Lifestyle optimization is the new streamlined version of self-help that is changing people’s lives as they stop having endless development and start focusing on achieving their goals and living with quality of life.
In this article, I will explain why.
Self-help, or what should be spelled as self-help (with a small s) aka personal development, has been a driving force in the market over the past 85 years.
The self-help movement began with the establishment of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935. In terms of treating alcoholics, the group’s accomplishments far exceeded those of the medical profession. Although the success of Alcoholics Anonymous was impressive, other groups did not develop in abundance until after World War II.
Among countless other programs, what followed was Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking 1952 and The Road Less Travelled from M Scott Peck, in 1978 later Tony Robbins‘ messages Unlimited Power 1986 to Awaken the Giant Within 1991, As our unprecedented access information and opportunity have increased, so has the self-help movement. This is a movement that is primarily focused on psychology and is mostly (not all) devoid of actually revealing the power “within” or clarifying it as energy.
Today, podcasts abound on just about every subject of the self, and the industry has distributed itself from well-known icons to that someone who has lost weight and has now got a program or course on how you can lose weight too, with a lot of people in between.
Yet, so many of us are utterly overwhelmed with so many options to change, and the likelihood of several past failures around change in the past. And with so little understanding of energy, the emergence of so many other “technologies” that have at least glazed over mere positive thinking, with the exception of the Positive Psychology movement; “the power within,” despite all these decades of work is still largely unknown; at least, in every day living.
So where does that leave us today?
Are our prospects for change, dependent on an endless supply of personal development courses, which are endless, and which few can apply in full before they’re pulled into yet another demand on their time and energy? And do we need so much personal development?
There are many accounts of people who don’t engage in the self-help/personal development world at all and are healthy and wildly successful, yet others who are developing nonstop can’t rub two nickels together, struggling all the more to perfect themselves. They get the high of the book purchase or the event, but then struggle to change. I know this, as I was one of those people.
Here’s my take; I think personal development is a constant in our lives and organizing our lives around the fundamentals of successful living and taking lots of action will yield tremendous amounts of personal development; but, you need to know what those fundamentals of human performance are and dial them in. When you do, you won’t need endless personal development because you’ll be living from your higher Self.
After all, what distracts and holds people back more than anything else is tiredness, and fatigue (overexertion), poor health (unhealthy eating), deconditioned body (physical inactivity), negative speak (unsupportive thinking) overwhelm ( a schedule that owns them), lack of focus (too much going on) demotivation (no clear motive or too many), lack of awareness and skills (anxiety) disengagement (lack of a compelling why…) confidence issues (not knowing how to be successful in their industry), not enough support (lack of cash, credit, and personnel) and being out of service (not engaging and serving others).
Practical things.
Which is where lifestyle optimization comes in; you can chase personal development forever, but if you don’t deal with the fundamentals of your life, aka Your Lifestyle, you will struggle nonetheless with ever-present anxiety.
Stop chasing what might be nice know and put the emphasis on what needs to happen.
With so much access to information and opportunity today, it’s so easy to get so consumed that you have less and less time to take care of yourself, your body, and your life, whereby you don’t have the energy, health, and performance you need to succeed.
I remember reading the Power of Positive thinking when I was a kid and I eventually worked with Tony Robbins and they were great experiences, but it wasn’t until I dialed in “The Core Essentials of Human Performance©”, which are based on the fundamentals of successful living, did things not only begin to change but get better.
The thing is, the fundamentals are hidden; they would take anyone decades to clarify let alone string together into a lifestyle strategy. That’s what it took me, starting at the time I was working in the personal development field and feeling utterly overwhelmed by nonstop self-help or personal development. So I moved to a human performance and lifestyle approach which is practical.
I’ll end this post with this, what’s the point of taking an approach to achieving success and quality of life, that has no end game, and therefore you can never perfect. Perfecting is very different than being a perfectionist. It’s ok to perfect an approach that’s “development” Personal development has no end game, it’s like drinking coffee for energy, you keep consuming but never sustain the energy. Personal development is a by-product, not a pursuit.
Lifestyle optimization has an end game in theory; and when you do arrive, which you will in short order; at that point, you’ll just keep getting better. nd everyone wants to know how to arrive and don’t want to constantly transform. Nothing wrong with transformation, just not all the time.
John Allen Mollenhauer “JAM” is an expert at helping people achieve more through a healthy-driven lifestyle. JAM works with a range of clients who all share a strong desire to make healthy changes while knowing they need real support with an eye on success. He is the founder of Performance Lifestyle® Inc—a leading-edge training and coaching practice that motivates people to optimize their health and resilience. Thousands of people have been inspired by JAM to redefine their lifestyle with a particular emphasis on sourcing their natural energy to increase performance.
