Human Performance, learning how to function optimally, is becoming the new mainstream paradigm for energy, health, and lifestyle because, for the first time in history, the population is moving beyond a reductionist world view and seeing how things work.
Some time back, I came to a huge realization that was so transformative it changed not only my life but the lives of my clients forever.
It ran not only contrary to what I thought I knew to be true, which by the way was not wrong, it just wasn’t complete, or “the whole answer.” And that was—the motivation to change was all you needed to change.
Then I learned that to change you often have to change your story, you know those narratives we have about life that are just not serving us and in that process, change some limiting beliefs, make some new decisions and find evidence to support those decisions.
At one point I learned that to change a story, you have to be in the right state and have a strategy to change once I made an empowering decision to do so.
And guess what, all of that is true, but there’s more.
You’ve also got to be educated about at least some of the changes you are making so that you don’t create new habits around things that set you up for failure, to begin with. For example: Trying to create an effective eating habit when you are eating predominantly nutrient-poor food, and junk food, will never succeed.
Then, assuming you are making a change that’s built on sound principles, there are all the new routines that need to be built. and having enough energy to do it.
Do you see that there’s more to change than meets the eye? In this week’s Performance Insight, I want to wake you up to all that ‘can be’ involved in making changes, and why a human performance perspective is a new paradigm for energy, health, and lifestyle.
The more skilled you get as mastering the processes of change, the better you can change, your lifestyle, and the less hard it will feel.
As an Optimize Coach, I understand the primary role our lifestyle plays in our energy, health, and performance.
A lifestyle-based performance perspective recognizes that every aspect of our human performance is dependent on our “way of life.” When any essential element of lifestyle or lifestyle “skill” is suboptimal, it negatively affects our energy, health, and capacity to function or perform at the level we want.
To make that point, according to the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, 85-95% of acute and chronic diseases are lifestyle-induced!
Consequently, overwhelming and unhealthy lifestyles can impact our career, business, sport, or creative pursuits— our overall achievement results and longevity in life. I’ve learned this first-hand as a 30-year entrepreneur who has faced many hidden lifestyle challenges that have distracted and, at times, held me back; with symptoms such as fatigue, weight gain, and back pain. All of which are symptoms of an incoherent lifestyle.
As a byproduct, I was naturally forced to learn and “turn pro” in the emerging field of lifestyle optimization to help myself, and then others stay resilient, healthy, and performing well.
Today, I teach Performance Lifestyle®. I train, coach, and support clients around fundamentals of successful living that enable them to manage their energy like the pros do, so they can maintain high-level health and improve their performance without the symptoms that can distract and hold any of us back.
Why I take this approach is simple. I’ve learned that people wake up to accomplish and achieve things, not to be balanced and healthy. However, like me, sooner or later, we all learn that we need (and want) to be balanced and healthy to sustain performance.
So, how do you do that?
From a human performance perspective, foremost, you must learn how to live in such a way that you avoid exhausting yourself daily, the way so many people do; ultimately, burning out, and wearing out prematurely from excess stress. This macro skill is what enables you and your body to stay resilient.
That’s what I mean when I say, “manage your energy;” we need to get masterful around energy; our resilience depends on it.
You would not be hard-pressed to observe all kinds of poor lifestyle habits, even amongst competent people, following chronic exhaustion.
With that in mind, when we learn the fundamentals of successful living and begin to change our habits, routines, and rituals; living in such a way that is energy efficient and “healthy” becomes a given, not the goal. And so our “lifestyle” can become even more focused on our real goals in life, career, business, etc.
With all the requisite lifestyle skills, we can then “live in balance,” which is to say basically—do the right thing, at the right time at the right level and intensity that’s right for you and your goals. Also, the quality of life you want.
I’ve titled this article “Human Performance Is Becoming The New Mainstream Model For Energy, Health, And Lifestyle,” because at the end of the day, why do we do anything to change and improve ourselves?
It’s ultimately to improve our human performance, and performance is a whole lifestyle, not just a diet, or an exercise program alone.
Where do you start when it comes to changing your human performance?
You start by learning how to improve your behavior first. You do this before you learn about what lifestyle changes you need to make. This insight is essential because too many of us fail because of a faulty change process, not with the actual change itself.
So many people, including this author for a long time, ascribed to the “go big or go home theory to change,” and it mostly fails. It’s just too much, too fast, and it’s just not a dependable way to change or a productive lifestyle mindset.
Without an understanding of how to change, it can be challenging to change, improve, and ultimately optimize the way you live.
So, if you want to change yourself, focus on learning how to change first; then, what specific changes to make and why. The “how and when” will then all be possible.
The Thrive Morris, thought leaders who are part of the health and wellness committee are here to help you change in all the key aspects of lifestyle.
John Allen Mollenhauer “JAM” is an expert at helping people achieve more through a healthy-driven lifestyle. He can be reached here.
