Evening all,
I have just attended a really great webinar (with General Assembly), focussing on high performance and failure. I thought considering how tough the process has been I might share some of the points that were shared, just in case they might help anyone.
We are what we do repeatedly (Aristotle) - the key to high performance is often habit. When we become stressed or overwhelmed we often revert back to our habits, so making effort to maintain healthy habits that work towards our goals is key!
Top tips for what can help amplify performance:
- Sometimes it's about saying less and pausing more, being articulate in our thoughts and not rushing through them demonstrates confidence but also allows us our words to have more effect.
- Look at the people that are doing what you want to do better than you and consider what makes them better.
- Manage your fears
- Enjoy yourself - remember you have chosen your journey so you should make an effort to enjoy it, even when it is tough.
- Grow from feedback - negative feedback can be super hard to hear, but it's actually a gift that allows us to springboard into success and doing better.
The speaker really recommended knowing yourself and what you bring to the table - you should be able to identify your 5 greatest strengths.
This is important because it encourages us to focus on our strengths opposed to our shortcomings (apparently this mindset could make us 3x more likely to have an excellent quality of life!). She also said 'in times of uncertainty we can only be certain of what we can do' and I really liked this.
Redefine failure to be an opportunity to develop your understanding of what doesn't work for you - stop focussing on the on the fact that you have failed and instead consider why do you think you failed, if you don't know, try and get feedback.
- Fun Fact: Walt Disney was rejected by 302 banks before he secured funding for Disneyland
- Resilience is a lot to do with remembering why you are taking this journey.
She also said too much of the time we have an idea of what we consider success to look like but that it's too widely influenced by our surroundings and we should consider first what does success look like to me? When considering what your 'why' is, look at the world around you and identify the issues that light a fire inside of you.
her final message was: in times of failure of uncertainty we should try to always choose courage over comfort.
Recommended books were
Confidence Code
Lean in
Podcast recommendation: how to own the room