Three Simple Steps to High-Level of Performance

“I like things to have rules, I like order and I like schedules.” Mark Consuelos

Without exception, the people we most admire have all learned to do things differently from everyone else. I mean those ‘geniuses’ who seem to always do well at the office, maintain healthy relationships with colleagues, relatives and friends, and still manage to remain physically and emotionally sound themselves; the lucky few who find life relatively easier in terms of the calm and composure with which they function at a very high level of productivity.

One of such persons is John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach who won the unparalleled 10 national championships in America during his term as the head coach at UCLA. In his book, ‘A Game Plan for Life,’ Wooden counsels us on how to be a winner not only in sports, but also in business and life.

He writes: “Be quick but never hurry.” This powerful advice of only five words is the basis of today’s message. 

Though at first, I view the sentence as a mere clever play with words. I assume that ‘quick’ is simply synonymous with ‘hurry’. I ask myself, ‘how can I be quick and never hurry?’  

However, it turns out that not only is it a practical instruction, but also a very powerful one as well. Indeed it is the secret of many higher performers on the global stage of life, including the late coach himself. 

Having reflected much about the expression, I have interpreted it for myself as: get serious, schedule, and then do.

Read on to understand what I mean.

1} Get Serious

By this, I mean you should decide to live your life at the highest possible level. You must choose to become the kind of person who can follow simple instructions. You need to be willing to do what the majority of people are unwilling to do. You need to know that successful living has its basic qualities and deciding to imbibe those qualities is one of the first things that must be understood and mastered.

This step is important because merely having a schedule doesn’t magically make things happen. You need to work your schedule for it to work in your life. You need to become the kind of person who can act according to a purpose-driven, high-performance plan.

 

2} Schedule Your Priorities

In our everyday lives, we are reminded of the importance of orderly timekeeping most of the time, yet majority of us choose negligence over vigilance nonetheless. We see clocks. We have days. We know what month we are in, and of course, we know which year it is, this very year. 

The significance of scheduling is also demonstrated constantly by nature; Sun never shines at night, and the Moon, the only natural satellite of the Earth also works relentlessly according to a predefined schedule by our Creator.

In the same vein, to perform at our highest level, we need to work according to a purpose-driven timetable. And this is exactly what John Wooden meant when he urged us to ‘be quick but never hurry.’ In this way, we can be getting the right things done, while doing so in a steady pace with apparent ease.

The author of ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People,’ Stephen Covey explains the concept further with the following, valuable insight. He says: “The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”Therefore, anyone who wants to be highly productive in life must learn how to schedule properly.  

In explanation, we must define and prioritize tasks according to their consequences in our lives. We must proactively prevent things of high significance to being at the mercy of things with little or no consequences. With this in mind, we can easily guard against unnecessary daily distractions and make the most of our limited resources. 

3} Work Your Schedule

This is where the rubber meets the road. It is here we must act according to our schedule, because nothing will work unless we do the work. Nothing will work unless we firmly say no to interruptions. 

Nothing will work unless we do what is important first. Nothing will work without sincerity of purpose. And that’s why we need to begin the journey with a decision to get serious about where we really want to end up.

High performers at all levels make the time to do the right things. In contrast, low performers make the time to do the easy things. High performers stick to a schedule while low performers allow distractions to get in the way of their progress.

More explicitly, the most successful athletes are in the training floor at about the same time, every day. The best programmers are facing the computer about the same time, every day. All highly productive people are incredibly committed to their schedule; they live by it, day in, day out. And so must we, if we want to maximize our potentials.

For any of my readers who may find this too uncomfortable now, just start small and as you gain confidence you can go a little higher. For instance, set a schedule for one easy thing you are sure you can do, everyday, for a week, and then keep it. Yes, you should do your best not to miss a day for seven straight days. After that one success, you should work your way up from there.

In a nutshell, to become a high-performer without feeling rushed, get serious, set a schedule, and then do.

To Win Forever, Embrace the Path of Self-Discipline

“Some people regard discipline as a chore. For me, it is a kind of order that sets me free to fly.”—Julie Andrew

The path of self-discipline is the surest way to build unshakable character. It is the path that creates and nurtures success of every kind. It is the bridge between dreams and accomplishments. It is a virtue anyone can count on—even if he/she is an amateur or an also-ran. The process of self-mastery is a proven and tested means to all enduring personal victories.

Self-discipline transformed Pete Carroll—who was largely disregarded at some point—into one of the most celebrated coaches of all time. After embracing the path, he earned himself a distinguished spot, as one of the only three football coaches who won both a Super Bowl and a College Football National Championship in the history of American sports—a raving feat for sure.

In his book, ‘Win Forever,’ he enlightens us that self-discipline goes beyond training for the game of football, that we can all strive to maximize our potentials in anything of value, that the path is about striving to be better today than we were yesterday. 

Now, to thinking men of ambition, Pete Carroll offers a line of thought: "to win forever, always compete." By that he meant we should always strive to be our best, even on our worst days of practice, of business and of living. He says it is about continuous and never ending improvement in every sphere of life; it is about progress in all areas that count.

Furthermore, in order to improve constantly, he contends that, champions decide to fall in love with the path and they choose to find joy in the journey. They choose to focus not on their opponents but on themselves. They rely on their strengths, their discipline, their habits, their strategies, their routines, and their rituals. And as a result, they can consistently deliver at the highest level of performance, even when circumstances would apparently make it easier for them not to. 

On this, permit me to quote Pete Carroll once more. He says: "It's about us getting ready to play. It's not about the other team. We'll beat ourselves before they beat us. That's always our approach." And that’s how to proactively embrace the path of formidable self-discipline: the only way to win forever.

However, relying on inspiration alone—the strategy of some players— is not as effective in the long run. Yes, sometimes it does work. In fact, it works superbly well whenever they have the passionate drive to pursue their goals and dreams.  But as soon as they become tired, meet an obstacle or get frustrated, everything falls to pieces. Therefore, they find it difficult to sustain their momentum.

To not embrace the path of consistent self-discipline is to be sporadic and less reliable; this notion easily turns winners into has-been. You win some days but you lose many days. However, enduring success is not earned this way.

How to Remain an Outstanding Winner

So, to be like the all-time greats, change your frame of mind to believing in the process. Embrace the path of self-mastery: decide to find joy in the grind. No matter how you feel or what you face, on any day, just keep grinding.  Make yourself fall in love with the journey of growth and self-discovery. This is the high way to glory: the way of the process.

It's what Pete Carroll relies on to join the class of the elite. It’s what makes Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player of all-time. And it's what Rhonda Rousey relies on to become “one of the defining athletes of 21^st century,” according to Wikipedia. Embracing the path of the process is the secret of unremitting motivation. It is the essence of indefatigability. 

Here is how Rhonda Rousey explains the concept further. She says:

“Most people focus on the wrong thing; they focus on the result, not the process. The process is the sacrifice; it's all the hard parts - the sweat, the pain, the tears, the losses. You make the sacrifices anyway. You learn to enjoy them, or at least embrace them. In the end, it is the sacrifices that must fulfill you.”

And the way to develop this powerful mentality is to make a habit of doing the right thing every time you have the impulse not to. Whenever you feel the urge to procrastinate or goof off, compel yourself to do the opposite of what ordinarily feels easy to do.

And as you order yourself to do this repeatedly, you will soon gain access to a realm of power that is unattained by most people: the incredible force of self-mastery. With it, there is no limit to what you can accomplish.

Meanwhile, the ability to continuously do the hard right comes from having full control over one’s emotions, appetites and inclinations. But this is only possible for the strong few who have long chosen to make self-discipline a permanent way of life.

 Right here, Anthony Robbins incites us to make this empowering decision by saying, “In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.” If we harness the power of self-discipline to build an enabling habit of positive action, remarkable results will unfailingly find  us.

Basically, the path comes down to delaying gratification; the conscious process of choosing the pain of discipline over the ease of complacency, every time, all the time. This is what superstars thoroughly understand. They therefore decide to keep paying the price of growth, day in day out, even when they feel like easing up a bit.

To join their ranks, we must learn to embrace the path of self-discipline as a mode of living. And when we do, we shall win any gold medal that we truly deserve. 

However, we still need to realize above all else that, self-mastery is its own reward, as George Leonard, the author of Mastery, stated in his book: "The ultimate reward is not a gold medal but the path itself." 

This means that the greatest reward of self-discipline is neither the medals nor the money but the exceptional person we eventually become in the process of striving towards a higher level of consciousness throughout the days of our lives.

Ruthless Elimination: A valuable tactic of focus and productivity

“Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.”– Dale Carnegie

In the world of value and results, mere busyness is never proximate to high productivity; doing a long list of average activities is a poor substitute for doing fewer but truly important tasks. 

Figuring out tall-worth tasks in an era of tumultuous noise requires sound deliberation and firm will. It requires a sense of purpose to protect one’s key goals against the forces of massive daily distractions.

And to do this, we must recognize that not all tasks are born equal. Some things matter far less in comparison to others. And the skill of Pareto principle of conscious prioritization is what we want to run through in this article. The principle states that the vital 20% of activities account for 80% of the results and rewards. 

To live our lives at the optimum level, we need to determine and focus only on those vital 20% of activities: the very few things that really matter. As the former U.S.A president, Theodore Roosevelt once remarked, “Far and away, the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”

Now, it is our turn to focus hard at things that are really worth doing.

Narrowed Focus and Ruthless Elimination

The idea of ruthless elimination is what Steve Jobs used to transform Apple into what it is today. Like jobs, all super-successful people are masters at focusing on what is essential to the exclusion of all else. 

And Rory Vaden expresses this principle clearly in his book, ‘Take the Stairs.’ He counsels us that: “The most important skill for the next generation of knowledge worker is not learning what to do, but determining what not to do and focusing on key priorities.” 

In other words, it’s not what we do that drives our productivity, but what we deliberately choose not to do. Why? Because what we cease to do determines the time available for us to accomplish the things that are really important.

The strategy of ruthless elimination is a simple two-step process that can aid you to achieve far more by helping you leverage your time better. It is an effective approach used by many high achievers to get a whole lot done in a whole less time. 

See the steps as follows:

Step 1: Clarify what is essential to you. {Note: make certain that these are truly your supreme priorities.}

Step 2: Eliminate everything else. {You need to eliminate everything that is not truly important. Be proactive, be fierce and yes, be ruthless at this point.}

These two simple steps are powerful enough to make us superstars in anything we set our minds to. However, bringing it to life requires a good measure of self-discipline. 

You see, fabulous productive success boils down to being serious with the basics. Nothing earth-shattering, just identify the essential, and eliminate everything else.

Now, the big question is: how serious are we to putting simple strategy into practice in our lives? 

So, please don’t overlook this write-up because you already know everything it explains; yes, nothing is new here. But you should answer the following questions to improve your life going forward:

‘Am I doing this?’

‘Have I mastered it?’

‘Does my habit show that I am doing this?’

‘Do my results prove that I have mastered it?’

If you answer ‘no’ to any of those questions, then I guess you know where to begin.

Most people know what to do. However, the most successful people are those who do the most with the knowledge that they have. 

By using this knowledge to focus only on the things that really matter, we (you and I) can accomplish a lot with the very limited time that we have.

  

The Essential Quality of All Reliable Leaders

"Consistency is one of the biggest factors in leading to accomplishment and success."— Byron Pulsifer

Today, I have a simple quiz for you and it is this: what is the common fibre to the most successful companies in all sectors?

To help you out, this quality is not limited to the corporate world. It also establishes confidence in any relationship…brings about balance and security from dangerous extremes...replaces disorder and confusion with predictability and stability.

I hope by now you can make the right guess. Yes, the answer is consistency.

The importance of consistency cannot be overemphasized because it is the cornerstone of dependable reliability. Consistency says ‘you can always count on me, both in the sun and in the rain.’ Consistency means steadfastness at all times: yesterday, today and tomorrow; it is immune from impulsive changes and irrational swings; it keeps its promises, always. 

Undoubtedly, solid character is what enables true consistency. And those who positively embody this invaluable trait are among the best of mankind. They are reliable, faithful and dependable. You can trust them with any responsibility. 

Unremitting consistency is about a deliberate lifestyle of commitment, patience and perseverance. It shows up in the lives of selfless leaders who remain firm on the cause of justice for their fellow men against the devious forces of despotic rulers. It reveals itself in the verve of great artists who keep showing up for work, day after day, even with no direct compensation for the output of their toil. 

We see it in the life of a disciplined student who goes to the library, every evening after class, when their mates would choose to goof around with their precious time. It is the ‘it’ factor that compels an extra-ordinary employee to always show up early—even without the presence of the boss—and put in the work all day, instead of watching the clock.

On this powerful quality of strong character, Daniel Transon writes in his book, ‘The Leadership Challenge’ that: “Consistency is a key element, without which a leader is incapable of getting respect, success or even developing confidence in others.”

Consistency is an indispensable component of maturity. It is what makes the most successful people, companies, and nations different from all others. It is the one, single quality that enables them to show up and do their best, day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year, in spite of the changing seasons, political upheavals, and unforeseen socioeconomic activities.

Consistency is the dominant virtue of all reliable leaders, at home, at work, in the school and the world. It is the quality that we not only need to learn but master more than any other trait. 

It is a jewel that deserves your special attention from here onward. Never forget that consistency creates habits, and good habits are the precursor of real success.

In a nutshell, consistency is… everything.