At the core, my mission is to help people recover from excess stress, live in balance with vibrant health and peace of mind while achieving even their most ambitious goals.
I was inspired to create Performance Lifestyle “PL,” because I wanted to learn how myself, having suffered from tiredness, fatigue, and poor lifestyle habits on the road to succeeding, and of course all of the consequences; all despite being extremely knowledgeable in nutrition and fitness, which are not enough to thrive today.
I myself struggled to maintain my own quality of life in a relentlessly demanding world, that’s always on, which if you get caught up in, can easily wear you down. As an entrepreneur, this happened to me and it nearly killed me.
So the development of a “performance lifestyle” wasn’t about just living “healthy” anymore; that was the given not the goal. It was about learning how to live in such a way that fulfilled the above mission.
We hear so much about fatigue today, about poor sleep habits, eating habits, exercise habits for sure, but this relentless focus on the most popular and monetize-able aspects of lifestyle such as nutrition and fitness alone, usually for vanity reason and not for reasons that excel human performance, does not reveal why people are struggling so much to eat healthily and move more in the first place and ultimately achieve their goals.
There is a syndrome,
| condition, complex, disorder, or affliction, a characteristic combination of opinions, emotions, or behavior. |
particularly in western civilizations that is sweeping the world. It is at once admired and rewarded, and at the same time it can ruin your life and impact those around you. It’s called performance addiction and it arises out of the need to constantly be better, bigger, richer, more beautiful, more productive etc. It starts when your younger, there is usually a lack of empathy involved on the path of one’s development, and it arises as the need to prove, seek love and respect.
And that affliction in the mind drives you, hard.
Achievement and excellence are wonderful, but when life is lived in comparison with others on the competitive plain drives us to accomplish and achieve for the wrong reasons, namely looking good, we set ourselves up for an inner tumult. turmoil, or even failure, as this can lead our lives awry and seriously off course.
It can also burn us out and leave one depressed, as we simply can’t keep up with not only the inauthenticity but the energy and requirement of will that it all takes to keep going and be resilient.
So it is this afffliction that prompts an inquiry into the Optimal Performance State. Now we’re really talking mindset, or better said, getting your “head” “set” right.
Authenticity: Getting Grounded in the Self (the big Self) with a Capital S.
Which is why, in all of Performance Lifestyle training, the greatest and most important change one will make and can ever make is to get in touch with “what” we are in the universe, before who and how we are; which, is often just a description of our self, our personality, our values and beliefs, rules, preferences and the like that are constantly being informed and changing.
To be really authentic, (and this might sound a little far out at first) we need to get grounded in what we really are, the intelligent energy of the universe, and in right relationship with our brain and body, or our “person.” Now, who we become can be created, changed and adapted with greater ease as we live more in the zone and in a state of flow.
Being the Self and seeing the personal self for what it is, is an essential factor that will influence your lifestyle in an extraordinary way because it aligns you with your true intention, first and foremost, before fears, concerns, and worries of the mind.
Don’t get me wrong, we certainly need to pay attention to what’s happening in our world if we are to be sustainable, directed, achieve and maintain well being. Spiritually bypassing what’s happening in our lives never works, unless your ambition is to live in a state of meditation on a rock in Nepal.
But if you are up to becoming more conscious and creating culture through what you’re up to in the world, waking around locked in the small self, as what Jeff Carriera refers to as a “thinking thing,” separate from others, is a sure fire way, to drive yourself non stop, as you seek to be one more than you already are.
Our modern day world, based on an economy and markets loves to keep you on this treadmill, working, striving and consuming by appealing to your small self that is often all consumed with seeking, solving and being successful. That is not necessarily a bad thing if you can see it for what it is without getting too psychologically caught up in it. As it is practical and necessary if you want to fully thrive in society.
We need to continuously develop personally indeed, emotionally, mentally or intellectually and physically, but this is all enhanced if we are foremost developed in what is often referred to as “spiritually.”
It doesn’t even need to be called “spirituality” it can also and simply be called becoming aware of your authentic or higher Self.
- Are you able to just be and be free from the cultural ego, this “age of better” that we are living in that can drive you a little bit crazy?
- Are you able to chart your course and achieve your goals on the creative plain and for the right reasons?
- Do you have a lifestyle that supports your performance?
The answers to these questions will change your life for the better forever when you are living from your authentic self, especially the last one because it’s inclusive of the previous two. It’s central to resolving virtually any or all challenges, hidden and known, in our lives. And it ultimately starts with the authenticity I’m talking about here.
The thing is, we usually have to take a step prior to this “breakthrough of all breakthroughs” and that is, we need to address the renewability of our own energy as this primary shift in identity takes a lot of energy. It’s a big shift, amidst the flurry of relentless busyness that is always just a click, a phone call, a work or family activity away.
Renewability – That Which Your Personal Power Depends On.
Plus, living in the “zone” and in the “flow” the authentic Self-makes possible, a growing majority of the time, also requires you have a lot of energy. One thing is certain, the psychological self, is far less discretionary with our energy, than the authentic Self, which will grow and create ceaselessly if it can.
Our primary intention in the world is to expand, to create and grow. It could be said that we all wake up to be successful, to accomplish and achieve. No one naturally wakes up to be balanced and healthy, though we do need to live in balance with vibrant health and peace of mind if we are going to achieve our goals at the higher levels. To do that and not collapse under the weight of stress we need to take care of our brain/body in regularly and systematically.
Unfortunately, while our body-brain is at once a boon, the ultimate creation, and a creative tool for being and becoming all that we want in life, it’s is also a limitation. Yes, a limitation. It can’t keep up with non-stop evolution and activity that is our true nature. It tires, gets exhausted and ultimately fatigued if it’s not regularly and systematically renewed and regenerated. This is known as renewability.
The lack of which can cause anyone, even the most motivated to descend into a trend, of vicious cycles and ultimately a premature downward spiral that can be hard to get out of.
I am suggesting that most of us are caught up in this trend to some degree. Especially, those who are driven, achievement-oriented and ambitious and prone to overspending their energy; the consequence is which are very uncomfortable and lead to a lot of bad, compensating habits.
In a world that promotes medicating in a whole slew of ways from prescriptions to drugs, medical and social, to food and other obsessions, including exercise, and addictions of every kind, deep down we are wanting to feel better from fatigue, and the natural depression that results. And this fatigue gets exacerbated by poor thinking which can crush our resilience.
So I can’t emphasize the fact enough, we need to know all that’s involved in renewing our energy, learn how to live with optimal energy levels and manage our energy ongoing if we want to have a healthy lifestyle that supports our human performance and success.
Everything depends on it, including our resilience, which is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; aka toughness or personal power.
On a firm foundation of authenticity and renewability, we become naturally resilient.
Resilience; The Power to Bounce Back, and Move Forward from a Position of Strength.
To date, resilience has been taught largely in psychological terms with constant emphasis on motivational philosophies, mindsets, timeless quotes, the inspiration of others and the like, all of which are useful, but if divorced from our renewability dooms us to struggle. Nothing is more powerful than knowing what, who and how you are, powered by lots of naturally occurring energy, with emphasis on the naturally occurring energy.
Then, with performance, lifestyle mindset and skills set, you can manage that energy you have. But in rounding out the optimal performance state, a central tenant is “do not give rise to, or buy into stories (thinking) you can’t live well with,” we have a third pillar that is essential to experiencing the energy you do have in full force.
It’s our thought!
Nothing can thwart the stimulation of your energy more than pessimistic, pervasive and or permanent thinking that is not real and optimistically leaning. Unsupportive thoughts yield negative emotions and will just stamp out forward-moving progress. It will also leave you tired and be languishing even if you are well tested.
Just think about a time when you lost your way, chances are you were preoccupied, distracted and held back by some hidden or known challenge, that tired you out and created an unwieldy psychological environment you got caught up in or some combination of this all too common cocktail for feeling stuck.
Isn’t that true?
You give up or lose your power, operate from fear or desperation, tire yourself out even more and your thinking follows suit.
Well, the way out of that now and forever is to restore yourself to the Optimal Performance State. It’s the interaction of authenticity, renewability, and resilience, the combination of which will bring you back to full function at the core.
It’s the rudder for your lifestyle, any lifestyle and certainly, a performance lifestyle that is balanced and healthy to support you and what you are up to in the world as a parent, professional, or performer.
We all face challenges, but the way to deal with them that’s dependable is to steer clear as best as possible, as quick as possible of those lifestyle habits that respond to stress in ways that create more stress. We need to avoid making more out of things than they need to be; something that inevitably happens when we go through life personally, lost in our psychology, feeling separate and small, tired and fatigued and drowning in dramatizations that you may think are real, but only if you say so.
In addition to authentic grounding in what you really are and lots of naturally occurring energy that you renew regularly and systematically, you’ve got to direct that energy towards what you want, in the future if you want to experience the optimal performance state on a regular basis.
We all lose our way from time to time, but how long will you stay lost?
With OPS, not long.
The Optimal Performance State.
Authenticity – enlightenment, awareness, consciousness.
When you get to know what you really are behind who you think you are before thought, before the mind, brain/body and personality, everything changes. You get in right relationship with your head, you stop taking things so deeply personal and establish the objectivity you need to change with greater ease. Zone and flow states become your new normal.
Aligning with your authentic Self is the greatest lifestyle change one can ever make and will ever make, and it opens you up to a whole new view of everything. It also gives you the power to create like never before.
Renewability – regeneration, increase your energy, personal power, reactivation, recovery. When you have the power to create like never before, aligned with your Authentic Self,
you will wake up to two realities; you are naturally motivated to grow and evolve, and if you don’t know how to take care of your brain and body, you will burn them out.
Renewing your energy must be done in a certain way, without falling for the stimulant-delusion. You must establish a whole new relationship with fatigue, stop misinterpreting it and always be prepared to live at optimal energy levels even when you think you should be performing at higher levels. It’s the single most important insight in Performance Lifestyle® Training.
Resilience – bounce back, flexible, perseverance.
The ability to bounce back, be flexible and persevere in the face of obstacles and challenges is never a from-the-neck-up only capacity. To date, resilience has largely been both taught and learned as a function of psychology, mental toughness and the like and it’s short-sighted. You need energy, lots of it to be dependably resilient, and the ability to change your story–the conversation in your mind that is preceding and dictating all future actions.
When you combine authenticity with renewability and now your full capacity to change, resilience is the natural outcome. You will live, free of what’s known as the curse of the capable and move forward from a position of strength.
