; he brings a bottle. He needs to secure himself so brings a helmet with him albeit an aerodynamic and light one so it doesn't rob him of speed.

There are those who walk around with tools that they do not need. Take for example a person who cannot read but walks around with an iPhone and a blackberry. These are advanced Smartphone’s that have very powerful capabilities and hence cost lots of money. They are however, rendered useless in the wrong hands. In my estimation, many only use 10% of our phones leaving the 90% capability to waste and yet the price remains the same. The two phones will set them back some $1000 or more but we will insist on having them just to belong- the need to belong is an emotional baggage. Besides walking around with two to three phones makes it easy to lose one and this happens a lot. This is a financial leakage that can affect performance in more than one way. 

Case in point:  Take a secretary who has access to a desktop computer at work. She also has two Smartphones in her handbag. She may have a laptop before she got a tablet. Sometimes she even has a desktop at home. Not to mention the digital camera and iPod she also has stashed away somewhere.  The total cost of her gear can be estimated at some $5000 and that doesn’t include maintenance (two phones means two bills). Yet she might complain about finances. It is a clear case of a lack of financial intelligence; a key cylinder that needs to fire at full capacity if one is to hit the peak. It is a leakage in a person’s life and until blocked will continue to affect output. $5000 is better invested in a financial instrument.

Compact thinking in this case will be having a really good high-end Smartphone that does it all. Perhaps having a decent laptop may solve the rest of the computing problems. The argument is that often these gadgets are barely used and will cost more money to keep. The tools in these devices when used will help improve performance in many ways but they must be focused and not scattered. You don’t need more than one calendar or appointment scheduler. You will struggle to find valuable information. It is easier to manage when it is all in one place. Synchronize your smart phone with your laptop and liquidate the rest of your gear. Upgrade your phone to a better one when the time is right.

There are those who prefer a very expensive 4.0 liter engine car to drive around town everyday burning a lot of fuel when they might be better off with a good quality smaller car with less consumption, maintenance and parking problems. Compact thinking is not being stingy and old fashioned. It is shedding your ego and emotional bagged and doing what is necessary so you can maximize your performance. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having the latest devices but we must ensure that they are assets and not liabilities. Baggages and leakages are not only physical, they can manifest as emotions too.

In performance theory, everything is either an asset or a liability and this includes people. This matter is treated in more detail in another article. Compact thinking is the reason why we now want to have three children and not ten like in the old days. We want to be able to give them the best and that won’t happen when there are too many mouths to feed. When one has a too many friends he increases the possibility of conflict and reduces quality of friendships. Wrong friends can affect your performance negatively. Friends need attention and when you have too many you will have to divide that attention among them. Chances are some might get more than others and conflict will be the result. The best thing to do is to have very few but quality friends. Quality friends are those you can call asset people. Their very presence adds something to your life but of course you have to ensure that you are a quality friend yourself. People dynamics explains this in more detail.

This idea also applies very well in your job. When you sit at your desk in the morning it will be useful to be clear about what it is you must achieve and assemble what is needed while eliminating what is not needed. What is needed must be well positioned in the right places for easy access. People needed must be made aware from early and all distractions like social media must be eliminated. It is in fact recommended that you disconnect your computer from the internet for most of the day. Of course this must all be done in the context of what you need to achieve and how you will achieve it. Don’t forget there is no one-size-fits-all solution to anything.

So let us summarize the idea for easy understanding:
People, emotions, gadgets and tools must work for you and never against you. They must not be baggage that weigh you down or obstacles that get in your way or leakages that steal your power. When assets have been identified they must be tightly put together as loose and badly integrated components can also affect performance. Loose components refer to having assets that are not well put together and hence run in directions of their own. Everything must work in unison and be closely knit together towards a specific object. No loosed ends. When they are too many, you have to eliminate wisely and focus using the best tools you can get. When aircrafts are in trouble they dump fuel. Compact-Thinking will make you lighter, sharper smoother and faster. In a nutshell it will release your true performance. It is a very simple way of thinking that has miraculous benefits as it eliminates waste from your life and seals leakages allowing you to be the best you can be.

Answering the following questions is a great way to start.

Do you have more than one mobile phone and why? Explain what impact your two phones have on your finances and where in your life extra finance is needed.

Are all the devices you have being used at maximum capacity and how have you reached this conclusion? If not, why?

Are there identifiable leakages in your life that must be sealed? What are they and how can you achieve this?

What kind of support do you get from your spouse and friend regarding what you do?

How many children do you have or want to have and why?

Are there any loose ends in your life that you need to tighten and what are they?

Email the answers to  coaching@csdafrica.com to join our no-obligation,  one month free performance coaching program.

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Powering up with People-Centrism

People-centrism is an aspect of socio-emotional competence. Something expert agree makes success more predictable than just having talent. There is a reason for this; a high level of talent could be rendered useless (possibly even self-destructive) without the navigation system provided by socio-emotional competence. The idea is to think in terms of what you have that makes others happy and allow yourself to be occupied by it in your entire life. There is such a thing as the right job and the right spouse. It might sound a bit strange for those who have come to believe that your life is about you and that you must do only what you want and that what others want does not count.  Working only for yourself is unsustainable; it represents defect. Beyond the religious opinions, we have also seen form the work of scientist like the Richard Dawkins that altruism is the best means of ensuring the continuous existence (not that I like the guy).

Life itself is what you say it is and there are no real right ways of doing anything unless we have a clear and specific objective in mind. That is when the road to point x cannot be the same as the road to point y. All philosophies work except; there is such a things as fruits of your seed. You cannot possibly plant guava and reap mangoes. So what you put in must return its corresponding result- that’s among the most constant of all rules and it does not change for anybody. So rest assured the philosophy you choose to live will bring its attendant results without exception. Perhaps this is what informed ideas like “love thy neighbor as thyself”. In the final analysis, it is in your best interest.

People-centrism is to be sure that you are meeting the needs of others by being more of yourself. The last component; the being more of yourself bit is of extreme importance simply because; it is the only way to give the best of you, which happens to be what people want. In fact its true power is demonstrated by modern business theories. Products and services are created for the creator’s own benefit of course- to make profit. But this is only possible when the customer is happy as you probably already know. An unhappy customer is bad business and bad business collapses business. At the same time to give your best, you have to concentrate on what you do best. So there is a clear balance required between the two in order to generate the two way happiness that awaits you.

But if you think this applies to business alone, think again. In fact business might be several thousands of years behind as the authors of scripture had already figured this out earlier. And if we had been paying attention we might have gone a lot further in our civilization skipping several crude ages. I guess in a way, it explains why the likes of Daniel Goleman think that emotional intelligence (which is an aspect of socio-emotional competence) makes success more predictable. Those whose job directly makes people happy are usually very successful. Take comedians and musicians for example. What about writers and filmmakers. When they are good at what they do then they are guaranteed patronage from almost everyone. Why? Happiness- good feeling.

Your output generates a feeling within people whether you want to accept it or not. You have a choice to decide whether this feeling is a positive one or the opposite. To set out to deliberately create a product that generates a good feeling for people is people-centeredness. It is deciding that people are the reason why you do what you do and hence you are going to make sure that they are happy with what you give them.

This idea makes your life better because it is only when people are happy with you that they tend to want to make you happy in return. They give you what they have; their attention, their money and their most treasured assets.

A father who is happy with the potential son-in-law is happy to bless the marriage. Simply because he is happy. He likes the son-in-law enough to give away his precious daughter with a blessing. He might be happy because he is sure that the son in-law will make his daughter happy. So before straying too far, let’s get a grip on the idea. The happiness that you think you are looking for depends on other people’s happiness. If you can give happiness then you are bound to receive it back in plenty. It is kind of like willing to forego your grain of corn and putting it in the soil. You can only reap thousands in return.

So you are wondering by now, what influence does people-centrism have on your performance. I have already said that being competent in the social environment makes your success more predictable than just having a skill or talent. I have also pointed out that it is how people are feeling about what you do that counts. What they really buy is the happiness or good feeling you create. In a team your work might be the raw material for another person’s work. If it is bad, it makes their work harder and vice versa. People- centrism means that you consider the effect of what you are doing or not doing on others in order to ensure a good feeling. Such behavior represents quality as people are always the end users of what we do.

It cuts through communication as well as what we say have a way of stirring up the emotions of others. Considering the fact that the run of people are largely emotionally unintelligent, it may rest with you to find people-centric ways of delivering a message or making a point. You are probably already aware of the important role communication plays in any environment. When staff is people-centric it is a double win for the organization as they will respond to both internal and external needs the right way. The marketing concept of understanding the needs of the customer and creating the perfect product for a targeted group is therefore a powerful one. But so is the economic idea of firing from a competitive edge. Your goal is to combine bother both for a powerful outcome. Not surprising that marketing is rumored to be a wayward child of Economics.

People are not the same and hence their needs differ. People-centrism is therefore begins when we identify that group that has a need for the advantage we have. The lesson here is that, regardless of what you are; there is a group that needs you as much as there is group that does not. To force yourself on the wrong target is to create friction and discomfort for others and yourself—not a very people-centric approach to things. This can affect performance or output in countless number of ways. People-centrism ensures great management and great staff. It develops great products and guarantees success. As people we are micro-businesses in our own rights and we can consciously apply some of these principles in our lives for better relationships and better performance.

Friction in all its forms negatively affects performance which is supposed to be an effortless venture.  People must be the central focus of what we do and that will help ensure that the maximum output is obtained out of people, systems and equipment. The most valuable assets of any organization or nation are its human resources. People are the key ingredient. What we do is by people and for people and about people—maybe that sounds familiar. The most advanced theories of business and even the survival of mankind are people-centric in nature. This article is just a scratch on the surface of a much bigger idea that is captured in the uptimetricse® system available at the CSD®. Please feel free to share your comments with us. It will be highly appreciated.

Some questions you can play with in your mind.

How people-centric are you on a scale of 0 to 10?

Identify someone you are unhappy with and state clearly, reasons why they generate this feeling within you?

Identify ways in which this situation can be turned around?

Is it possible to treat all your communications and actions with doses of people-centrism or or do you find this difficult?

What is the real reason why you do what you do?

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Structure and content

Life gets its meaning from structure and hence, unless we give it one structure or another, it will be unlivable- it simply will not make sense. Ironically, structure itself is a very fluid concept that becomes what we decide it is. This is comparable to water that assumes three different states depending on how we treat it. When frozen into solidity it is ice, when evaporated it is gas. Somehow I get a feeling that its most comfortable state is the liquid state but that is not up to me to decide. It is not my place to decide for you what water is even though its chemical composition is constant.

The life we live gets its meaning from us and so you will find life does not have the same meaning for everyone - yet we all have a meaning for it and that is what determines what we do with it. We are the most active force in the creation of our circumstances. Money is the most important thing in the world because we have decided it is.

Liquid gets its shape from its container which then becomes the structure and liquid itself the content. I find that people are the same- in fact I daresay that everything in life can be broken down into structure and content and it is the quality of the structure that determines the usefulness of the content as the liquid gets its shape from the container. Even when frozen into solid ice, water must assume a certain shape that will be based on a container in order to get its form. Your life is the way it is because of the structure you have given it.

People have physical structure in terms of the skeleton that gives our bodies the shape it has. Without the skeletons I am not sure what we will be reduced to- a bag of flesh perhaps that will have to roll around on the ground- see it is difficult to imagine how we will live without structure. Structure is therefore a crucial necessity that enables everything.

As humans we function on an infinite number of structures and, as I said before, it is what makes it possible for us to live as it is how we give meaning to life. We have cultures, religions, ceremonies, time etc. All these determine how we live our lives but most importantly it is who and what we are that makes all the difference and who and what we are comes from how we see ourselves and how we choose to be. While we may assume the same religion and life philosophy, we are still unique in structure no matter what. 

While foreigners may think of the Ghanaian one way and give all of us a character, they will be able to find individual difference between each person. While two people may come from the same family and attend the same schools till they both get a PhD, it is their structure that will make them different individuals. In this case formal education as we know it becomes the content that will get its shape and usefulness from structure- who and what we are.  This is why we can have a good accountant and a bad accountant, a good lawyer and a bad lawyer. The good and bad coming from how the technical intelligence of a lawyer is being applied and that is based on how he sees himself. For the lawyer and the doctor are in another sense containers of medical and legal information; and hence we must be more concerned about the structure of a person than his or her training.

It makes sense therefore to allow the structure to give the content its place and the content must function through the structure. When a person chooses a religion for example, he or she gets personal moral codes that he or she believes to be right from it and hence is provided with a structural system with which he or she must function as a person. A Christian doctor in this sense may not necessarily be the same as an atheist doctor or a worldly doctor although they have gone to the same medical school. The difference comes from their structure which is based on their religion.

In researching the idea, we have reached a conclusion at the CSD that people need two kinds of education and indeed they do get both in one way or the other. Except we tend to put the content ahead of the structure in a cart before the horse fashion. We seem to think that the cart is the more important of the two though it is the horse that provides energy for the cart to move as the cart is almost useless by itself. A horse, however, on its own can move without a cart.

 “I am a lawyer”, “I am an accountant”, means nothing until we have given it structure by the person we are. But if the structure does not influence the content, a conflict is created such as, perhaps, what you get from square pegs in round holes. Who and what we are is heavily influenced by our very nature- all the way down to our physical structure.

That UsainBolt must be a sprinter is a combination of content and structure that is working perfectly well. When this happens, the only possible result is the fastest man in the world. The very physical nature of Bolt is designed for speed.But how does he know what to do to get the most speed out of himself? He has to be provided with the right information based on years of research by others who probably never run a 100metres race in their lives. The same information in the wrong hands will turn out to be useless if that person’s structure does not enable it. Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligence system provides us with an idea of how different we can all be in terms of our cognitive make-up. That each one of us belongs to one of his eight categories of intelligence; and it is this that should determine our choice of vocation. He is indeed referring to natural talent and capability, which, in itself, is a component of structure.

I am in complete agreement to a large extent as I believe that this natural intelligence that we have is the way we are informed of what it is we are; perhaps to put it in a cart before the horse fashion what we should become. It gives us a hint of what purpose we must serve. To understand this is to magnify this hint by gaining the right content (formal education and training) and, by our very nature, making it more useful.

 Structural education therefore leads us to a good understanding of the self and its various components. For a person to reach the peak of their performancethey consequently need to develop their structure and allow it to influence and shape the content. They must ensure there is compatibility between the two as the absence of this will mean conflict. Conflict by its very nature works against progress and therefore is anti-peak performance. 

It appears many of us are walking around with this conflict between structure and content and trying very hard to be the best at what we do. Structurally, we have been taught that hard work is what will bring us success and because of that we are actually fighting a vocation in the name of hard work. In the midst of our war we have not noticed that those who are the best at it are actually relaxed in it and make it look easy. Peak performance is an effortless venture and those who seek it must seek it effortlessly. 

There are very specific elements that must be a part of a person in order for them to maximize their capability and all of these elements are components of structure. In fact, content itself must be compatible with the structure, or else the whole system will malfunction and underperform.

It is then of extreme importance to spend time understanding and developing one’s structure, i.e. the person you are, even more than content. Daniel Goleman, a renowned psychologist and researcher, proposes that one’s emotional intelligence, a key component of structure, makes success more predictable than their technical intelligence. What this means is that a person may have a great deal of talent and training but lack of emotional intelligence resulting in negative structure which will limit his or her success. In any case understanding what one must train in, or deciding on what vocation one must be involved in is to be based on a good understanding of structure. 

Allow your content to be based on the structure and enable your maximum power to manifest itself in an effortless matter! If you are going to drive a train, be sure to drive it on rail tracks. Do not let the fact that it can move on a road if you force it to fool you. You will never get the maximum speed out of it that way. 

See if you can explain your own structure. REV UP!

Structure and content is a component of the CSD® ultra-Performance® training system. The components of structure include Emotional Intelligence, Social Intelligence, Spiritual Intelligence, Financial Intelligence, and LoveLogic®. Check out our website for our concept of how to unlock these items among others.

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