HOW TO
BECOME EXCELLENT @
ANYTHING & EVERYTHING
Whose life do you admire
the most? Whose phenomenal success do you wish you could call your own? Have
you ever wondered what it takes to be a peak performer in your area? Have you
ever wondered what the big achievers know- that you don't about success &
achievement? Have you ever wished you could have that proud moment on the
podium with a Olympic gold medal round your neck? or a Bharat Ratna or a Nobel
Prize in your hand??
WHAT TURNS ORDINARY PEOPLE
INTO OVERACHIEVERS
Simply put, all of the
above may sound like Superman’s Wishlist, but they are not
hallucinations or mirages; they represent what we all could be. Natural talent
and intelligence can certainly make life a lot easier. Nor is luck. Whoever it
is that you admire most is, in fact, a lot more like you than you might expect.
Except for one thing: THEY THINK DIFFERENTLY. When the whistle blows, when the
chips are down, when the deal is on the table, when they step into the
limelight, they are in a special mindset.
What turns ordinary people
into overachievers is the way they use their minds when they are called upon to
perform. And in case you think that only athletes, musicians, actors, and other
entertainers "perform," you should know that any time you engage in
your work, you are performing; any time you are not alone or talking to
yourself, regardless of your profession, you are performing in public. To be as
successful as you can be as a performer, you will need a performer's mindset.
Peak performance mind training
is essential for anyone wanting to be at their best. Over the years we have
heard a lot on getting fit and eating the right foods, but very
little attention is given to train your mind. It's amazing really… because
the MIND is like the source of the stream, and everything else flows
downhill from there. You absolutely have to be performing mentally at your very
best, if you want to surge ahead in life.
One of the most proven
method of sports coaching is the importance of "the mental
game"; that players who are psychologically prepared will have an edge on
competitors who might be more physically gifted. So, over the
past years, clinical psychologists have jumped into the sports
arena, offering to help people work on their mental games by teaching
techniques of "stress management," "goal setting,"
"visualization," and "self-talk."
Olympic and professional
athletes who have actually experienced performing at their peak, or who
realized they were stuck on the second string, were quick to consult with these
clinicians about how they might enhance their games. Professional sports teams
added psychologists to their payrolls. And since sports is such an irresistible
metaphor among business executives, many of them former high school or college
athletes, Fortune 500 companies began hiring psychologists to teach their top
executives the mental fitness tricks of great athletes. Today thank
God everyone recognizes, the need to keep your mind tuned like a
high-performance engine.
For
most who, have accepted the incredibly durable myth that some people are born
with special talents and gifts, and that the potential to truly excel in any
given pursuit is largely determined by our genetic inheritance. I've found, in
my work with executives at dozens of organizations, that it's possible to build
any given skill or capacity in the same systematic way we do a muscle: PUSH
PAST YOUR COMFORT ZONE, and then rest.That’s exactly the mega-achivers do when
the perform in the critical competiton on the Olympic track or the concert
stage. Aristotle had it exactly right 2000 years ago: "We are what we
repeatedly do." By relying on highly specific practices, I've seen young
executives, dramatically improve skills ranging from empathy, to focus, to
creativity, to summoning positive emotions, to deeply relaxing.
Like
everyone who studies performance, I have been making the case that
it's not inherited talent which determines how good we become at something, but
rather how hard we're willing to work — something he calls
"deliberate practice." Numerous researchers now agree
that 10,000 hours of such practice as the minimum necessary to
achieve expertise in any complex domain.
There
is something wonderfully empowering about this. It suggests we have remarkable
capacity to influence our own outcomes. But that's also daunting. One of the
central findings of human behaviour & success experts is that practice is
not only the most important ingredient in achieving excellence, but also the
most difficult and the least intrinsically enjoyable.
If
you want to be really good at something, it's going to involve relentlessly
pushing past your comfort zone, along with frustration, struggle, setbacks and
failures. That's true as long as you want to continue to improve, or even
maintain a high level of excellence. The reward is that being really good at
something you've earned through your own hard work can be immensely satisfying.
HOW DO YOU TRAIN YOUR
MIND TO PERFORM AT THE PEAK OF ITS ABILITIES?
Practice, Practice, Practice. Work at getting better each and
everyday. When you were learning to walk, you would take a couple steps and
fall down. You may have gotten frustrated but you still got up and tried again.
You do not fail when you make a mistake. You only fail when you fail to learn from
your mistake. Practice intensely, without interruption for short periods of
no longer than 90 minutes and then take a break. Ninety minutes appears to be
the maximum amount of time that we can bring the highest level of focus to any
given activity.
The evidence is equally strong that great performers practice no more than 4 ½ hours a day. Do the hardest work first. Bite the bullet…We all move instinctively toward pleasure and away from pain. Most great performers, delay gratification and take on the difficult work of practice in the mornings, before they do anything else. That's when most of us have the most energy and the fewest distractions.
Next important
point RITUALIZE PRACTICE. Will and discipline are wildly overrated...none
of us have very much of it. The best way to insure you'll take on
difficult tasks is to ritualize them — build specific, inviolable times at
which you do them, so that over time you do them without having to squander
energy thinking about them.
NINE GUIDEPOSTS TO ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE
Here,
then, are GUIDEPOSTS to achieving excellence we've found are most effective for
my personal growth seminar participants:
PURSUE
WHAT YOU LOVE. Passion is an incredible motivator. It fuels focus,
resilience, and perseverance. Top performers are positive. The super-achievers take
negative self-talk, situations, and circumstances, and reframe them into
positive mood boosters. They look for the opportunities and lessons that come
from all events in life. They learn from them and use the teachings to become
more successful than they were yesterday.
COMMIT TO YOUR
DREAM. Olympic athletes like all other super-achievers are committed to
attaining their dreams and they have a “never quit” attitude. You can commit to
your dream and make it happen as well. Have a clear picture of where it is you
want to go and take steps each day in the direction of your dream. Make it a
reality.
FOCUS & VISUALIZE YOUR
END OBJECTIVES. Top achievers keep focussed on their end result. What is
it that you want to achieve? Sometimes you will have to say "no" to
pursuing an activity or giving up a pet hobby that gobbles time but
does not contribute to your end objective. At times, you may ask yourself,
"Is it worth it?" What is it worth to you not to live your dreams? So
super-achievers are also great time managers
CONVERT DREAMS TO SMART
GOALS -Only 3% of people set goals and they are the super-achievers &
peak performers. They set goals that are specific, measurable, attainable,
realistic, and have time frame set for achievement. With each goal, take time
to set a plan of action. What are 5 things you can do today to take a step in
the direction of your dream???
ALWAYS GIVE YOUR
BEST. The difference between first place and second place is all the
little things that add up to be big things on the BIG scoreboard. There is just
a hair splitting difference between the winner and runner-up in the 100 meter
Olympic dash. So refine and nurture your talents and strengths.
Giving your best on a bad day is better than giving nothing on a good day
WILLING TO TAKE
RISKS. Super-achievers take calculated risks and step out of your
comfort zone. Train your mind to make decisions quickly but with due diligence.
Listen to your intuition. Super-achievers have a well defined “inner voice” what
psychologists call the self-talk. It’s a hidden tape-recorder you have within
you to motivate or de-motivate you in those critical moments
GET A COACH OR
A MENTOR. Accelerate your achievement by hiring a coach or mentor
that will help you develop a winning attitude and set breakthrough goals that
will help you get the results you are hoping to achieve. The
simpler and more precise the feedback, the more equipped you are to make
adjustments. Too much feedback, too continuously, however, can create cognitive
overload, increase anxiety, and interfere with learning.
TAKE REGULAR RENEWAL
BREAKS. Relaxing after intense effort not only provides an opportunity to
rejuvenate, but also to metabolize and embed learning. It's also during rest
that the right hemisphere becomes more dominant, which can lead to creative
breakthroughs. People who are in a big hurry to succeed reach the other end
very fast (yes! literally the other end)
CONTINUOUS
LEARNING. Super-achievers discover new ways of how you can improve yourself,
increase your productivity, and train yourself to be better than the rest. To
learn more about your profession, listen to audios or read
books that talk about the new breakthroughs
& techniques or tips that will make you more powerful in your
field.
Peak performers are driven
to be the best. They know what it takes to become successful. They possess the
"will" to go after whatever they want in life and are willing to make
sacrifices in order to achieve them. They continually focus on getting the results
they want and take calculated risks to go after them. You can be a peak
performer and achieve your own personal Olympic Gold medal! Give your best to
everyone and keep an eye on your end result.
Achieve what you believe!
With best compliments
Dr Wilfred Monteiro


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