Tips To Perform Better
1. Your motivation won’t always be there. Much like the misplaced car keys on a bad day, frustration usually wins out.
If you want to do something consistently, rather than trying to find inspiration, choose the easiest action that will eventually reach the same outcome. Soon enough, your efforts progress to where you want them to be.
It can be challenging to get to the gym consistently, but it’s much easier to do a 15-minute circuit at home.
It’s hard to wake up early each day, but try it just once a week and slowly build your way up.
When you make something as easy as possible, motivation isn’t a factor, and frustration isn’t a problem.
2. Taking a short time away from learning can build clarity in your thoughts and improvement. Reflecting in moments of calm allows you to engage in focused deliberation of the skill.
Much like letting our muscles repair after a hard workout, we must let our brain rest and reflect on our performance.
Some Words To Consider
1. As you strive to reach your objectives, things won’t always pan out the way you anticipate.
You will often experience unexpected troughs amongst the expected peaks. Along the journey, your path may likely change, and you’ll need to alter the course.
When this happens, remember to make smaller adjustments so you can continue to make optimal decisions on your goals.
It’s okay to change your direction, but always keep the same objective in mind.
2. Criticising is easy and automatic. Creating is slow and challenging.
The work you put in won’t always align with the criticism you receive.
The athlete gets criticised for making an error but has been working hard to perform at a high level.
The author gets criticised for producing a mediocre book but has worked for two years to hear two words of criticism.
The actor gets criticised for a poor movie performance but has been on set for a year.
It’s easy to tear down someone’s work, but the automatic response is often misguided. How we handle criticism is dependent on our relationship with the criticiser.
It can be much more valuable to direct our attention to those who care about our success and potential rather than addressing the person who doesn’t.
Quotes To Listen To
Organisational Psychology professor and author Adam Grant on creating your own career:
“Choosing a career isn’t like finding a soul mate. It’s possible that your ideal job hasn’t even been invented yet”
Author Stephen King on taking action:
“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”