Historically, there’s only been one subset of the population who has learned to apply the power of lifestyle to their specialized, high-level goals—while nurturing superior levels of flowing, unencumbered, and directed physical performance.
That population segment is athletes—and while many of them could improve too, most still have something that most of us don’t.
It’s not just talent. It’s not just skill. It’s not even just training.
It’s an entire LIFESTYLE that in every possible way supports their talent, their skill and their training—and their greatest achievements.
Athletes can’t let any aspect of their lifestyle get in the way of their goals. In fact, every aspect has to support and contribute to their aspirations.
Truly successful athletes live every aspect of their lives in a seamless integration with their goals. They’re utterly immersed in everything that cares for and feeds their performance—spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically.
They live like that. They live for that.
They don’t isolate their life practices or their self-care from their intentions and achievements—like so many of us do. They link their lifestyle to their achievements—which enables them to perform at astonishing levels.
Every moment, every day, they make choices that support, nourish, and honor whatever prize they have their eyes on.
And ideally—if they’re doing it right—they can go all out, without burning themselves out.
Now, athletes aren’t perfect. But they are the only population that consistently functions with this performance lifestyle mindset.
As a result, they look and feel way better than most of us too.
The world of athleticism is where the performance lifestyle idea was born—but athletes aren’t the only ones who can do it.
The fantastic thing is that, applied wholeheartedly and effectively, you can transform your life and your health with this approach.
The problem is, as everyday folks—even if we’re really up to phenomenal things in our work and in the world—we tend not to see ourselves as powerhouse performers.
We see ourselves as “mere mortals,” not pros requiring the care, feeding and nourishment that elite athletes would.
Instead of viewing ourselves as a sort of Olympic star in our own world, needing to be tended to like someone preparing for a revered athletic event, we see ourselves as… “just us.”
Sure, we’ve got a ton on our plates, and big ideas and plans. And we push as hard as we can to fulfill them.
And we try to cram a little of what we learn from the latest health or fitness headlines into our weekly regimens. Maybe we do some obsessive, heroic bouts of dieting and exercise.
But we’re so exhausted, fragmented, distracted and held back—because our lifestyle isn’t supporting us in a host of vital ways—that we end up jogging in place. Or worse, falling backwards.
And besides, no amount of “trying to get ourselves” to eat right, exercise, or rest—divorced from our life goals and a powerful sense of self-worth and purpose—really creates significant and lasting change.
Who’s EVER been motivated to improve a habit or take on a new practice just because we “should?”
Pretty much no one.
It’s like asking a pro athlete to train for…nothing in particular.
Right there you have the deeply frustrating and costly source of failure for so many well-meaning would-be performers…
…and the downfall of just about every “program” that ever tried to help them achieve a healthy or successful life.
You’re not coming from the mindset of a person who is living to perform.
And with that pivotal mistake, that destructive disconnect…
…we relegate ourselves to a life of running to keep up with our goals, dreams and demands—while attempting to WEDGE health and well-being into the race, haphazardly and ineffectually.
Instead of a lifestyle that supports what you do—or what you want most to do—you’re just driving yourself into the ground.
You’re overstimulated and under-recuperated.
You’re overfed, but undernourished.
You struggle with overwhelm, fatigue, exhaustion, and stress.
You have no pre-season, no peak season, and no post-season. You just have a relentless, endless stream of competing demands.
You may be performance addicted.
This is the predicament almost everybody’s in today in our first-world, professional, entrepreneurial environment.
It’s promotes the downward spiral that most of us are working at staying out of, whether we know it or not. And many of us are failing miserably.
Health complications are all too predictable in this disaster scene that passes for a “lifestyle” in our society today.
And our health/fitness industries are treating superficial symptoms—with impotent solutions that don’t address the roots or the whole solution.
But what if it didn’t need to be that way?
