High achievers often want everything perfect first time. John Maxwell calls it the ‘perfection gap’. This reduces our willingness to take risks and often gives way to procrastination.  

Why do I seek perfection?

For me perfection is a self-imposed expectation that feeds an insatiable desire for validation. ‘Unless I hit perfection, then it's not good enough!’ This is usually linked to my own perception of self worth. I tie my self-worth to the result. 

I believe in excellence as a value which is giving my very best, but this is different from perfection.

Don't let perfection ruin your future...

The future dream we carry insists we embrace experimentation if we are to make our highest and best contribution!

If we impose perfection as the standard on everything that we do, then we reduce the space for creativity. Creativity encourages a healthy relationship with failure but failure is the enemy of the perfectionist!

In my latest High Performance Disciple podcast I unpack why we ne...

Are you craving that ‘winning’ feeling? 🎉

Does it feel like nothing is working as you thought it would? 😩

Emotions are real feelings but they are not always a true explanation of reality. Feelings can be deceptive and so it is so vital we don’t allow them to lead us to making incorrect assumptions on progress. 

During my first ‘High Performance Disciple’ podcast, I share about a painful 6 month period that was the toughest 6 months me and my wife had experienced. At the time is looked like nothing was working. My wife was experiencing acute health anxiety and the business I had left a stable salary to build was not gaining traction. 

The feeling of wanting to quit was so intense and the relief it offered was irresistibly tempting.

BUT WE DIDN’T QUIT! 

The ‘Win’ we are experiencing now was formed during that ‘wilderness’ period. I realised there were four steps I needed to repeatedly carry out during that time that built the breakthrough we are experiencing today in our personal a...

I will lose the motivation to live when I lose a reason to die.

I am going to ask you a question that I am guessing no one has asked you already today, this week or even this year maybe. The question is, "What would you give your life for?”

Take a moment to think before you answer. Most people might suggest somebody they would die for. Most parents would give their lives for their children. Maybe you would say “I would give my life for my friends.” That too is a noble statement, and you would be a good friend to have if that were truly the case. 

Yet I am of the belief that the level to which we fully get to live the life we have, is determined by our ability to define the cause for which we would give our lives. 

Let me make it clear from the outset that I am in no way suggesting that dying is desirable. The reason I pose the question is because I am trying to get you to dig down deep and answer the question “what really, I mean REALLY matters to me?” I believe in ever...

Sticking to one thing is not a natural discipline I possess. 

I am addicted to distraction and the short term buzz it gives me. I am guilty of choosing distraction over discipline of flexing my attention rather than fixing it on one task.

Smartphones send alert us to notifications accompanied by an enticing buzzing vibration. The buzz of a device that makes it difficult to ignore. It makes us feel needed, creates curiosity and an invites intrigue. A buzz seemly feeds us what the mundane does not. 

The buzz will give us an addictive shot of dopamine seemingly rewarding us for responding to the call. The buzz feeds the moment but does not build the life we desire.

It is the mundane repeated actions of implementing our plan that produce the miracle we long for. Responding and reacting repeatedly to the buzz causes us to give up what we want most for what we can get now.

The buzz of distraction causes mission drift and today I was struggling with it big time. So I decided to write thi...

As I went to get my coffee this morning I saw a middle aged man who was wilting in the autumn sunshine holding a beer can.

I decided to ask him if he wanted me to get him a coffee. He declined but thanked me and we then engaged in a conversation that gave an explanation to his predicament. It didn’t take long to realise I was talking to an extremely bright and intelligent human being who had clearly fallen on desperate times. As his story unfolded I discovered that he had reached the top echelons of our educational system, worked some of the top jobs you could imagine and yet here he was a dim reflection of such a promising pathway. 

My heart was breaking as I saw his unlimited potential battered and bruised by his journey. He was clearly a casualty of cut throat competitive environments that had either failed to see his struggle or did not know what to do to help. I have seen it all before. The competitive bandwagon must keep moving at all costs. Results are prioritised and the very...