Meet Peak Performance PT II | Maximization of existence

This is the second part of a three part presentation. It will be useful to read the previous parts first for better understand.

Performance is the evidence of existence. It represents activity. Without Activity this universe will be a dead place. When something exists, it serves a purpose. Life is in constant motion - nothing stays the same. Change is guaranteed even if it is cyclical. This is the very nature of things. The cells in your body are active doing something or serving a purpose. The various organs in your body are serving one purpose or another. This is beautifully evident when you take a close look at the human anatomy. The sheer organization of the body alone is astounding. To understand the importance of each of the purpose being served by the components that make up your body, you just need to stop your nose form serving its purpose for five minutes. You will soon see that life begins to travel the opposite direction.

The ecology of the earth itself is a remarkable example of how everything serves a purpose and how the various elements of nature interact with each other in order to maintain the balance that keeps us all alive. Nature’s food chain is carefully designed to maintain this extremely important balance. As human beings you are a part of the grand system that is constantly in motion and serving a purpose –  you are involved in one activity or the other “Being of use”. By the nose hypothesis, I have established that to stop being of use sends life in the opposite direction. The degree to which you can serve your purpose or “be of use” depends on performance. Peak Performance is when you serve the purpose to the best of your ability.  Performance is what determines whether you are successes or failures. One would think therefore that performance will be a major subject of study but unfortunately this is not the case as very few daring psychologist and others in related fields have peeked under the hood to see what it is that causes high performance and low performance alike. Notice I have pointed us to performance as separate subject from the matter concerning how an entity can be of use- the manner in which they will engage. This is a crucial point you have to understand clearly.

In a family setting everyone has a role to play or to put it another way, everyone serves a purpose in the system. Not all families are set up the same way of course; in fact it differs from family to family as it differs from nation to nation. However, every single member has a purpose to serve. Some of the roles are constant regardless of location or culture whiles others can differ. Let me illustrate this:

there has to be a source of income for every family. In many places, that will be the job of the father. Sometimes it is both father and mother whiles other cases differ completely. A child could be handed that role from an early age depending on the family’s unique circumstance. Regardless of the setting, a successful family will depend on how effective the players are performing or serving their purpose in order to meet the individual and collective goals. When the income earner fails to perform, the whole family suffers. This affects growth and as we have seen, growth gives way to decay per the laws of nature.

In the grand scheme of things, man was made by God to serve a purpose. The Bible insists that he has a grand plan and you are playing a role in it. For this grand plan to succeed, you have to succeed (be the best that’s possible for you to be) as individuals, organizations, nations, continents and planets etc.  He has for the purpose of our success, equipped all of us with the tools with which to serve this purpose. Just as the nose is the only organ capable of performing in the breathing role.

We each have a unique combination of things that makes us the only one qualified to be us. To under-perform is therefore to undermine Gods plan and the result cannot be positive. Consider the organs in your body; if your lung fails to perform its duty at its best, your whole body suffers. When cells stop functioning, tiny as they are they become a cancer? Permit me to say then that non-performing individuals are the cancers of any organization or group. Non-performing cells can continue to increase until they disable the whole body and no performing people can do the same with an organization and a nation.

The principle is therefore the same no matter how you look at it and where you look at it from. Individuals must perform at a high level in order to obtain personal success that contributes to the grand success of the whole. The individual’s success is the micro component that powers the macro. Just as the successful heart contributes immensely to a successful body. True success is but a product of high performance.

In the first part of this article we encountered the peak performance phenomenon by way of one time experience.  Now we have seen that it can influence the manner in which an entity is of use in the larger system. In Uptimetrics® this is referred to as the micro- level and the macro-level. The two terms are used interchangeably as per the context. So that we see that the macro is dependent on the micro. A person’s way to maximization of their existence (performing at their peak over a lifetime (macro)) is dependent on their occupation (what occupies them now, the job (micro)). Apostle Paul and King Solomon understood this quite well. Solomon admonishes out of his disdain of vanity in ecclesiastics 9:10

 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom. NIV

Paul proposes in Colossians 6:5

 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. NIV

To solve a failing life therefore, a careful examination of the occupation (current job) is required. It must then be related to the entire life of the subject and it is then that a solution will begin to emerge of its own accord. Uptimetrics® graduates are equipped with the tools to do this effectively making them coaches and motivators who impact any group they find themselves.

I shallproceed to the concluding part of this series. Please continue here

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The Uncertainty of Success

So everyone wants to succeed these days. Not that it wasn't the case with previous generations but ours for reasons I cannot phantom just seems a smidgen more urgent. We are the Brian Tracy and Anthony Robbins generation after all. We have more motivational speakers than any other generation can boast of and we love them apparently. Absolutely nothing wrong with that except many of us just seems to think we can do it by being normal. Normal is fine but it doesn't make you that outstanding person you would like to be. Normal here refers to performing at an average level being like most people.

How much you put into something determines how much you will get out of it. That’s like life’s little law you cannot break. No one is exempted. For this reason success must begin with performance. Those who are the best at what they do are likely to be successful. Most of the people we call successful are not simply people who set a goal and reached it. Most people here refer to those who are doing things beyond what most people are doing and that’s a very few number of people. Think about this very carefully.

Most of the people who set SMART goals and reach them you never really hear about. Many of the people you see flying high have probably not even reached the goals they have set yet. In between these two, there are a variety of others. So that the high performing guy/chic is really the one people look at when they think about success. The guy who makes doing something looks easy. The one people point to when they look for the best or one of the best at something in particular. That’s the person you want to be and you want to be that person BEING what you know how to BE best. If you can be that thing, your success is well on its way. I hold the view that perhaps the term peak performance itself maybe a fallacy as it is not possible to know how much more a person could have done when they pass on. I am sure most people will agree and that such men like Steve Jobs and Bob Marley could have given the world more. Yet were they not outstanding men of their days with plans to achieve more in the future?

Upshot; it doesn't really matter what success means to you. I say this because in my work as a performance coach my interaction with people on a daily basis reveals something different every time. So I have to agree with those who hold that success is simply deciding on something to achieve and actually achieving it. Size doesn't really matter at this point although; there is quite a room for further discussion. If it’s about money, you get that when the demand for your service goes up and that happens simply because you are that good at what you do. If it’s about changing the world and making a difference I can assure you; that will not happen by you doing average things. Change comes only by doing more than the usual. Regardless of what you think you want, performance is what counts in the final analysis. Here is a cold fact: nobody hires anybody for their certificate. They hire you because the certificate means you have had some training that means you can give them what they want. Which high performance in a particular activity or they won’t bother with the interview. Even if they hire the first guy who shows up, they have made a case of punctuality. Once you are hired it is all down to performance or you won’t have that job for long. To do well in your life you have to do well with whatever is in your hands at any given point in time.

Your employer wants you to be the best, your God wants you to be the best, your parents want you to be the best. You must want to be the best. All you have really is your life and God gave it to you for a reason. Don’t be like the last servant in the parable of the talent who buried his talent in the ground when others where making profits on theirs. Be the best you can be! SPiD-UP® is here to help you achieve that. 

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The one thing Steve Jobs got right

It is a deliberate thing on my part not to quote the likes of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates in my work. Sometimes they seem like the extraordinary people God created for whatever reason. They seem too far away and the size of their success is hard to identify with. I find that most young people in my part of the world have this difficulty which comes from comparing their environment with the one Steve Jobs and Bill Gates grew up in. A young person in the UK or the US appears to have more advantages than those in Ghana or Nigeria. That is the kind of truth that does not allow you to see yourself being the next Bill Gates even if you are told all the time that all things are possible.

But what has value has value and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Hence my research into the life of Steve Jobs has led me to share this videos as he reiterates some of the key point I make at the SPiD-UP® workshops. Your job is referred to as occupation because it occupies your life. You spend 8 or more of your 24 hours in it and another 8 sleeping. The last 8 you use for the countless other things you do as part of your life. If you do the math right, you will see that your happiness, success, achieving your life goal etc. all depends on your job or occupation. It is that simple and apparently Steve Jobs understood this very well. If your job makes you unhappy, you will be unhappy for the rest of your life… I mean you will have an unhappy and an unfulfilled life. I am yet to meet anyone who wants that. By 8:31 he starts making this point very clearly:

"Sometimes life can hit you in the head with a brick. don't loose faith. I am convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love...and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe to be great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet keep looking and don't settle." 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

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People Dynamics Vrs. People-centrism

If you have read my two part post on why you work hard to underachieve, then you have run into these words. In this post I will try to explain the difference between the two and their relevant to the maximization of your existence.

People-centrism is about functioning with people as the center of your existence. You live because of others; your life is about other people. Whiles I am aware of some of the counter-worldviews presented by some titans of philosophy, I am convinced by the superior example of Jesus. I submit that he is the single most accomplished individual to ever walk the earth. This is evident in his legacy which has not stopped growing thousand years after his departure. Scripture teaches that the period of his engagement was only three years. In that period he achieved more than any other individual in the history of the world. The reason is simple; his objective was to save the whole world. For this, the world owes him some attention and that includes his critics. It is impossible to ignore him. His is the perfect example of a maximized existence.

Those who understand the power of living for others have been able to use it to achieve great things. Such men as Mahatma Ghandi, Kwame Nkrumah, Rev. Martin Luther King Jnr. Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela and many others literally followed this Christ example of sacrificing their lives for others and the result of that life is clear for everyone to see. People-centrism in born out of altruism and it has been proven to be the most effective way to perpetuate the existence of any group. The existence of any group is dependent on the survival of its individuals and therefore the group will cease to exist if it starts to destroy its individuals ceteris paribus.

People dynamics whiles related to people-centrism is a more complex matter in practice than in theory. The complexity stems from the fact that whiles people are tools in our hands; they are not to be used as the means to ends but must be treated as the end itself- people centeredness. It is concerned with how to deal with people in our world in order to reach our objectives. It deals with issues of converting liability to asset by repositioning ourselves- socio-emotional competence. The books of proverbs and ecclesiastics are loaded with people dynamics wisdom. Perhaps it will be very useful to have an example here:

Everybody likes to receive or get. It assures them of their continuous existence. For this reason they will love and protect the source of this assurance. To understand this one must pay attention to the person they give to very often and how they treat the person who gives to them. When compared to how we feel about those whose action challenges our continuous very existence, we begin to get a better understanding of this idea. However, there are instances when elimination becomes the useful option for both the eliminator and eliminatee. A typical example is one we hear from most success crusaders;

Do not hang with the wrong people,
who you associate with will determine who you become,
show me your friends and I will tell you who you are.

Often it is in the interest of both parties to not be together as their acquiescence with each other has negative impact on both parties. Important questions arise concerning what the best way of dealing with such situation is. People dynamics is called into action at this point. So that people dynamics compliments people-centrism, although the two have very different concerns. In Uptimetrics® the two are treated under the topic of socio-emotional competence (a Hegelian-dialectical product of emotional and social intelligence). I shall soon start publishing papers on Uptimetrics® in order to present some of these topics in their more technical manifestations for deeper understanding.  Please feel free to ask questions if you have any. 

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Why you work hard to underachieve Pt. 2

There were a few questions that arose from my last post regarding the assets and liability idea. So I decided to do another post to bring some clarification to the matter. I believe these posts are going to lead us in a whole new direction forcing me to bring up topics that I had not planned to treat. It appears a discussion on people dynamics and people-centrism is will make an apt top up.

I said in my last post that anything you can prefix with the word “MY” will automatically fall in one category- asset or liability. This means literally everything you can claim any degree of ownership to. We already know that assets fire you towards your goal and liabilities do the very opposite in more than one way. My plan is to clarify the idea better by providing some examples.

The things you own includes people in a sense and I am not challenging the notion that people have their personal freedoms which must it must be respected at all cost. But you do refer to your parents as My parents and your pastor as MY pastor as you will refer to your shoes as MY shoes. The word MY therefore attempts (no matter how feeble) to shave off the sovereignty of the people in your life. They are a part of your world and to some extent tools in your hand. How you use these tools and the outcomes of that usage will either push you towards your goal or hinder your progress. This of course makes people-centrism and people dynamics important topics and I shall treat them in my next post.

Spouses are major elements in any person’s life or world. This means that your spouse plays a key role in your attempt to maximize your existence. If the spouse turns out to be an asset person then you function with double power. This gives meaning to the point made in the book of proverbs; “he who finds a wife finds a good thing” (Proverbs 18:22). Now without digressing to far I should clarify that a wife is only a wife is she is an asset person. This is because a wife is supposed to be a helpmeet. Being supportive to a husband is really what makes a woman into a wife. For this reason a woman is not a wife until there is a husband to help. This is reversible to for husbands as there is such a thing as an asset man or husband.

For this reason no one person is functioning at full power unless united with a spouse who fires them towards their goal. Regardless of how successful a person is, they can always be more with the support of a wife. As we all know two heads are better than one. The upshot of this is that, the one who intends to maximize their existence is careful in their choice of a spouse. There must be a common interest between one’s life enterprise and the choice of a spouse. As Benny Hinn said to a group of young leaders, “find the calling before you choose the spouse”. Where there is a mismatch, one cannot maximize their occupation and therefore cannot maximize their existence.

So people in your life can be assets or liabilities. Your parents, children, friends, siblings, colleagues will all fall into one group or the other. What is an asset to one person might actually be a liability to another. If you drive one of those cars that take more out of you than it gives you; liability. Project the assets and loose or minimize the liabilities and you will gain more power.

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Why you work hard to underachieve

Following my post about the success of Yvonne Nelson’s movie premier, I feel compelled to share with you what I meant by assets and why they influence performance. The idea was borrowed from the Uptimetrics® foundation training program.

Gaining full performance is possible when you identify all your assets and aligned them all into a working unit in your favor. This is based on the presupposition that all entities or people if you like, have assets and liabilities. Assets fire you forward whiles liabilities obstruct you, weigh you down and set you back. To gain full speed in your performance therefore, it is important not only align your assets but also to either eliminate, convert or minimize your liabilities (the things that fight your performance).

Often when people become aware of their assets, there is an enthusiasm to engage and the feeling is fantastic. Soon however, it becomes evident that the individual is not peaking. This will happen when the liability factor has not been dealt with. Liabilities often manifest as leakages that keeps you in the same place no matter how much power you are generating from your assets. What is liability or asset is not the same for everyone. Remember; one of my favorite mantras; there is no-one-size-fits-all solution to anything.  Perhaps you have seen one of those vehicles that make all the noise yet don’t move much. In the same manner there are people who work really hard but achieve very little.

In truth many of us are at this stage as we are not clear about what our assets and liabilities are. This is not so easy to figure out with the number of things we have to deal with these days. This is where a performance coach can help. If athletes need  coaches to ensure they get the right results then so do you. Some of the most successful people around the world have personal coaches who work with them on very regular basis. Some have coaches without really knowing they have one. A person who is not in your situation may see things about you that you don’t see about yourself. He might also be able to assess your condition in a more dispassionate manner than you can. And if he has experience he will be able to share with you how to deal with some issues.

This idea brings structure to your engagement which transforms your chaotic situation into an orderly one. Order is one of the beautiful attributes of structure as it brings clarity. Clarity doesn’t mean your problems are solved. It just simply allows you to easily identify trouble spots and deal with them with an improved degree of ease. Of course there is more to the idea than what I can tell you in one blog post. It is better captured in my second book of the SPiD-UP book series which will be available soon.

So there it, you have been given a sample helping of the philosophy of peak performance. To increase your performance, take stock of everything you can prefix with My. Analyze them all through and decide which one pushes you towards your goal and which one does the opposite. Eliminate and align accordingly and be a superman …erm woman too.

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Yvonne Nelson long legs magic

Lately there have been a lot of discussions on both traditional and new media about the success of the Yvonne Nelson new movie premier and its record breaking success. While I have not seen the movie itself and I doubt if  I will, I am intrigued by the fact that she has been able to achieve what has been referred to as the highest sales of all time for a movie premier. In Ghana of course but I have no reason whatsoever why she shouldn't set a world record too if she so wishes.

Really it all comes down to how far you are willing to go and what you are willing to do. It is simply how the world works!  Setting a new record is of course taking things to the next level. Becoming the new standard and this only happens when we have done something new. As a general rule old ways doesn't bring new results. It is simply how the world works!

She had apparently taken to the streets to distribute flyers to motorist with the best of the cast and personally invited people to attend the premier. Now I have to tell you, I am not particularly an Yvonne Nelson fan per se, I don’t remember finishing a movie with her in it. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against her talent except I like a different genre of movies and she doesn't come across to me as the philosophical type. But I can assure you if she walks up to me and asked me to come to a premier, no hailstorm could have stopped me.

I am sure the whole exercise would have left her first-class-flying famous long legs with unbearable aches and pains. It shouldn't take rocket science to anticipate that but she did it anyway and she brought a bunch of her friends along with her. So here is the clearer picture

She had assets; her image, her friends, a set of long legs you want to see- and she knew how to use them. She combined them to do something new so she was bound to get new results; there is no other way around this. All of us want new results except not all of us are willing to do new things.

Higher performing people are responsible for the new achievements we see every day. Once the standard has been set, average people try to meet it until another high performer sets a new standard. Clearly it is those who are willing to do outstanding things that can bring outstanding results. It didn’t happen because she made a movie, it is because she was willing to walk the streets and invite people personally to the premier. Do something new today and get new results.#spidup wherever you are.

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Contextualizing your performance

The context of performance idea was born out of the many questions I received when I posted an early version of my book performance awareness online critique. The exercise forced me to rethink some of the ideas in the book which in fact contains the core of what I teach in the Uptimetrics® foundation class. In the end I had to add two new chapters one of which covers the context of performance.

Performance cannot be measured in the same way for any two people as no two people are the same even if they demonstrate strength in the same area. For this reason it is necessary to provide key indicators that will help decide when a person has done enough based on their nature. An employer might list the specific number of things that must happen within a certain period to determine whether an employee is performing or not. Whiles this criterion might be set for a specific role, he must understand that no two people will deliver it in the same manner.

There are some individuals categorized as cheetahs and I am not referring to professor Ayittey’s Cheetahs in his Hippos and cheetahs idea. The cheetah is the fastest land animal. Yet it does not run consistently as a horse will. The cheetah runs in short bursts. This 

means it run and stops intermittently. For the untrained mind, a person of the cheetah character is easily misunderstood as one who is not consistent. However the cheetah character is among the highest performers once we put their performance in the right context.

Context of performance is dependent on three things; Character (nature), Circumstance and Capability (I christened them the 3 Cs). Character here refers to the nature of a person. Since people are at their best when they are more of what they already are, we must quickly see the important role of character in reaching one’s best. We could use a pocket knife to cut bread but like any kitchen neophyte like me knows, it is best done with a bread knife on a flat surface and never in your palm. But pocket knives are best used in certain situations and we deprive them of peak performance if we use the otherwise. It is a question of the right tool for the right job.

Being human is easy… or is it? There are some things we can all do as basic. But there are those who are the best at those things due to their very makeup. This will become clearer if I put you and Husein Bolt together in a 100m race. We are each built for something and functioning out of that role does not allow our best. But you already knew that didn’t you.

So whether in a current occupation or in your larger life (don’t forget the two must seamlessly integrate for best output) there is a context in which you can be your best. These days, businesses hire people based on their nature and not necessarily qualifications. They look for a kind of person they believe will fit the role. That should tell you a thing or two. For a person to ensure they are their best, self-awareness is of extreme importance. When we understand our own context of performance, we know how to fit into any situation and what to do even if it is not the right one for us.

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Loose the pain to keep the job

Most people start a new job with great enthusiasm but change within a few months when they have settled in. They become familiar with the environment and get used to the culture. They have left the primary need zone and now they want more than being able to feed, clothe and shelter themselves. A new set of eyes open and they soon start seeing the negatives of the job and the environment. All of a sudden the attitude and management style of the boss is so bad they will take the next opportunity to leave. At this point, performance stagnates or begins to drop. You know you have been there.

Well this is not exactly surprising at all as most people choose jobs simply because they want to meet an immediate need. The need for survival means they will work in any environment and even accept a low salary ignoring all the warning signs that kept screaming; “you will be unhappy in this job”. They literally walk into “trapportunistic” jobs. This is the downside of working for money only. I am not about to reecho the ever popular “do what you love”. In fact I think it is getting boring; although it is the single most useful advice anyone can give you. Also, many people set dead-end goals. An example of which is simply to get a certain job or join a certain profession. Jobs and professions are vehicles (means) to be used to achieve something specific(end). It is this something specific that must drive the choices we make regarding occupation. This kind of motivation is of the intrinsic kind. When you are motivated from inside, the bad boss, low salary, and time spent commuting to work, your unfriendly colleagues all fade into the background and the most important thing really is what you do and how it makes you feel. In fact if you can get what you do right, it will fix all the so- called problems you have that affect your performance as you will engage wholeheartedly ignoring everything else. Nobody ever did a good job half-heartedly.

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The Gifty Anti self-sabotage

Self-sabotage is a phenomenon most people are not aware of. The funny thing is that, it is something we all indulge in every now and then. It is in fact responsible for most of our set-backs.  I have no doubt that you can recall a time when you built something halfway and did something that destroyed it all before you could finish it. Unfortunately for some it has become a habit. I have had my personal share of self-sabotage and sometimes the set-backs can be tremendously disheartening. There are statements we use every day that represents self-sabotage quite well. Among them;

…being your own worst enemy
…being self-destructive
…getting in your own

Those who suffer from another phenomenon called fear of success tend to self-sabotage more frequently. There is an internal program who’s job it is to destroy the very thing they have been building. This ensures they never reach their goals no matter how hard they work. This group will need some expert attention to address the problem. As a minister I should also point out that there can very often be a spiritual dimension to this although it is mostly psychological. This of course means it is a solvable problem.

But let me point you to something I saw on TV recently that might bring the idea closer to home for you. One of GBCs greats; Gifty Anti was making a presentation at Springboard which happens to be one of Ghana’s finest platforms for inspiration. The founders of springboard are known to be a solid Christian couple with the husband serving as executive minister with one of Ghana’s most powerful Churches. Over the years Springboard has brought inspiration to both young and old across the country and recently beyond. Every one of the speakers is a recognized success in their own way and supposedly has a positive influence in society.  

I believe it was Gifty’s first appearance on Springboard. She started on a wobbly note but that is nothing unusual. Those who have ever mounted a stage to speak are familiar with the initial nervousness. As she picked up speed, she normalized into a comfortable position as she shared her experiences as a broadcaster. Inspiring was the only word that kept repeating itself in my mind. Then she did it:

She mentioned E. L James (the author of 50 shades of grey) as one of the women she looks up to. Really…Gifty? She didn't end it there in fact. She talked about the author and the success of her book as the fastest selling book of all time. Well in case you didn’t know, 50 Shades of grey is classified erotica. In fact it is not just erotica, it is extreme erotica. Some critics have called it pornography. It can easily be described as the single most effective instrument of the BDSM crusade.

Now I happen to know Gifty is a Christian who was raised by a strict police officer father. How it is that she now enjoys extreme erotica is not particularly my concern. What is an issue however, is that set out to inspire people and ended up introducing them to BDSM.  This is a clear case of self-sabotage not only to herself but also to springboard. Why? There is a debate about whether self-sabotage is what you do alone or whether it includes what you don’t do. I am of the second school of thought. What you fail to do can be just as harmful as what you do? Hopefully, from now on Springboard managers will take interest in the content speakers are bringing to ensure it doesn't become an unregulated platform. By this I am of course assuming that they failed to check content which in many ways is better than assuming they knew she was going to be mentioning E. L James.

Hey, I have nothing against Gifty- I have never met the woman. But there are lots of inspiring female authors who have made a fortune selling their books she could have turned to for inspiration. There is always Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie or even good old Rhonda Byrne and many others. Good grief whatever happened to Maya Angelou? 

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