Seven ways to exponentialise your performance

High performance

Here are seven pathways you can follow to accelerate your ability to take your performance to a consistently high level.

1 Just start!

As daunting as it may seem, you need to take the first step or you will never get closer to operating on this higher level.

As you start on this journey, ask a transformational question and allow it to become your guiding principle. This will kick start your passion and provide the impetus to take that first step.

2 Aim for regular milestones, achievable annually

There are no overnight successes; nor will the answer to your transformational question just arrive out of the blue. It will take hard work, long hours, and persistence.

To remain in pursuit of your goal, set some smaller milestones that you can achieve each year. Aim to make progress on two to three things annually, as this will prevent you from feeling stuck. By constantly moving forward you’ll smooth out the progress curve. You’ll come to view yourself as a success and this will give you the motivation to continue on your journey.

3 Understand the levels of competence and timing in your industry

Each industry sets expectations of how long it takes to become an elite performer. Form an understanding of what these timelines are. In most professions or crafts there are three levels of competence – beginner, intermediate and advanced. What can you expect to achieve in each of these phases?

4 Step up from performer to elite performer

Stepping up to the ranks of elite performer requires a psychological shift. There needs to be a threefold shift in us:

  1. We need to come across as being relaxed. We don’t have to prove ourselves anymore and we don’t want to come across as trying too hard.
  2. We need to be deliberate with the things we are saying and doing.
  3. We need to belong. We need to be within a space that we own. We need to feel that we are entitled to be there.

5 Avoid the ruts, never feel secure

This is a long haul. There is a distinct possibility that you won’t push yourself enough. If this happens you will dig a deeper and deeper rut over time. You’ll then need to create a breaking point and find your raw groove again, which is much harder than avoiding creating a rut in the first place.

6 Lift your game and focus

The novelist Mary Shelley said, “Nothing contributes so much to tranquillizing the mind as a steady purpose – a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.” If we want to operate at a higher level, we need to lift our game and bring focus.

7 Actively engage – be a rocket ship, not an altimeter

An altimeter reacts to its environment, measuring altitude. A rocket ship takes us on a journey to new altitudes. Influential leaders fly rocket ships; they become actively engaged in their journey; they decide they want to change and they actively engage in doing so.

Rand Leeb-du Toit, author of “Fierce Reinvention: A Guide to Harnessing Your Superpowers for Entrepreneurial and Leadership Success”, available from Amazon at: http://bit.ly/FierceReinventionebook