Next Performance

“All excellence involves discipline and tenacity of purpose.”

John Gardner

A long time ago, I watched an interesting movie’s scene where the main actor was put on the spot by a question from another person.

He was asked: which function is the most important (or most difficult) for a reputable performer?

And he answered after some brief thought that the most important performance was always the next one.

I paused to reflect on the answer for a while and I realized he was right.

You see, our greatest potential power resides in the next performance, always. 

However, the next action here doesn’t mean a performance that is coming after the work we are currently doing; but it does mean the one coming after the last. In this sense, the next performance also includes the present functionality—the work at hand.

An American journalist, Eric Severeid interprets the concept as courage. He said: 

“Tenacity is pretty fair substitute for bravery, and the best form of tenacity I know is expressed in Danish fur trapper’s principle: “The next mile is the only one a person has to make.”

This is so because no matter the nature or quality of your last performance, the next one can make a radical difference for better or worse.

One the right hand, if your last performance was great; you’re glad and ready to strive and make the next one a little bit better. 

On the left hand, if your last performance was lousy, you’re reflective and you have a higher chance of making the next one a lot better. 

So I repeat, the next functionality is always the most important one for a wise performer. The French microbiologist, Louis Pasteur proved this with his grand achievements and he confirmed this in his words when he said: “Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.”

If this concept is thoroughly understood and applied; it can truly take our game to a whole new level.

And true tenacity is what gives us the freedom to overcome both the fear of failure and the fear of success. With it, our best can be repeated—at the very least, and our worst can be significantly improved.  

When we embrace this idea completely, we instantly gain a slight edge over any game, any industry or in any competition. 

If you’re only as good as your next performance, then every performance is an opportunity to improve, and that means the good can always be made better and the bad can always be made good. 

Therefore, beware not to get too comfortable with great success and never get discouraged with a bad break. 

Know that every opportunity presents a new chance for us to do our best, going forward—irrespective of how we may have performed before.

Disciplined Diligence

“Diligence is not easy, but we can't reach our goals without it.”

Henry Cloud

What is the one thing we most need if we desire success in any significant area of life?

To answer that question, you can think about a particular quality that achievers in all walks of life have in common.

The answer I choose is diligence.

Though, there may be more than one answer, but the indisputable fact is this: disciplined diligence belongs to the highest rank of very few factors that are indispensable to winning in any area of life.

Diligence is an absolutely essential factor for peak achievement whether we are looking at science, arts, business and even religion.  

And the concept is quite simple to explain but pretty difficult to embrace for most people; it comes down to doing the critical things we need to do, in their order of importance, in a consistent manner, especially on the days we don’t feel like doing them. 

With all the natural talents in the world, we won’t get very far without the habit of disciplined diligence, which is largely about proactively doing the difficult things that we would ordinarily prefer to put off until later.

In other words, success in anything is less about wishes but more about our ability to keep doing the things that are fundamental to becoming our true best.

Diligence Turns Goals into Reality

“Human beings are capable of virtually limitless degradation; they are also capable of virtually limitless improvement and achievement. Success depends on goals and on diligence in pursuing them.”_Mas Oyama

If we want to turn our goals into reality, we need the habit of diligence; the discipline to do the things we know we should do, to the best of our ability, even when we thinly feel like doing them.

In this direction, Dave Ramsey, the author of, ‘the Legacy Journey’ explains the concept further in three simple sentences. He says:

“Work is doing it. 

Discipline is doing it every day. 

Diligence is doing it well every day.”

You see, disciplined diligence is the way to realizing our loftiest ambitions. 

Again, it is not about once in a while intensity of work but it is about unremitting consistency at the basic fundamentals of our game.

Once you understand and accept this truth, the next step is to inculcate the habit of diligence into the core fabric of your character. 

If you do, then you will be able to set and achieve almost any goal that you deeply desire.

A Chain Reaction that Begins with You

“For every positive change you make in your life, something else also changes for the better - it creates a chain reaction.”

Leon Brown

As free and mature adults, our lives are not the responsibility of anyone other than ourselves. By this, I mean with regards to other human beings. 

God is the source of life and every soul is under His absolute control. However, the Creator has given us the freedom to use our intellect and conscience for an outcome of a good worldly life and unlimited eternal joy. 

Based on that privilege of choice given to us by Almighty God, we become responsible for the consequences of every choice we make. Each choice starts a chain reaction of a series of beneficial or harmful occurrences in our lives —depending on whether the choice is good or bad.

In other words, each choice begins with an action which over time becomes a habit. And the habit accumulates into repeated gains, if it’s a good habit or repeated pains, if it’s a bad one. 

With this level of awareness, the key question now is: how do we make good choices and avoid bad ones?

If you care about an answer, please read further.

Make Good Choices and Annihilate Bad Ones

“A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. It is a catalyst and it sparks extraordinary results.”

Wade Boggs

Since we have established that every choice has a far reaching consequence beyond the moment of impulse, therefore the next consideration for a wise person is to figure out how to start making positive choices and stop making negative ones. 

You see, to create a radical change in your life, you don’t need to have superhuman degree of discipline (no one does, by the way), you only need to make a series of smart, positive choices over a reasonable period of time until you witness their correspondent chain reactions of abundant good in your life. 

So to get started, start small. Make a positive but a keystone choice to form a keystone habit that can improve multiple aspects of your life at the same time. 

A keystone choice is the one that can enable other positive choices. And by the nature of its critical importance, it starts a chain reaction of good that will produce significant outcomes in many areas of our lives.

A similar idea is behind the awesome book, written by Darren Hardy, entitled: ‘The Compound Effect. ’ In it Darren states that without question, a small but smart choice that we make and repeat on a daily basis will have a huge cumulative impact on our future outcomes. 

Finally, know that your life is your responsibility. So take charge of it by making positive choices that will enable the principle of chain reaction to work for you rather than against you.  

In a nutshell: choose wisely!

Do the First Things First

“Put first things first and we get second things thrown in: put second things first and we lose both first and second things.”

C.S Lewis

If we are alive ten years from now, where are we going to be?

I want to guess that very few people’s answers today will turn out to be remotely accurate in their very next decade.  

Those are the few with crystal clarity on what their life is all about. They are the ones who know what they stand for and how to best spend their time each day. 

Going forward, I challenge you to leave the group of ‘wandering generalities’ for the class of ‘meaningful specifics.’ The rare class of very few people who have learned to put the right things first, everyday of their life. 

So, dare to put God above all else in your own life. Then try to prioritize values, principles, and relationships. Extricate yourself from the trap of only making a living. Choose to make a significant contribution by learning to focus on what really matters. 

Basically, this is a matter of self-leadership and self command. It is an issue of making solid plans for the future and taking immediate control of our actions in the present.

Steven Covey, the author of, ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ explains this nicely when he said: “Putting first things first means organizing and executing around your most important priorities. It is living and being driven by the principles you value most, not by the agendas and forces surrounding you.”

To get to a desirable destination, we need to put the right thing first in our day to day lives. Doing this vastly simplify our lives, saves us from costly error of daily distraction, and it guarantees that we won’t fail to achieve our heartfelt aim in the end.

Now, if you are unsure whether you are on track or off track, answer the following questions. Your answer should help you gain the clarity you need to elevate your game to an optimal plane of performance.

Question 1: Do you live everyday with the end in mind?

Question 2: Do you live your life by principles or by impulses?

Question 3: Are you always in control of your time and attention?

If we are to be honest, most of us can’t answer all three questions with a resounding yes.

You see, frantically rushing around to get everything done has nothing to do with efficiency and peak performance as the former US President, Dwight D. Eisenhower rightly discovered. 

He said: “The older I get the more wisdom I find in the ancient rule of taking first things first; a process which often reduces the most complex human problem to a manageable proportion.”

Without a doubt, our best chance to end well in life comes from living with purpose, living by principles and intentional putting the right things first.

If we don’t make the necessary changes now, we may end up at the end of our lives wishing for a second chance to start over, which would be painful too late.

Therefore, begin a change right away by suspending everything else until you finish the next most important thing in your world.