By John Allen Mollenhauer

The five myths of high performance are going to change your view of the whole idea of “performing” at a high level.

First, let’s get started with a prerequisite understanding. It’s not what this article is about, but you need to at least know of it, for everything else to make sense. Performance is primarily a lifestyle.

How you function as a human being, and the level at which you perform is primarily a lifestyle and based on the fundamentals which you organize your life and style (practice) of living it around. OK, more on that here.

Here’s the thing, when most people think of “high performance” they imagine a man or woman, or athlete, in peak form, exerting enormous amounts of energy, enduring high levels of stress, pushing hard, maybe sweating, and intense.

And while that may be true at times in life (we’ve all experienced these states as they are called for) they by no means define what ‘high performance” is let alone how the lifestyle actually shows up in our lives.

So, here are the five myths of high performance.

  1. It’s an addicted lifestyle: Whether we’re talking performance addiction, (the story you are telling yourself, in comparison to others, that keeps you going seemingly non-stop) or the addiction to performance (the entrainment to function at peak all week…), which are different from one another; neither, is what defines high performance. That said, having a story that drives you and a groove for the peak performance state “pre-greased” is a great thing, but you are not locked into the story or that groove all the time.
  2. You have to be exerting enormous amounts of energy, enduring high levels of stress, pushing or striving hard, maybe sweating, and coming off as intense to be operating at high performance. True high performance is spirit-driven, and Grace is the hallmark of high performance because it’s the natural expression of your potential. Too many of us, fall for stereotypes. Like a “spiritual person” always talking in a soft voice, wearing certain clothes, maybe having a Buddha statue and candles around them, none of which having anything directly to do with being spiritual. High-performing people and those that identify as high performers, likewise, think that they must be on the edge, and out front constantly maybe talking a certain way, and high strung… They don’t, you don’t. Don’t fall for all the hype. All it does is burn you out faster.
  3. You are always in peak form.
    You will not always be in peak form when living a high-performance lifestyle. Peak, meaning at the highest energy output, looking, and feeling your best. That is flat out one of the most destructive expectations around. There are 3 levels of performance, peak, buffer, and regeneration, and you need all three if you are going to have consistent periods of peak performance- but all three are essential if you want to function and perform well, at a high level.
  4. High Performance is a personality. 
    Ever notice how some people just seem to be calm, have a lightness of being, are relaxed (most of the time) yet they are accomplishing and achieving at a high level? Whereas, others, seem like they are constantly in a state of fight or flight yet they’re chasing their tail?  Their disposition is a result of their posture to the world, the fact that they are in the right relationship with their brain, their thoughts, and their feelings, whereas those lost in stereotypical ideas about performance are usually grounded in their psychology. There is everything right about winning psychology, but it’s only one aspect of what I’m referring to here. Healthy, High Achievers have a high-performance lifestyle, a process, and routines, they execute regularly to produce the results they want and that does not require that they be in a hyped-up state. With a fully dialed-in life and workstyle, they can be calm, relaxed, light, efficient, and effective. The more they succeed, the more resources they have to fair trade for even more space and time and an even calmer disposition.
  5. High Performance is about how busy you are and requires constant engagement. You’ll notice in the Performance Lifestyle Academy, we don’t talk much about being “high performers,” largely because it gives rise to most of 1-4. We talk about becoming a healthy high achiever, all of whom have high-performance lifestyles. Performing for performance’s sake is not necessarily productive; learning how to function and perform in a way that accomplishes and achieves the desired outcomes in a balanced and healthy way, is what we’re emphasizing. For that to be possible, you’ve got to be skilled- and that means employing the right skill at the right time, at the right level, and consistency- for you to maintain your energy, health, and performance capacity and achieving your goals.

Energy is the crux of living and working at full capacity. Your output typically tracks with your energy level, so be incredibly careful what you buy into.

You can do you, and how you want to do it; you don’t have to look, sound, and act in a certain way to be the best version of yourself. You can crush it and do what needs to be done at whatever level it needs to be done- not less, not more- and have an amazing life. There are no set parameters for what distinguishes the best from the rest, only the fundamentals they’re practicing repeatedly.

And you will dial them all in when you set yourself up for the second-tier of success, which is spirit-driven. 

JAM (John Allen Mollenhauer) is a leading Performance Lifestyle Coach and authority on living the High–Performance Lifestyle® with an online training academy and community that teaches people how to manage their energy like the pros. He helps you get free of the hidden lifestyle challenges that distract and hold you back from living your full potential as you optimize the way you live for the energy, health, and high performance you need to achieve your goals and flourish. Performance Lifestyle Inc is currently based in Florham Park, NJ, where he and his team run RegenUS Center to help you restore your energy for life. For a complimentary strategy session with JAM or a Member of the Lifestyle Coach team, click here.