A pint of Feedback please!

If you have ever been at a concert where the artist’s performance intensified as the applause grew, you have seen the effect of feedback. This is a very common phenomenon in fact and speakers are very familiar with it. In Ghana it is very common to see a very still and expressionless audience literally cold-staring a performer who is trying very hard to force out a drop of positive feedback. Such situations have the capability to steal the performer’s confidence and render him powerless even with a great talent at their disposal. This is when you hear, 

“they don’t like me no matter how hard I try”. “Why is there always something wrong with everything I do”? “Nobody appreciate me even though I am doing my best”.

When we engage in an activity there is always feedback except and it is not always positive. When it happens to be positive however, we are empowered to do more and the effects appears automatic. Positive feedback is nitro-octane 5 fuel for performance and this makes a strong case for the reward and punishment system. If you reward people for doing something they are likely to do more of it; perhaps even better—they want more reward. Negative feedback is however, only the opposite in a conditional manner. It is crude oil that can be refined into a variety of products that can either fire or dampen performance. It is a question of how it is processed. The high performer is in the habit, according to experts like Czickzentmihalyi, of consistently monitoring feedback. They need it as it is the signal on the dashboard that tells us when we are doing the right thing or not. Guys, when the ladies say NO, they mean it. Trust me, I have five sisters.

Anthony Robbins’ success cycle also illustrates this idea quite well. When the feedback is success, it engenders more success. If you have been reading my work you probably already know that it is the small cycles of success that culminate into the larger success. This develops the ever valuable success mentality. The person who wins all the time is used to winning; because of feedback. She enters an activity expecting nothing less than winning. And we all know what roles expectation, confidence and goals play in the quest for success.

The opposite is the failure mentality that results from the same method. When one is told all the time that he is a failure and hears the words fail and you in one sentence after an initial attempt at something, he develops a failure mentality. He then approaches everything with fear and the expectation to fail though he may not show this. Parents and teachers are especially guilty of this when they are unable to determine what the strengths of a child. In my part of the world it appears such negative statements; “you can’t even do simple things, you will suffer in life” are very often used if not abused on young people.

It is not an easy feat for the untrained mind to rise above negative feedback which I should mention is not always authentic. Because of this, many talents are rendered powerless. This is the reason why it is extremely useful for one to build a career in an area they are naturally gifted for. It is unwise to disconnect goals and occupation from purpose must be the result of self-knowledge. Because once the feedback is positive, one builds the confidence to step further and build the reputation of a high performer. This then can serve as the platform from which they can use the winners’ mentality to reach other areas.

Monitoring and dealing with feedback lies within the realm of information processing in the Uptimetrics® training program. Read more of my work and you will know that things, events, circumstances have meaning and purpose only because we gave them one. One statement that I abuse almost on a daily basis; we are the most active participants in the creation of our circumstances. Such tools as the PSR™ (Positive Speculative Reasoning) are of great value in this regard. It is possible to turn negative feedback into something useful when you know how to process information. This is what I meant earlier by crude oil needing refinement. At the same time it is possible to receive positive feedback and indulge in complacency and this is not as rare as you might think.

When a person tells you consistently that you cannot do something or you are not good enough, you have two things to do. The first is to verify the authenticity of the statement itself—people talk crap for their own reasons. Yet they are a great source of feedback and this is the reason why you cannot hang with the “I will do only what I like and others do not matter” folks. The teacher or the parent cannot tell the child they are right when they are wrong. The second is to investigate how and why you have arrived at the decision to engage in that activity in the first place—but that is when you are sure the comment was authentic. In short if you are going to be involved in something ensure you are gifted for it. It will ensure you have positive initial feedback-- Nitro-Octane 5 for your performance; remember? Those with natural capability will always be ahead because they have positive feedback.

I just realized I cannot possibly exhaust the idea in one article look out for the launch of the SPiD-UP® book series. 

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Maximizing 2013 at full capacity.

It is the custom with many of us to have a resolution when a new year begins. But as often is the case, most of us never see it through. Circumstances have a way of changing things even in the face of “man's reach exceeds his grasp” and “I can do all things”. While it is easy to point to indiscipline as the reason many goals or are not achieved, it might be important to consider other factors too. I follow the Anthony Robbins school of tough; that there are no such things as lazy and indiscipline people. It is often a case of lack of motivation. As soon as a person is motivated enough, they will do something that they of themselves did not believe was possible. So if you failed to manifest that resolution last year, it may not be because you lack disciplined. Sometimes we set our eyes on grand things when all we need is to check the basics and everything else will fall in place.

It is not often that a person engages in activity and decides to be lazy and undisciplined and even go further by finding reasons for it. Not many people consciously decide they are not going to be their best. Indeed people work really hard and many of us are very talented in our own ways. The trouble is sometimes with the structure with which we approach the world. I.e. how we interpret the world and its influence on how we approach.

The philosophy of peak performance offers a concise means by which we can tackle the basics in order to ensure that whatever power is being generated from our main engine (talent and skill) is being brought to its maximum. Two things can set us back: leakages and hindrances. Perhaps you have seen one of those old cars that make a lot of noise yet doesn't move much. That is the indication of a leakage. Further, when something gets in the way, you can’t really move forward even though you are firing on cylinders. Hard work is ok but very often it is not what we should be looking at. In some of my work I have tried to establish the idea that the people who are the best at what they often don’t work hard as it is an effortless affair for them.

We maximize opportunities when we have eliminated hindrances and sealed leakages. This automatically makes even the small amount of work powerful because we are maximizing opportunity.  Leakages and hindrances are a result of liabilities. In the philosophy of performance one can classify absolutely everything into two categories, assets and liabilities. Assets power you forward and liabilities slow you down. When anything becomes a liability, we must see how it can be converted or offloaded. Liabilities are baggages—they slow you down. People and everything else can be a liability. Friends and spouses can be a starting point. If they are not helping your cause, they might be slowing you down and causing a leakage in your system. A friend who only thinks about the pub only when he sees you is a leakage on your finance. If you don’t do something a lot of your money will end up in the pub owner’s account and your friend will be the agent who made it possible. This doesn't ensure that you finish the year at full power because if you end the year with less than you are worth, you are under-performing. The less time you spend in the pub the more money you save. The power you are generating from working can then be maximized.

A spouse must necessarily be an asset or they must be disposed (I don’t mean to be nasty). If a spouse doesn't provide the emotional support you need to spur you on and instead their actions slow you down, it might be time to rethink. It is not possible to list the number of things that can be your angels and your demons, but perhaps an expose of the core idea in the philosophy of performance and how it can be applied on 2013 as a period will be useful.

It starts with having specific goal in mind and if you have read any of my work you know how I feel about goals. They must not just be SMART, they must also be intelligent. Intelli-goals are situation sensitive as such, they react and modify themselves according to situation whiles still maintaining integrity. They are also very connected to purpose and personal strength so you are no setting a goal that you don’t believe is achievable. You must understand first that 2013 is only one of the many years you have left on planet earth and in fact only one of the many blocks of your larger life. Each block must be strong in order for you to finish your life at full power. Your goal for 2013 is a component of the larger goal of your life. The two must be integrated seamlessly. As indicated earlier the first step towards getting the best out of the year as per the philosophy of performance is to have a set objective or what we have termed the goal for the year.

The sum of the philosophy involves; identification of assets (because they power us forward), elimination of liabilities (because they slow us down) understanding and maximizing capabilities (because they are assets) and fully exploiting opportunity (because they engage us) towards a specific objective.

Sealing leakages and avoiding hindrances is a huge subject that cannot be covered in this article. I shall however point us to two key points to pay attention to. A lack socio-emotional competence can create hindrances and leakages that will slow us down. This involves our performance in the social arena where there are other people we must deal with. A high competence in the social arena is a powerful way of sealing possible leakages and avoiding hindrances. Maintaining assets-people and transforming liability-people into asset requires an understanding of human behavior. Experts say that social intelligence makes success more predictable than even  talent.

A leakage to look out for is Trapportunities: these are traps that present themselves as opportunities. They derail you and trap you in a place you shouldn't  This of course has a negative effect on your performance. The best way to avoid them is to maintain a high level of integrity and focus. Avoid unauthorized short cuts and to think in terms of the shortest distances and straight lines.

Whiles I do not know what you are involved in; this philosophy has been designed to work for every situation. However, its application will have to be customized to meet your peculiar needs. I have said in my soon to be published work the Philosophy of peak performance that there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach to life and therefore it is important for us to consider our unique circumstances in applying any idea. I will encourage you to follow in that direction. May we also be reminded that regardless of what you want achieve in a day or in your entire life; after all the visualization and dreaming, the next thing to do is to engage in activity. This is why performance is of great importance. Perform at your peak and you will experience the first fruit of success. The ultimate maximization of your life depends on the maximization of the opportunities present in the seconds, minutes, hours and days. 

When they are maximized, your life will be maximized. Happy New Year and May you finish it with full power.

I am giving away an unedited version of my book; Performance Awareness.
If you have been reading my work it is my gift to you for the New Year. Please click on the link here to download it for free. Send us comments at spidup@csdafrica.com and let me know how we can improve it. Five books will be released in the first half of 2013 and what you tell us will play a key role in ensuring quality.

Markus and CSD/SPiD-UP team.

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YOU BECOME WHAT YOU FOCUS ON

Let me start by pointing out that:

What we know as human beings is only but a result of our observation of what God has already created. This is what has come to be known as science. Evidently the more we understand his creation the better use we are able to make of our existence to his glory.

Contrary to what many will have us believe, Christianity is not in conflict with science. It is possible to find an explanation in the scriptures that explains many a scientific discovery. In many cases we find that science itself is a few thousand years behind. That a person becomes what they focus on has been addressed by scripture thousands of years before science began to produce evidence to support the idea.

From the work of psychologist, we now understand the relationship between the two main components of the mind- The conscious and the subconscious mind. The conscious mind makes decision with regards what is good and useful; the subconscious mind accepts it, stores it and re-acts it without thinking. This is the simple process by which what we call habit is created.

From the work of cell biologist we now know that cells are living things in themselves exhibiting some of the characteristics we exhibit as human beings. They have memory of their own and are therefore capable of storing and recalling information. They are born, they live, they can fall sick and they die giving way to descendants. They have a purpose (a plan) and they endeavor to deliver this purpose successfully. They live in colonies or nations and they collaborate for the collective success of the nation (the body or the part of the body they live in).

Yes you are the nation and the cells in your body are its inhabitants. Those in your head (the brain) are the office of the president. The cells there, makes the decisions and decides the role of all the other cells in your body and determine what they must do. Your eye alone has 120 million cells inhabitants whose responsibility it to ensure that you receive visual information that is processed by the brain cells.

Your arm is like a city which has millions of cell inhabitants. Each individual has a role to play. At the same time all the inhabitants collectively have a purpose to serve.

When the command is issued by the cells in your brain, those in your legs must respond for the common good. For example; when you are hungry, the cells in your whole body suffers. The cells in your stomach go to work calling the attention of the whole body using hunger as an alarm system.

“If hands and legs do not do something soon, we will all die”.

So the brain team starts looking for things for hand and legs to do in order to solve the problem for everyone and you move into action.

When the brain decides to eat, the muscles in the legs are instructed to go to the kitchen and the cells of the eye know what to look for. The arms are instructed to open the fridge so the muscles are kicked into gear. The arms pick up the food and the brain knows you must not eat cold food so you head for the microwave. All this can happen so fast, sometimes you are not aware of what you are doing.  

By all cells playing their role, we accomplish a feat that benefits the whole body. Rupert Sheldrake through his work morphic resonance provides a good understanding of cells and their use of memory. Whiles the who subject is beyond the scope of this presentation, it is worth noting that; they are capable of catering, storing and recalling information.

Now let me explain the process by which your habits are created and what ole your cells play in the process. Your conscious mind is a decision maker. I have said earlier that it is aware of the current and decides what your experiences (especially new experience) mean and determines the choices you make by the nano-second. I also said that the subconscious mind is a storage system where the decisions your conscious mind makes repeatedly are stored. The stored decision becomes a set of programs that run without referring back to your conscious mind for approval. This is what makes your subconscious mind powerful even though it does not think.

Once your subconscious mind absorbs some information, it is now the cells that inhabit that part of your body that are charged with the responsibility to act on the information. Bear in mind that information has entered your system on two levels. Your subconscious mind has stored and will not refer to your decision making system (conscious mind) again for approval. It now instructs its more physical subordinates who have memory of their own (and therefore stores and remembers information) to act on it as per the original decision made by the conscious mind repeatedly.

Let me add here that; the information is only absorbed to that level when it is reinforced through repetitive thought and action- This requires focus. When information enters your cells to that point, you act accurately without thinking. Your body knows what to do almost instantly. The information then crystallizes into what is referred to as your “second nature”.

What you focus your attention on (and the degree to which you focus on it ) eventually sinks so deep into your system that you will walk around acting it without knowing you are even doing it. Since you are made up of cells (several trillions of them), you are those cells and what information they are holding.

Finally, quantum physicist have explained to us that your mind in not only inside of your brains. And that in fact it extends into a magnetic field around your whole body. Semyon Kirlian proposed "electrophotography" as a means by which it is possible to capture images of this field around us in various colors depending on emotional state. This field carries the information that is stored in your mind and in your cell so that others have a way of detecting what kind of a person you are. If you have ever met somebody and did not like them, or liked them so much and yet you do not understand why, you have experienced this phenomenon. When the person carries information that resonates with you, you like them. When they are the opposite, you dislike them.

Let me conclude by saying that often when birds flock together for a while, they tend to think in unison. That is why they can fly in very complicated formations turning in the same different directions without saying a word to each other. They are connected and united in thought per the information stored in their systems.

In the same manner, the company we keep is a demonstration of common interest and will influence how we think and eventually our cells will absorb the information and we will become a certain person based what we have decided is good action or what we have decided to focus on. Those of us who got caught in the Kung fu movie craze will recollect how we have walked around acting out what we have seen the shaolin masters do. It is for this reason that we are often told that you must keep away from bad company. Such things as peer pressure are more powerful than most people want to believe. Does the bible say something about this?

Psalms 1:1
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

Those who spend time watching movies and listening to music with hate content should earnestly examine their thoughts, personalities and behavior for the best reference on the matter.

Whiles this presentation does not explain everything, I believe it has thrown some light onto the process that determines the person we become. So that we now have the power to decide the person we want to be knowing clearly how we can make it happen. It is simply a question of what we focus on. Those who focus mostly on the word of God become “God persons” by this same process (notice that the difference between the words “God” and “Good” is only an “O” which mathematically translates into nothing). A good person is therefore God person.

As a performance oriented person, I must add that when our lord Jesus walked the earth as a man, he was deeply absorbed with the word that he already was. When information sinks this deep into us, we become the very manifestation of that information. It is the very basis of his great accomplishment- something we address in a program we call Christ Performance at the CSD.

If you have found anything I have said here useful, then I have served a purpose and that I am eternally grateful to you.Thank you for attending Beauty for Ashes and may the lord bless you abundantly. May he grant you success and cause his face to shine on you. May he guide you towards what is right for us to focus on.  Let us meet again next year. Beauty for Ashes is here to stay!

Isaiah 61:3 (New International Version)
 and provide for those who grieve in Zion
to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
the oil of joy, instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise, instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.  

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Money grows on trees

So I managed to convince you (or did I) a few articles ago that; clichés-- well some of them, are not very useful for your performance as they tend to have limiting effects.  The temporary solution was to discard them or better still; avoid cliché thinking no matter how deep seated they are. But that is easier said than done and I totally agree so I have been working on a better solution based on the Uptimetrics® platform. There is always a better way of doing something; you just have to find it and find it is what we did at the CSD Africa. So here is what you do:

Turn the cliché upside down  

Extract the useful information that is hidden within

Reason the useless information into something more useful

Three easy to practice to deal with clichés.  By doing this you actually correct (repair) the program (and that is what is- a program) instead of trying to remove (uninstall)it. The advantage is comparable to demolishing a house and building another one in its place as opposed to modifying a house into what you want. So let’s see it in action:

Your parents have been telling you all your life that money doesn't grow on trees and somehow you have allowed it to sink deep into your subconscious and even all the way down to your cells. And now you are acting it out before you get the chance to think about it. Experts agree that such information gives you a limiting perspective of money and negatively affect your relationship with it. (Look up money beliefs on the net. You will be amazed at what will come up)

This Cliché which in fact becomes a program in your mind (Mindapp®) is invoked every time you have asked for money to spend on some trivia (bearing in mind that your parent’s idea of trivia has never been the same as your own and that in fact they have been wrong many of the times. Let’s face it, sometimes they abuse their privilege to use such Clichés and the result is that you develop negative emotions in relation to money.)

Turning “money doesn’t grow on trees” upside down will give us

Money does grows on trees (and this is not only true, it is a super useful too)

Now reason your way to a positive end by answering the How (This is done with a tool called PSR—Positive Speculative Reason). Well we do have such things as cocoa trees that in fact produce cocoa that is sold for money. Actually cocoa along with other plants are referred to as cash crops and those who plant it do it as means of earning money- yep they literally grow money on trees. The more cocoa trees you have, the more money you have as the value of a cocoa farm is measured in money. But here is the beauty of this idea: cocoa is not the only money making crop that grows on trees. You will find (when you start thinking this way) that there are a limitless number of trees that can produce money. By doing this you have transformed a negative and limiting Mindapp® shrouded in cliché gear into a more a productive one.  

The first thing to do is to find out what information you are running on. They range from what parents and teachers have said repeatedly (sometimes whiles you are being punished) to something you picked up from a book or from conversation with friends or even people you admire. The sources are limitless and you might not remember all of them at once but they are there. Fixing such limiting Mindapps® improves your performance significantly as you are more forward and open to more options. The more blind spots you remove by using this method, the more options you open up for yourself and the more opportunities you make available to yourself. Perhaps your blind spot with regards to how trees produce money is gone. Feel free to look at trees differently from now on- they do produce money depending on how you choose to think about them.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Mindapps® are small applications that run in your mind much like the apps on your Ipad or Iphone. Many of them like the malicious worms that crawl your computer have been installed there without your awareness yet are determining what you believe and shaping the way you behave subconsciously. If you have a belief or Mindapps® that’s you recognize as limiting, send us an email at spidup@csdafrica.com We might be able to help you.

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From US education to Average |SPiD-UP®

I spent most of yesterday interacting with a group of students preparing for the SAT. They want to study in American universities so they can have a "better future". The story is always the same. Their parents want to ensure that they can get “good jobs”. These days when you have foreign education, you are ahead of your peers. I am personally aware of a multinational company that recruits young graduates from UK universities even before they are graduates. So these young people and their parents have a point. It is good security if you want “the job”. Unfortunately they don’t appear to have any idea what “the job” is.

Young Fred caught my attention because he asked a lot of questions. The conversation appeared very new to him. His goal is to become a civil engineer so I probed further. The whys, the Who, the What and Where- you know the drill. It turned out that an uncle he loves a great deal is an engineer except he didn't realize he is not a civil engineer but rather a mechanical engineer. Fred doesn't appear to understand the difference but claims he has passion for civil engineering.

He had said that he likes to spend time with his uncle (who I should mention lives in the USA). “He used to fix cars before he left for the greener pastures of the US. Now he works or airplanes” Fred added. From my own experience, uncles and Aunties who live abroad are the coolest people in the family until you are old enough to understand what is going on around you. Taking a path that is influenced by them could be a very dangerous venture.

As far as his parents go, they just want him to get a good education and get a good job. For this they are ready to spend the almost 50,000 USD. I did not get the impression that they were interested in any talents or interest he may have at all.  In fact I do not believe there has been any real discussion about his future beyond the fact that he is going to need a job. When I asked about his natural gifts he said he could rap quite well when he was in primary school but he stopped because his parents complained and asked him to focus on his books. So he did.

When I asked him if his parent knew a millionaire called JZ he just giggled. He wasn’t evens sure if they knew a guy called Reggie Rockstone. When I threw the famous what will you do if I gave you a million dollars now at him; the usual house and car and provide for my family came almost instantly. This is the reason he wants a good job and why he needs an American education. There has been no real discussion with his parents or teachers as to what he wants to do with his future and how he can be the best he can be. There is no definition of what it will mean to reach his best. As a Christians you would think the idea of serving the purpose for which God created Fred will be an automatic. Not the case. If he had any talents at all, his parents don’t know about it and if they did, they don’t consider it valuable.

He wants to live what he called a good life although he is not sure what that is. He believes money will make him happy because everything revolves around money. The concept that money is only a medium of exchange and that what he seeks could actually be something else sounded like the strangest thing in the world. He is familiar with the word passion and why it is needed so he uses the word to justify his unclear choices but doesn't appear to have any passion beyond fidgeting with his mobile phone. He is about to add to our already overloaded average bracket even with his expensive US education. Nothing unusual there; It is the norm. The rest of the groups were pretty much the same.

After Fred I did a short session with some Swiss and Congolese friends who understood what I do more than my own people. We were soon discussing how Ghana can be better so I brought up Fred’s story. Then I was asked the one question we always ask ourselves as Ghanaian.  A question I have attempted to answer so many times I have even developed several theories to explain it. Why do we have so many Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Stanford, LSE etc graduates running things in this nation and yet we never make any progress? As I broke into another lecture of theories and hypothesis’ (hey that’s what I do…lol) I couldn't help wondering what good all this really is? My Swiss friends were nodding their heads… obviously interested with my blabbing- at least I was making some sense of the situation theoretically.

I had probably left young Fred more confused than he was when he sat in that chair to talk to me. If I could press a button to fix his problem, I would. But it takes a lot more than that. I learnt a lot from Fred yesterday. You will be amazed where your lessons will come from. I think I may have learnt more than I taught yesterday. Our high schools are not doing enough by way of career counseling. The kids are really confused like I was when I was their age. Not surprising we have wrong people in the wrong places. I myself have been a square peg in a round hole for a long time. I had to learn the hard way.

The issues are simple; if we continue to churn out more averagers, who just want a position that provides them with the opportunity to rob the rest of us, we will remain on the underdevelopment treadmill for a long time. We will be continuing the average cycle which may not in itself be such a bad thing unless you know that our average is below average per world standards. Using the wrong tools for the job never brought the best results anywhere and leakages have the habit of wasting power. Yet I am no pessimist. |SPiD-UP®

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Perform for money: YES you can! Part 1

I almost got into trouble recently arguing as usual about what is ethical when it comes to money. In the last few days I have had to ask myself a few questions in order not end up with an incredibly biased article. What I believe should be irrelevant at this point- indeed I am myself involved in a few money making ventures of my own. I  cannot deny its importance.

The debate about the importance of money is getting old and boring in fact. Since a majority of us are now arguing in favor of money maybe it is not a bad thing to be money conscious. Maybe we should accept it and look into how performance can play a role in our attempt at making money. 

They say that you can’t do anything without money these days. In church, money answereth all things and some even put forward very interesting paradoxical arguments justifying why pastors must be rich. What is the real reason why people spend their last pennies in church?  I believe it is because they are hoping the lord will bless them with more money. And is there anything wrong with the church asking for money given that they are providing a valuable service to the congregation. I mean if the congregation didn’t think the service valuable and worth it then why are they there in the first place. They must be getting something they are happy with right? I d like to think; Yes! So out with that argument: if you like it pay for it and pay what you believe it is worth. After all, not all pastors earn the same figures. It is one market and every player gets their share according to their input- i.e. performance. Even pastors and churches must be concerned with performance.

The idea is simple: money is but a reward for service rendered in one way or another. Secondly it is a medium of exchange- meaning that you only need it because it enables you to do other things that you believe will bring you happiness. In fact it is the happiness factor that you are after when you set out to make money. So here is a question: how much money will you make before you decide you have enough? I mean the likes of Donald Trump are still trying to make money. Research says that it is an endless journey for those who worry about money. Who doesn't worry about money? You will be amazed!

In performance theory the happiness you seek can come from performing a certain activity. The trouble is that most people haven’t figured out what this activity. I should add that it is different for everyone. Those who have found the right activity to engage in; experience a feeling that that last longer than sexual orgasm yet has a similar effect. Those who experience this phenomenon performing this activity also make money performing this activity because they are usually the best at it. And because the feeling they derive from performing this activity they do it more often than others. That also means they get more practice than others making them the best at it. These are the high performers of society.

It should be clear at this point that those who say they seek money and are not interested in my kind of rhetoric must first seek to improve their performance. When performance improves, everything else improves. If you want to earn six figures, then give six figure performances. It doesn’t get any simpler than that. There is more of course to this matter. Look out for the part two. |REV-UP®

Some questions you can use to check your levels. Email the answers to  csd.ghana@gmail.com to join our no-obligation,  one month free performance coaching program.

What is your current occupation and are you earning enough?

Which comes first; is it the money or the means by which you earn it?

How much money will be enough and what will you do after you have enough?

If you receive a billion today, will you continue in your current occupation and why?

How would you compare your performance to those who have a similar occupation but are earning more than you?

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Undo the limiting effects of goals

In a recent workshop a young lady asked me a very simple question that turned out not to be so simple to answer if I was going to make sense.

What if I don’t want to perform at my peak? All I want is a very simple life that’s all”.

Husband, house, care and some children is all she wants. She doesn’t want to change the world or go to Mars or any of those things people dream about.  Have I taken this peak performance thing a little too far? We don’t all want to change the world. On Facebook, a discussion started when a young lady posted on her wall:

“my goal in life is just to become a wife”.

She had met a young man she is so in love with; the most important thing for her now is to be his wife—that’s it. Now a comment like that is bound to attract some attention in the very Jean-Paul Sartre/ Simone de Beauvoir world we live in. And it did.  Well everyone is reading Napoleon Hill and listening to Brian Tracy these days aren’t they? So it is almost standard for us to call that kind of thinking limiting. After all we are the “the sky is your limit” generation. Ok, in case you haven’t heard, we have gone beyond that actually. Now it is more like“the sky is not your limit”.

Recently a pastor friend of mine also made a comment in a radio discussion about, not needing goals as it might be best to leave it all to God. We just have to do his will and everything should be fine- we become like Moses (a performing personality of course). Moses didn’t really start life knowing he was going to be leading some Israelites to a new land did he? After all God is our biggest fan and is probably the only one who truly has your best interest at heart so why don’t we just leave the goal thing to him.

If you have been reading my work, you probably already know that I am the guy behind the dead-end goals idea. Lately I have been exploring the question of whether goals (whether dead-end, smart or intelligent) in themselves can be limiting. The answer is a scary one indeed. In my line of work, we place a lot of importance on setting goals and rightfully so- we need the structure it brings to things. No one hits a target that doesn’t exist. BUT the plain truth is; some people have hit targets they did not really predetermine. But for those who set goals there is a question regarding whether they could have picked a better target or not. Really how are we to know? I am going to avoid discussing what the experts’ theories say about setting goals for a minute and deal with the issue on a more practical level.

How can we determine with some precision what the exact possible ability of a person is? Could Michael Jackson have given us more? How do we know that he really did reach his peak and that there wasn’t any more room for improvement? Did Bob Marley reach his peak? Could he have done more in his thirty six years he lived? The answer is YES! But that is easy to decide for someone who passed in their prime. Can we say the same for a person who passed at 80?

I have been toying with the idea that the term peak performance itself could be limiting. For example, I have no way of knowing what a client is ultimately capable of in my work as a performance coach although I might be able to understand  to some degree what is achievable as per what they have. It cannot be pre-determined. Perhaps it will be wiser not to place a ceiling on where we can reach or what we can be. Setting a life goal as most are doing these days can have this limiting effect.

This is where my pastor friend might have a point although it will need exploring further. For those for us who believe in a God who has a plan and purpose for us, our goals can be limiting but only if they are out of sync with his purpose for us. This is why having a God is useful because it gives you an all knowing personality to turn to for answers. And while you might set goals, it will be based on his will and hence you will benefit from his guidance and direction. None one creates a thing and wants it to under-perform. Having a God also brings some structure to our lives giving it a direction that we must travel in. This is extremely important because in that direction we can set goals with a high degree of certainty. And when we reach it, we can always set another one as long as it is in the same direction.

For my lady friend who just wants to be a wife, there is such a thing as a good wife and a bad wife. Both are indeed wives. When we say the goals is just to become a wife we haven’t really said much. But if it is to be the best wife there has ever been, or perhaps even the best wife in your family, then we can immediately see a threshold that makes your goal S.M.A.R.T in more than one way but yet still limiting in a sense. Wife is a position that is meaningless until we use it to accomplish something.

We might be able to find the best wife there has ever been but why would we assume that there cannot be a better wife in the future and that in fact that could not be our lady friend. We don’t stop living when we reach something and since the sky is not the limit, where does it end. A person must then keep performing till he passes on, it is then that we can look at what they did with what was available to them. We must also remember that as we grow older, capabilities may change and that will influence the context of performance.

In search of a solution however, I believe that my idea of intelligoals may be the practical way to go without necessarily stepping too far from God’s will. Well I am still performing so I am likely to bring clarity to the matter before I pass on and when that happens, you will be the first to know J. 

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Confuse thou not the branding

So the branding thing has really caught on. Almost everyone is talking about branding yourself especially motivational speakers. The idea is to make yourself unique enough to be spotted from the crowd. It also helps narrow yourself down to a target group that identifies with what you represent. This then makes it easy for you to sell because you will have the right product, with the right customer- that’s a good mix.   Unfortunately like everything else the whole idea has been perverted. Whiles the branding idea is part of the marketing philosophy; it predates any subject of study but that’s another story for another day.

For the safety of the neophyte not to shoot themselves in the head before they have started out, I shall present two ways to look at the branding thing. Inside-out (positive) and outside-in (negative). As the terms implies one is when you start with the looks and attempt to work your way to the substance. It will take effort you probably cannot afford and promises nothing but a struggle to match an image you have created. This is outside-in branding. Inside out on the other hand follows a natural flow of things and requires very little effort. You paint yourself according to what you already are. You are magnifying and polish what you are so people can identify the substance by the looks.

Mention the word branding and you will hear a lot about labels and images. Well labels give you an image don’t they? So a seemingly good advice often given is to make sure you label yourself the “right” way. Present yourself the right way so you can attract the needed attention. While, this is true, you might also want to stop and ask; if you get it wrong and that happens a lot more than you might think. And it starts when you brand outside-in: i.e deciding to make yourself what people want or want to see. Saying what they want to hear and such.  This is negative branding and its results are short-lived. Ever bought a product because of the way it looks only to be disappointed with what’s inside? Don’t judge a book by its cover apparently still holds and that’s made real using the outside-in method.

A brand is something you already have whether you accept it or not. People know you for one thing or another whether good or bad is irrelevant here at this point. This is because that’s what you are. No matter how you color yourself, they will soon see through to what you really are. You are what you are and what you are then is the best place to start your branding. Your effort must go towards the best way to present what you are and not a change. If you are a terrible dresser, you will never out dress the person who is naturally a good dresser. Maybe once or twice but you will soon relapse into green shirts and red shoes. You just do not have it unless of course you hire someone to take care of your wardrobe. I am not implying that you don’t make an attempt at looking good. I am saying that it is best not to be known for your dressing as you cannot back it up all the time. It’s just not you. If fashion is your thing however, you must certainly be known for your dressing and let the no-sense-of-fashion people like myself come to you for advice.

From the bright side of things however, there is something about you that some people will find useful. Notice I said some people. It just means not everyone wants what you have. They may actually prefer the nice dressing guy and that’s fine. People must get what they want not something that looks like what they want. You want to be what they want and when you show up you must look like what they want- so yes color yourself but to match what you really are inside. Inside-out branding is then the more useful one as it’s allows what is inside to reflect outside. So that those who want you will find it easy to identify you knowing that what they see is what they will get.

Having the wrong spouse and fighting to keep them has never helped anybody. Yet very often we present ourselves in a way that others might find attractive so we can win them over. That takes a short period to accomplish and but takes a life time of struggle to maintain. This happens in all relationships either work or love. r you.

What does this have to do with performance? Everything! I suggest you also read the blurred line between walk and talk.

The following questions help you make a valuable assessment.

Is there a gap between how you present yourself and what you really are? Describe the difference.

Recall a specific situation where you have said you could do something that you knew you couldn't?

What was the motive behind your action?

Have you ever been disappointed when you came near someone you admired from far?

What was different about them compared to the image you had about them from far?

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

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