Belief

In Psycho Cybernetics, Maxwell Maltz indicates that “Both behavior and feeling spring from belief.” Often, you might think you can’t do something just because it’s never been done. You might think you lack the capability, the intelligence, or the ability to do something. You quickly rationalize it, often to a point where the task or goal looks impossible. Something is holding you back.

In these times of hesitation, you should stop and take some time to reflect. Why? Maltz asks: “Is this belief based on an actual fact or an assumption – or a false conclusion?” He suggests asking yourself the following questions:

1. Is there a rational reason for such a belief?

2. Could it be that I am mistaken in this belief?

3. Would I come to the same conclusion about some other person in a similar situation?

4. Why should I continue to act and feel as if this were true if there is no good reason to believe it?

As we’ve seen in Chris’s case, the power of goal setting is demonstrable. The moment you set a goal for yourself, you’re half-way to meeting it. Why? The very act of thinking about the problem/issue or goal, directing focused attention towards it, sets your subconscious mind in action to find ways to make it attainable. Your thinking about the goal may provide the environment to proactively discuss your idea with friends, family, and stakeholders.

You may get a set of different views – both good and bad – on how to tackle your goal. And if you remember to ask yourself how to reach your goal just before going to bed and ask your subconscious mind to come up with ideas, you may find that, while you sleep, your subconscious will go to work and give you some pretty staggering insights by the time you wake up.

Commitment

We’ve settled the belief side of things by acknowledging that you need to change your behavior. That should be simple to accomplish because you’ve become super-aware, correct? In theory, yes, but you need to be committed to changing a long-standing behavior. So, we’re back to why you feel you can’t reach your goal. In addition to Maltz’s four questions, perhaps the reason you think you can’t reach your goal is because you’re simply not committed. You’re stuck and you’re not progressing. But why?

There may be a variety of reasons. But one of the most important elements relates to commitment and how you perceive commitment. You may think and feel that you are committed to change, yet you are not getting to that first base of progress.

You may think that you must develop commitment to a choice before you make a decision, but research shows that we develop increased commitment to our choices after we make a decision.

I call these small decisions, “baby steps’ as a metaphor to show that taking even small steps, similar to a baby learning how to walk is the best way to enable progress.

Chris displayed commitment, in numerous ways, too. At the age of 11, he dived too deep into the pool and ruptured both ear drums. He loved swimming but to continue to do so, implied that he would need professional earplugs. Despite the earplugs helping Chris in the water, he was prone to painful ear infections. Pain and discomfort didn’t deter him; he kept competing.

At the age of 14 while having fun at Lake Midnapore, Alberta, Chris was playing on a swing. It broke. He fell. Trying to break his fall he broke his wrist in the process. He tells me his wrist did not set properly; it’s still not symmetrical with his other wrist. In swimming, wrists are pretty important. Outside the pool to build and strengthen his muscles, Chris needed weight training and these kinds of exercises were difficult and painful for him. Pain and discomfort didn’t deter him; he kept competing.

On another occasion, Chris had good intentions of running up and down the pool side bleachers (or benches for spectators) to get warmed up for a competition that evening. Rather than helping him, he broke one of his toes. Yet, giving up on an important swim meet was not an option. Luck was on his side since Chuck Dixon, the family doctor, was nearby. He taped Chris’s toe. Pain and discomfort didn’t deter him; he kept competing.

Chris got beyond the pain by remembering what an assistant coach had once told him: You have to “train with pain” because if an even more important event comes up, such as the Olympics, you’ll need the confidence and resistance to train with pain and still commit to the race. Clearly, these setbacks did not stop Chris. Most of us take a break when we get a mild headache. Competing while in pain is what commitment is all about. How would you deal with an ear infection while swimming? Would a broken wrist have stopped you training? Would a broken toe be enough for you to give up altogether? Commitment at this level is the sign of a great athlete, the sign of demigods.

Read more in my new book, Demigods, Aliens, & Ordinary People.

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Covey learned through this experience that the body gets stronger when you reach breaking point. It’s the point when your body says, “I can’t lift this weight anymore” and the brain says, “You have to.” That breaking point is where the muscle gets the maximum impact, causing it to grow and get bigger. It’s what most body builders look for. You don’t gain muscle by doing easy repetitions.

Stamina is what you need to push yourself, to make your muscles grow and to develop the resilience to keep going. But what if stress is added to the mix?

Now on the topic of stress, there is good stress and there is bad stress. Statistics are consistent. There is enough research that suggests that stress will make you ill. According to the National Institute of Health in the USA, 80%–90% of all illnesses are either directly or indirectly linked to stress.

That’s the gist of an Associated Press story, too, about a report by the International Labour Organization (ILO): Job Stress: The 20th Century Disease says that stress-related injury claims on the job “have climbed from 5 percent of all occupational disease claims in 1980 to 15 percent a decade later.” The ILO, an arm of the United Nations, estimates the cost of job stress in the USA alone to be at $200 billion annually.

Countless reports indicate that most of the stress that people feel is due to work-related issues such as time management (or a lack thereof), workload, deadlines, and dealing with difficult co-workers. The good news is that you can do something about stress in your day-to-day activities and regain control of your life. As we’ll see later, exercise and rest are ideal ways to relieve stress. But what else can you do to relieve stress? The Internet is full of ideas, but I’d like to point out the ones that have worked for me and some of my clients:

Get that morning edge. Getting up 10–-15 minutes earlier and packing a lunch or getting your clothes ready the night before can help you get organized.

Avoid procrastination. One sure way to add to your stress is to put off decisions and actions. The action itself will always reduce mounting stress. Try the simple trick of writing down all the tasks you face, however unpleasant. Rearrange them in order of urgency. Allot a definite time to each. And get them done.

Avoid e-mail jail. E-mail is still the most common and pervasive form of communication, alongside text messaging and WhatsApp-type applications. These combinations can be stressful to manage. Opening a full e-mail box can be overwhelming, not to mention time-consuming.

Think positive. Take a few minutes to find gratitude for all the good things in your life. Recognizing what you have (and at times take for granted) can instantly improve your mood and outlook.

Do things you enjoy. Try to do something for YOU or something you love every day to give yourself something to look forward to. Most stress arises from feelings of being out of control and doing things for everybody else. By taking care of yourself first, you can begin to gain control and ensure that your workday is as relaxed as possible. Go ahead… spoil yourself.

Read more in my new book, Demigods, Aliens, & Ordinary People.

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To overcome this and to accept losses as a part of the sport, you have to keep moving forward and to learn from the losses.

Perhaps as adults we feel the same about competing. Maybe it conjures up old memories of doing so when we were kids. We didn’t have the wisdom or hindsight then to realize that losing toughens both the spirit and the soul. It’s pretty hard to know that kind of stuff when you’re a kid, even if parents do console us on the notion of losing. We carry that with us as adults, which explains why some adults hate competing. We carry the memories of sport, and most crucially of losing, which explains why some people don’t fight for advancement: They don’t like competing in a work setting.

By sticking to competing, albeit losing often at the outset only to be replaced eventually by winning, you strengthen the connection between effort and reward. In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell explains the difficulties of immigrants who came to settle in New York in the early 1900s. Some of these became entrepreneurs while working back-breaking 18-hour days. Some had success, and their success inspired the song line “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” They embodied the American dream.

As a teenager, my parents would tell me: “There’s no substitute for hard work.” Clearly their lectures didn’t work on me. They were obviously misled and had no idea of what success was all about. I was going to show them a thing or two about success because I knew everything!

Does this sound familiar? Despite thinking “that’s a bunch of baloney” every time they reminded me of how hard work correlated with success, 35 years later, I can attest that hard work is, in fact, the common denominator between those who succeed and those who don’t. In fact, the ones who succeed are so busy working at what they believe in, they don’t have time to second-guess themselves. When you’re in that zone or trance:

– You’re not worried about what people think.

– There’s no impostor syndrome, that thought pattern where you are convinced that you’re a fraud and you don’t deserve what you’ve achieved.

– You’re not thinking you’re going to fail.

Read more in my new book, Demigods, Aliens, & Ordinary People.

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Adding to this, you can derive energy when you’re part of a team. You can get energy by watching a peer struggle and you decide to help them out or, on the contrary, if a peer does better than you, this pushes you to persevere and finetune some of those weaker skills you’ve been avoiding.

When you lead a team of people and you miss the mark, the target, or the goal, your team members look to you for guidance. How do you get the energy you need to get back on track in a difficult moment? One way is to pull the team together and remind them that you all need each other. True, everyone works on their own and basically, you’re all individuals hired to do a job in an area in which you’re presumably a subject matter expert.

However, when a challenge comes up, it’s nice to be able to rely on a peer or on your boss for guidance and ideas. This is where the team effect becomes potent. It’s potent because you can’t do it all on your own, and by having your peers support you, this can create a phenomenal boost.

Another angle I like to emphasize is when it comes to the team effect cliche: “A team working together is much stronger than the sum of its individual parts.” I know you’ve heard this before. In my experience, the effect happens over and over again, and it proves that when you work as a team, the results are amplified. Look at any team that has accomplished a significant milestone and you’ll find a group of individuals who don’t hesitate to disagree with, challenge, and question one another.

Yet despite the tension and the pressure, they come together, combine their expertise and experience and prevail: They create something unique, beautiful, or disruptive. Even if you’re exceptional at what you do, even if you’re a superstar, even if you’re best in class, one day you may not be at the top of your game for whatever reason. It could be poor timing, a bad vibe, terrible weather. You might be too tired or have had a break down. You won’t be top dog when you need to be and you won’t be able to perform at your optimum.

If you had the foresight, the generosity, and the good judgement to help out a fellow team member in the past when they had a terrible run, rest assured that your act of altruism will come back to help you when you’re faced with a setback. If you’ve achieved a victory and praised your team members for having helped you, acknowledging their merits, then this is when you fully understand why the team effect works. It works because team members help out fellow team members. *

*Excerpt from:  Section 8 The Team effect: Can it push you forward? From Demigods, Aliens and Ordinary people. To order your signed copy or copies for your team, please visit: https://www.paul-renaud.com/paul-renauds-books/ .

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Earl Nightingale, American radio speaker and author, once said: “What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

There is a lot of debate when it comes to the brain’s potential. Some experts say that we only understand about 10% of how our brain functions.  If we can tap into the rest of that potential, we can achieve what we believe.

A leading authority in neurosciences, Dr. Srini Pillay, explains that there are important areas in the brain that are affected when imagery is activated. Pillay states that imagery acts as a precursor to action. Imagery fires up the brain.

One effective way of creating imagery is to think and concentrate on seeing yourself as you do something, imagine yourself running, and looking at your opponents as you strive for the finish line.

Pillay describes this as a first-person visualization. Alternately, try observing yourself in the race as if you were filming yourself from above, watching yourself progress to the point of coming from behind your opponents and winning the race, what Pillay describes as a third-person visualization.

In both cases (either being or seeing), you are effectively creating a mental image of you achieving something important. Now apply this to your job or a task: Closing that important deal, delivering an important presentation, getting that important funding approval. Think, focus, and see yourself meeting the objective or the milestone.

Some athletes have told me that they are able to run the entire race or competition entirely in their mind, to the point of picturing themselves breaking a sweat. Formula 1 drivers will map the race in their head with amazing accuracy, to shave milliseconds off their best time.

Because you’re picturing yourself winning you are essentially asking the universe for what you want. Once I’ve seen some hard effort and progress, I’m quick to remind my clients of these two approaches:

1. You must believe that imagery works! My research with athletes, notable people of science, or ordinary people running ultra-marathons demonstrates that before they go to bed and when they wake up in the morning, they watch a movie or a vivid replay of each step or move they make, getting closer to the finish line, seeing themselves win or having that eureka moment.

2. People spend too much time trying to understand how it works. Just apply it. Over thinking, analyzing, or contemplating why and how this works is pointless.

Chris’s view of imagery and visualization

Chris, the hero of our story, would always run through a race in his mind by visualizing.

In his mind, throughout the race, he could feel how his body felt at each stage and then compensate. He visualized the feel of the water on his face, how his body would feel after the first 25 meters of a 100-meter race, the sensation of tiredness and how to overcome it.

This imagery method worked! Chris says it was one more element responsible for getting him to his goal –representing Canada in two Olympics (Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000) and reaching for a gold medal. “This is what worked for me and this is what my body did well,” he says.

Chris now works for a multinational as a Business Development Manager. He applies this same imagery method before his meetings and visualizes the outcome, imagining himself in the first person and the third person.

For example, when planning a meeting he visualizes the venue, the people in the room, where he will be seated at a table or negotiation. He creates an image of “how they look, how will they respond and what will they say to me,” he tells me. Imagery helps him remain calm for potential conflicts with distributors.

In Chris’s opinion, “It’s never wasted time to visualize – you can’t lose!”

I’ve found that in discussing the merits of imagery, it’s becoming less and less about spirituality or the unexplained and more about our ability to reach into that untapped potential of the brain, thereby giving us more control and ultimately, success. Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

In Chris’s view, the subconscious engrains/transforms a thought into an emotion. They both could translate into a deliverable because some people need perpetual reminders.

Going through a visualization process each time you compete or get ready for an important presentation does not guarantee its success. Like many of the topics discussed throughout my book, these ingredients will help you, yet none of them are silver bullets that will deliver immediate and guaranteed success.

One thing is for sure. If you don’t try it, it can’t help you.  If you combine one or many of the ingredients that you believe may work for you and you enjoy the exercise, this will amplify your chances of success.

Read more in my new book, ‘Demigods, Aliens, & Ordinary People’.

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Right after a workout, jog, or cycle, I am reminded of that amazing feeling that comes through my mind (it actually lasts only for a few seconds) when I think to myself, “nothing can bother me now.” My fitness session has completely drained me.

When you work out, endorphins and the hormone oxytocin are released into the blood, causing you to experience a feeling of wellbeing, euphoria, and optimism. Runners often talk about a runner’s high after a run[i] or a state of flow. Exercise can help you see life in a more positive light.

Often, I suggest a baby-steps approach to my coaching clients who are challenged or haven’t been consistent with some form of fitness in the past. I suggest they consider taking a brisk 10-minute walk during the day, even just around the office or building. Walking helps to get your blood circulating and gives you a mental break. Combining a slow but gradual fitness regime like walking and addingstretching can help to relieve stiff muscles, which can hold tension and make you feel more stressed. I suggest stretching in the morning when you wake up (ever notice how dogs always stretch after they wake up…? maybe they know something we don’t). After sitting for more than an hour at the computer, get up, stretch, go for a little walk before you come back to your desk.

Exercise should be fun to do. By testing and discovering different kinds of fitness regimes, you’ll eventually connect with something you enjoy doing. This is a great motivator and reduces the chances of backing out.

 My expertise and passion for fitness has paid off for some of my clients. Nikos,* the Chief Commercial Officer of a fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) company, gave me an emphatic “No” when I asked in our first meeting if he was involved in some form of fitness. This is part of my routine as I build a profile on a client. Fitness is one of those areas I call an outlet, a great way to forget about work. I replied: “No, as in, not lately?” and he countered with “No, as in never!”

I came back again: “You’ve never done any form of fitness?” “Nope,” except the compulsory ‘Phys Ed’ in high school.” Given that I deal mostly with businesspeople, I’d rarely heard of anyone not involved in at least some form of physical activity, even if they had stopped lately or a long time ago. There was always a trace of walking or jogging or swimming…something. “Oh well,” I said, and proceeded to highlight the obvious benefits of exercising such as freeing the mind, forgetting about work and finding one’s sanctuary, not to mention getting fitter and keeping the doctor at bay! Then I dropped the subject completely, moved on – I had done what I could.

But something had clicked. Nikos’s latest Facebook post was of him riding an electric bicycle. As I saw his post I chuckled briefly while thinking to myself, “Well, at least it’s a start.” Fast forward 6 months.  I bumped into Nikos at his office. He had lost about 5 kg. He was never overweight just, well, not in shape. “Hey,” I said, “Did you melt?” while hiding a sarcastic grin.

“Nope” said Nikos. “I’ve been going to the gym.” My jaw dropped. I asked him how often he went. He replied: “2 times a week, and next week I’m planning to start 3 times per week.” Nikos looked great and I told him so, in addition to telling him how happy I was with his new-found habit!

Clearly the endorphin rush or the other neurochemicals that Nikos felt right after a workout was enough for him to take fitness to the next level. Maybe that was the reason for Nikos to simply drop a bad habit (in this case not exercising) and recognize that magic moment right after a workout. In any case, something was triggered, and I was happy to see that maybe, just maybe, our discussions on the topic of fitness had something to do with it. I’ll have to ask him the next time I see him.

Read more in my new book, ‘Demigods, Aliens, & Ordinary People’.

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It’s the substance, not the brand. It’s the reality, not the perception. It’s their truth, not fake news or media folklore. It’s what they’ve had to do in terms of effort to reach a particular milestone or many. This is what grabs my attention. I want to know how they’ve achieved all they’ve achieved.

If you think about it, we really haven’t changed much as humans. I challenge you to read any history clip, story, or book without thinking that history repeats itself or that we, as people, haven’t really changed over the years.

If this is true, then human accomplishments are not new either – or so it seems. Human achievement consists of a series of ingredients that pooled together make someone take on demigod or alien attributes (more on this later).

We’re born. We struggle. Perhaps we’re given a chance to outdo ourselves. Some grab that once-in-a-life-time opportunity and fly with it. Others ignore it altogether.

More still don’t even recognize it for what it is. What are the ingredients, the magic sauce, the combination of all that’s right, and how can we apply it to ourselves, so that we too can be great or at least a better version of who we are? Shouldn’t achieving something truly great be an aspiration for us all?

Be they great athletes, intellectual giants, creative geniuses, or ordinary people who touch our lives, we all have heroic figures to whom we look up; talented people from whom we draw inspiration; real people who guide and mentor us in our quest to become the best version of ourselves.

Heroes are not a modern-day invention. In the ancient world, inspiration came from the heroes of mythology, and the mythical and yet very real divine beings who ruled over the world. We know them as the Pantheon, the name given to sacred deities and heroic figures, immortal spirits and demigods of ancient times.

And while noticing people is a hobby for me, I’m not alone. Other people notice people, admire them, envy them, disbelieve them. In some funny way, we’re all the same. We’re all spectators and fans in some way. At a minimum we hear about, read about, and notice others.

Noticing people is a great way to learn new things or about how people react under some circumstances.

Inasmuch as businesses use benchmarks to solve issues, when we notice people it opens our minds to new perspectives and helps us get better at something. We might even discover something new.

In this book, I share my thoughts on peak performance, the lessons I’ve learned from observing leaders. For the last eight years, I’ve been coaching individuals and teams and discovering a new passion to help people grow in their careers. Living in 10 countries has added another dimension to my observations of leaders in various cultures.

When it comes to peak performance, surely we can all agree that goal setting is important but here, through examples, and more specifically through interviews with three people involved in Olympic sport, the notion of goal setting becomes more tangible, more relatable, more applicable. This book incorporates 14 tools and methods that will help you to improve your peak performance.

Learning how to use peak performance tools is a lot easier when you have role models who can attest to them.

With this in mind, I use expert opinion, not hearsay. These peak performance concepts are endorsed by an Olympic athlete who represented Canada, an Olympic athlete who 44 years after stunning the world enjoys still enduring notoriety, and a world-class Olympic coach.

I use the overlying theme of the Olympics because of the years of intense preparation required to compete for just moments on the world stage. Why do these athletes put in so much effort? Careers work the same way. We spend time learning our craft, be it a new trade or profession. This learning implies a great deal of training and sacrifice, but does it make a difference? Do we get accolades from our peers validating that we’re on the right track or performing well? By exploring these parallels, this book offers a unique way to understand the concepts, assimilate the expert’s opinion, test-drive the tools, and recognize that if you apply the same level of effort to your career, to your life, then you too, can reap the benefits and become a role model or get the recognition you desire.

Using three archetypes or models – the demigod, the alien, and the ordinary person – I’ll give context to where you may fit on your journey of greatness. I’ll show you how everyone can master peak performance tools. My experience of noticing people has shown, without doubt, that we all have a latent talent that’s often undiscovered. But even if we have the motivation to become better at something, sometimes that motivation is not enough. Other ingredients need to be added. This book contains the recipe.

You get to pick and choose from these tools and methods. In Part 2, at the end of each section, you’ll find three powerful questions. I use powerful questions in coaching to help my clients find their own answers as opposed to me telling them what to do. These questions will help you incorporate the learning from each section into your lifestyle and practice. Come back time and again to these questions (and your answers) to figure out what works best for you and what you want to accomplish. Right after the powerful questions is a separate area where you can add your notes and reminders or any actions you plan to undertake.

Everything you read here is true. Some names (marked with an *) have been changed to protect confidentiality, yet the stories are not fictionalized. Unlike the fantastic stories of superheroes in novels and comic books, you, dear reader, can ask for greatness, believe in it, and receive it. And once you’ve done so, you’ll discover how it feels to be a demigod, an alien, or an ordinary person.

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