About John Allen Mollenhauer

From early on, I was a driven person; yet, at an early age, I began suffering from low-grade, intensifying fatigue that clouded my life, even when things were going well.

In my Heroes journey, I went from venture to venture, mostly on purpose, but the evolution of it all was exhausting me with every increasing energy demands and little time to rejuvenate. 

I was attempting to crush it in my endeavors. But, behind the scenes, I was overcome by excessive stress and tiredness that was compounding over time and negatively impacting other aspects of my life and my style of living it.

As time progressed, I was less happy about my accomplishments as essential areas of my life seemed to be on permanent hold. I realized it was because recovery and other needs weren’t getting met.

At the time, I didn’t know that; I thought my declining enthusiasm, attitude, and outlook meant “advancing age,” or “something was wrong with me” when nothing was further from the truth. 

As the crush of stress increased, I responded to stress in ways that created more stress, not energy, and I was tired out, burning out, and wearing out prematurely despite being adept at nutrition and fitness.

I pushed harder, worked on “personal development,” and focused even more on my success, thinking, “once I achieve my goals, I can live a better lifestyle.” Yet, the mounting fatigue, weight, and health issues took their toll on my relationships and well-being.

I kept the game face on the outside, but things were not as they seemed on the inside. I grew to know the answer was not one thing, and not something even decent sleep, sound nutrition, or fitness alone would resolve. And I needed to do something about it.

I needed to give rise to a new lifestyle and an approach to achieving my goals that maintained quality of life.

Around 2006, years into learning how to manage my energy, move on from the weight of the past, and live healthy successfully amidst a still relentlessly busy schedule,  I discovered a concept that originated in athletics called “Performance Lifestyle” [PL].

Performance Lifestyle was an emerging training and coaching service in Europe that helped elite athletes sustain their activity and win in their sport by assisting them in getting free of what was distracting and holding them back.  

At the time, I thought, “wow, that’s what I need, a whole lifestyle that supports me.” 

The challenge was that it wasn’t a developed idea yet; who was it for, what were the principles and practices, and how would it be implemented? Few people can afford the level of support that elite athletes have. 

At the time, I was also searching for anything that could help me understand my constant drive to succeed at the cost of my well-being (which I then referred to as “it”). 

Turned on by the idea of getting free of unhealthy performance practices in my own life, I found a book called “Performance Addiction” and figured it was worth a read. It was about “The Dangerous New Syndrome and How to Stop It from Ruining Your Life“ by Harvard psychologist Arthur P Ciaramicoli, Ph.D., and finally found out what “it” was. 

I called the author, began talking with him, and we eventually went on to write a book together called “The Curse of the Capable” on the hidden challenges to a balanced and healthy, high-achieving life. 

This process put me into a new gear because I realized what I was up to was more than learning how to live a healthy lifestyle; that was a given. I was tasked with giving rise to a healthy performance lifestyle and the antithesis of the performance-addicted life, which many have been brainwashed into living. 

It was the perfect lifestyle context for the work I needed to do, and I quickly learned that it didn’t matter if a person was into sports or even a health and fitness enthusiast. 

A healthy performance lifestyle is for people crushing it or attempting to, often for the wrong reasons, and suffering from the crush of excess stress that’s negatively affecting their energy, health, performance, and overall quality of life. 

Little did I know, it would take another 15 more years of deep personal inquiry during my entrepreneurial ventures, the guidance of a world-class advisory team, and coaching countless people to create the never-before-assembled Performance Lifestyle Blueprint that exists today.  

As an entrepreneur, my “why” for doing this work besides my healing and growth is that I wanted other driven people like me—not necessarily elite athletes—who are up to big things in their lives and lack support to have a way to correct course. 

The Performance Lifestyle® Blueprint enables anyone, no matter what their situation, to learn how to live in balance with vibrant health and peace of mind while achieving even their most ambitious goals. 

In retrospect, I had lived the SAD Standard American Dream-Driven Life, where you wake up to be successful, but taking care of yourself, your body, and your life was still secondary. 

Step by step, as I learned more and more of the fundamentals of successful living through the stress of my entrepreneurial life’s ups and downs, I resolved one hidden lifestyle challenge after another enroute to developing today’s healthy, high-performance lifestyle. 

I believe there is something heroic about a person with the vision, talent, passion, and belief in themselves to start a family, grow a career, or launch a business. 

Owning a business or being an entrepreneur, for example, can be exciting, liberating, and lucrative. But all too often, it can be lonely, overwhelming, stressful, and energy-draining, ultimately leading to burnout.

I don’t want others to go through 20 years in the fox hole like I did. We have enough challenges in achieving what we’re up to; we don’t need to complicate it with hidden lifestyle challenges that distract and hold us back from living the best version of ourselves.

Helping people live their full potential, not just achieve it, became my passion. You’ll never go back once you know how to live a healthy, high-performance lifestyle.