Achieve more [with less]

Research shows that high performance requires a balance between energy expenditure and energy renewal.

We tend to understand this in relation to physical efforts: top athletes need rest days; gym-goers need a break between sets. But then forget about it in relation to regular life.

Clients come to me saying they’re scheduled to the hilt. They’re working five or six days a week [as well as evenings] and they’re checking their phones constantly. They’re ferrying kids to school, parties and multiple extra-curricular activities. They’re on boards and finishing MBAs and starting businesses. They’re managing renovations, training for physical challenges and planning overseas holidays. They’re also squeezing in time with friends and family [which used to be fun but now feels like just another To Do List item]. They’re doingdoingdoing but they feel they can’t seem to keep up and the wheels are starting to fall off. They’re forgetting appointments, crying for no reason and snapping at their favourite people.

It is obvious [from the outside!] that they need a break. But to them, rest and recovery feels like failure, an unnecessary indulgence, an opportunity for their precariously-balanced life to fall apart.

If that’s you, if you’re constantly doing but your performance is really suffering, why not flip your thinking. Instead of seeing time out as a needless extravagance that will hamper your achievement, consider it an essential performance-enhancing strategy.

Changing the way you see is one of the most effective [and painless] ways to change the way you do.

Tags: life-coaching, Melbourne