When I talk to people about High Performance, sometimes the word “motivation” comes up.
“I’ve tried all kinds of diets and fitness regimens,” they might say.
Shortly followed by “but I can never seem to keep up the motivation.”
The reality is High Performance has nothing to do with motivation. It’s definitely not the magic key that unlocks your potential. As so many online gurus would have you believe.
High Performance is formed from the process of building habits. Specific actions in your daily routine linked to your goals.
It’s about pursuing your potential for yourself and those that matter most.
It requires a plan, a roadmap, that sees you fine tune your actions. It’s not something you do overnight.
Think about what athletes do (some I’ve coached). They follow a specialized training program. Designed to improve their physical, psychological, technical skill set.
They support their training with habits such as getting restful and restorative sleep. They eat nutritious foods, build mental resilience through mindfulness, and foster supportive relationships.
Notice that motivation wasn’t mentioned once.
That’s because motivation is unreliable. And if you rely on it you are going to be inconsistent with your actions.
Long-term success is built upon small daily actions that move the you closer to your goal.
Modern neuroscience even demonstrates that from these small progressions you’ll be internally rewarded. Through a built-in neurochemical mechanism.
You don’t need superhuman motivation to elevate your performance (because it doesn’t exist).
The process isn’t reserved for gold medallists or billionaire entrepreneurs. All you need is a desire to pursue your potential.
If that’s something you’re interested in click here.
Oh yeah. I’m a firm believer that anything worth doing is worth doing without motivation. If we need to rely on that, then perhaps our goal isn’t as important to us as we thought it was. Anyway, thanks for this post!