Developing Performance-Oriented Lifestyle

This website is about performance-oriented lifestyle. However, different people have a different definition of what actually performance is. This is why I decided to write a post about what performance means to me and what aspects it covers. [1]

By the dictionary definition, performance is (related to the subject) “a task or operation seen in terms of how successfully it is performed”.

The Performance Oriented Society

The fast-paced, western culture pushes us to bring results at the cost of our health. We are led to compete with our co-workers and also with the technology. No wonder we want to improve our performance for different reasons. Either to keep the job or in the better case for our own satisfaction (ex.hobby sports performance).

All of that can be very taxing for our body & mind.

The way to handle it is to create a solution, a lifestyle, that allows us to sustain these high demands while allowing us to recover.

Here is a statistic for you.

As you can see, an alarming number of people aged 18-29 experience burnout! My prophecy is that this number will keep increasing. While there are companies who understand the dangers of burnout and implement preventive actions to relieve people of unnecessary stress, you have to take responsibility for yourself.

Performance is not only about the results. It is also about sustainability, happiness, and fulfillment.

When we speak about performance lifestyle, what I mean by that is living to the fullest of your potential. The underlying problem is that many people connect performance only with pushing themselves to a great extends. I understand performance as a combination of sustainability, happiness, and the results. When you are not happy you will simply not deliver the results.

When we look at the big picture of things, there are three main areas you need to address at a personal level that will allow you to perform at the best of your ability. These areas are body, mind, and spirit and I help clients to strategically improve these areas in a way that makes sense in order to not only achieve their goal but also to make it sustainable.

Mind

Let’s start with the mind because it is where it all starts. No matter what your goal is, what approach you take, what path you take, where you grow up, who you are, what your income is, all of these things are a reflection of your mindset.

Mindset is the way we think. Ever since I discovered the power of our mind, I have been captivated to explore more. I started studying coaching, learning from books, videos, listening to audiobooks and podcasts. While many people do that, I also implemented some of the things I learned. Knowledge without action would be an empty library.

What really fascinates me about mindsets is that there are nuances, that results in completely different outcomes. A  wealthy person thinks in a different way than a poor person. Robert Kiosaki described it in detail in his work. If you have ever read Rich dad poor dad, you know what I mean. And the best part about it is that we can change our mindset. It takes work and practice, but you can change it at this very moment and create a different life for yourself, your family, and even the world! With all the information available, it has never been easier.

Spirit

Spiritual practices have been experiencing new boom and continue to grow. It seems as if we, as a society, have reached a point when we had enough of science and we are starting to focus our attention inside, once again. When you look back at history, you can clearly see a pattern in the focus of the human society. We have times when we search for the meaning in science and times when we focus on the spiritual.

The same cycle repeats itself every few centuries, but it also happens within a lifecycle of an individual.

In the context of performance, your spirit enables you to thrive at a high level.

When you hear “That kid has a spirit!”  you immediately imagine a kid who pushes self and has an ability to come back. I believe it comes from the qualities like grit, stubbornness, and perseverance.

But this is just a part of your spirit. It is worthy to explore and develop also your spiritual side. Spiritual practices connect you deeper with yourself and balance out the fire within the fiery, action-oriented side. Many people, including me, have found the balance in yoga practice and spiritual rituals.

A post shared by Daniel Weiss (@performanceoptimized) on Feb 8, 2018 at 10:35am PST

For you, it might be yoga, church, study or meditation. Take Allysa Hawley – Christian Warrior as an example, a Spartan Race pro athlete. She is a clear manifestation of how her devotion to the God connects her with her why and allows her to perform consistently, at the highest level with grace and calmness.

Spirit on the external level includes love, interpersonal relationships, growth, and fulfillment. You can read and listen to my take on how to develop relationships that support your life.

Body

What I mean by the body for performance is that you need to take a good care of your body, which comes in forms of:

• stretching and relaxation,
• nourish your body by eating high-quality food,
• daily exercise,
• getting and staying fit,
• removing toxins from your environment,
• getting a quality sleep.

While for athletes who perform at physical sports these things might come natural and obvious, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and other high-performing groups who perform mainly mentally might ignore or forget about the importance of the body on their performance.

You can often see your business owners and aspiring business owners to dope themselves by energy drinks and coffee to stay awake and work on their projects until late night in the expense of their health. You can also witness athletes downplay the importance of warm-up, stretching and relaxation, and even nutrition!

These things undermine our efforts to perform optimally, hinder our health, and even work against us in the long-run.

When you look at the daily routines of the best performing business owners, you will find that they exercise daily. Actually, it is often one of the first things they do in a day as exercise not only wakes you up and floods your body with endorphins, it also promotes better blood flow into the brain, it promotes healthy self-esteem, and indirectly affects all the other areas of your life – for example when you can push yourself on track or in a gym, you can use that as a reference when you don’t feel like finishing your project (or me writing this blog post or any blog post).

Conclusion

If we expect from our body and mind top results, we need to align all the three areas in a way that they support each other and work together well. If we don’t do that, one or more parts will eventually start to fall apart. When that happens, things start to go downhill, you will not be able to focus (mind), you will not feel fulfilled whatever you do (spirit), or you come to an injury (body).

Things like relationships, your spiritual practice, or relaxation all have an indirect impact on whatever you do and once they become united, you will have much easier time to perform at your peak!