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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