PEAK PERFORMANCE...ON DEMAND

When your opportunity to perform presents itself, will you be nervous and falter, or eager, excited and ready to perform to your best? Will you take full advantage of the opportunity? Peak performers are always ready when their opportunity comes. Champions rise to the occasion and their best comes out when it is needed. How does this happen? Are some people just luckier than others?

The answer is simple...I didn't say easy, just simple. Peak performers, champions and those that sustain peak performance and enter the Hall Of Fame in any industry, have no secret formula. They didn't find a short cut to success. It doesn't exist.

They do possess a special ingredient...One that average performers lack. They develop and depend on self-discipline, they know it's what separates average performers from peak performers. Self-discipline...The will to prepare, the ability to do the work to be at their best when their best is needed. You can become a peak performer, a person who finds and stays in the 'zone' but you'll have to do the little things to be prepared.

You have to put in the time and do the work to know that you're ready. Preparing to perform requires your commitment to do the things that most people avoid. Peak performers invest in themselves by doing the things they don't want to do, that produce the results they want. This is the difference between average and excellent, winning and losing or peak performance and 'choking' when your opportunities present themselves. In addition, opportunities come more often to those who are prepared than to those who are waiting for them to happen. So, self-discipline leads to more opportunities and peak performance.

Peak performance requires preparation spiritually, mentally and physically and this requires self-discipline and the understanding that these stay in that order of priority. Preparing to perform, being healthy and whole, demands all three in the proper order. Until you learn this, and practice the self-discipline to prepare, you will not become a peak performer. When you do, you'll reach new heights and set new standards for yourself.

Self-discipline is the first requirement if you are to be prepared. It is the key step to developing your attitudes and skills. It is the driving force to taking action when others become paralyzed or 'choke'. Self-discipline leads to self-control which creates self-confidence and produces the self-realization of your peak performance. It is the human power that allows us to overcome the odds, perform the incredible and accomplish the amazing.

Because peak performers are prepared to perform they have an unwavering belief they were meant for the key moments in their lives. They have the confidence and faith to take the risk to fail because they know they can perform. In fact, they believe it's their purpose and their mission to be their best when their best is needed. This makes them eager, excited and ready when their time comes. They enter their peak performance zone easily and execute what they believe they were meant to do. They perform to their peak on demand!

Develop your self-discipline, prepare yourself spiritually, mentally and physically and become a peak performer!

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WHAT WINNING LEADERS MANAGE

Raised by a father who coached for 35 years, the first lesson he taught me was to walk into a locker room and take in or feel the atmosphere and the energy.  He was teaching me what winning coaches did to be successful and I've learned how they can be applied by business leaders to create a successful business. He explained that you could "feel" this winning atmosphere if you were paying attention.   He also said coaches and leaders manage this atmosphere and it's in the air all the time. He said it was more important than any of the x's and o's of coaching.

Growing up listening to coaches’ share their views, thoughts and leadership styles was a huge advantage later in my business career. Listening to pregame, halftime and postgame speeches taught me how to manage and maintain this atmosphere and I share this as often as I can with other leaders.

I was always amazed to watch a game or practice with my father or other coaches as they constantly paid attention to how things felt. I realized later that the average ones were focused on their process and not their players. This is similar to business, as we too often get lost in our process and forget about the people involved.

Next time you walk into a sales office, store or business, see how it feels.  Leaders manage the air.  They do this by managing the attitudes, feelings and beliefs of the people in their business, organization or life.  This is why a business that wants to make customers must manage its people's attitudes, feelings and beliefs first. Consumers won’t believe your company is different if your people aren’t and your people won't act different if their attitude isn't different. 'People first leaders' manage the air or atmosphere generated by people's attitudes. 

'People first leadership', isn’t a fluffy fad or esoteric idea, but the first step in increasing sales and growth in business in the 'new economy'.  Its 'people first' focus means a leader has to have strong enough conviction to stick to a game plan or strategy when others around them are growing weary or wanting to overreact to unwanted results. 

'People first leaders' develop people in their business who are mentally tough enough to execute the strategy when others would falter or take the path of least resistance.

By managing the attitudes, feelings and beliefs of your people, you are leading from where results are born.   From the attitudes that lead to actions, the results will be seen in your increase revenue, profits and growth.  You are leading from an advanced position and not waiting to react to unwanted results that were generated from behavior that was caused by attitudes that were ignored.

Leadership at its essence, generates results by getting people to perform at their highest level of competence. When leaders do this they are also growing the level of people’s competence and insuring growth and higher performance in the future.

Use the attitudes, skills and actions of great coaches who have led their teams to championships by instilling a winning attitude, mental toughness and the ability to overcome the excuses their competitors accept to be average.  Coaches like John Wooden, Vince Lombardi, Pat Riley, Don Shula, Pat Summit, Phil Jackson, Bill Walsh, Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick and many others, win and have won because they 'manage the air' or attitudes that produce winners. Ultimately, they are 'people first leaders' who challenge others to be better than they would be without their influence. They move people to do the things they don't want to do that produce the results they want.

Business in the 'new economy' requires an attitude to make customers, not just sales. Instill this in the hearts of people so that it permeates the air in your business and it will generate improved results and growth.

Stop, listen and feel the attitudes in your business. Can you sense the 'winning air'? If not, get busy and make it a priority, then manage it daily for the best results.

By Mike Moore

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2012...THE GREAT TRANSITION

We are living in 'The Great Transition' not 'The Great Recession' and a 'New Economy' will be the next step. Global influence, technology, demographics and the broken economic model of the past are driving this transition. Today's business and political leaders are struggling with this transition. New leaders will and are stepping forward. A less short-term selfish economic model will prevail. A 'new economy' based on real value and service to people first, one with long-term selfishness as it's driving intention. One that uses natural laws to serve people first, instead of breaking them for selfish short-term gain. A 'new economy' that can and will use technology to serve people and enrich lives.

In real estate, retailing and business, as well as life, people are moving from a desire to be enchanted, to a desire to be enriched. People don't want to be wow'd anymore they are moving to and buying that which they believe will enrich their lives. 

The 'new economic model' won't look or act like the old one and the rules that business played by in the past aren't working in 'the transitional economy' nor will they apply to the 'new economy'.

Just 4 years ago the majority of American's surveyed were willing to move outside the US to retire to a tropical location. Now many will do so to live and continue to work. Then there are the Gen X, Y and Millennial's, many of whom want to live in an Urban Village within walking distance to all their services.

These won't all be in traditional Urban Environments. Many of these Urban Villages will be developed in cost effective and desirable locations. Think Las Vegas as a starting point of a modern Urban Village, then remove gaming and replace it with different lifestyles and the services that support them...and it's in the middle of the desert. Urban Villages can be developed anywhere, and will be.

People are transitioning from the pursuit of a living to the pursuit of a life...This is a significant change...It's not about 40 years of commitment to a company and retiring...It's not about a career...It's about living their vacations or retirement and adding making the money needed to live to that lifestyle. That's why even in this time of high unemployment people are quitting long time jobs, starting small businesses and network marketing is booming. Information, content and community are king!

Stay with it my friends...If you can see and feel this happening you are on a right path. There will be many roads to take to succeed in the 'new economy' that will come from 'the great transition' and you can make the life you want to live if you are aware it's happening and prepared to adapt.

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