So far, have you truly accomplished the goals you’ve set for yourself?

I regularly encounter people who say they’ve been working hard to improve their function, skill, or attribute but are not improving.

When you delve into the details, you find they have been working tirelessly but doing the same thing they’ve always done. The same inputs equal the same outputs!

We’ve all been there, leading back to the “I can’t do that” and “I’m not good enough” thoughts and beliefs.

As Matthew Syed (table tennis Olympian) wrote in his excellent book “Bounce”, the so-called geniuses of whatever discipline you choose (Sport, the Arts, Business) have all trained for a minimum of 10,000 hours to master their particular field. The difference is that they’ve spent those 10,000 hours working tirelessly at the 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 things. Their training/learning/practising is of the highest order and taught by quality teachers and coaches. They do not do the same thing – they do the 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 thing for a long time.

I enjoyed a Leadership course by the fantastic Rob Northfield last week in Harrogate. He asked the group about their ability to remember: Do you have a good memory? The consensus in the group was no, and we couldn’t remember more than four or five random new things in a row, maximum. Many ‘I can’t do that’ statements were uttered—mine included!

We were then shown a better technique based on what we’ve been doing for years and years—and guess what—we got better results! Ten minutes later, a couple of attendees who openly said their memory was rubbish reeled off all 21 random objects in perfect sequence! 21! Rob then used the same technique for names with equally impressive results. I’ve been practising this new technique, the 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 thing, and the results are astonishing – who’d have thought!

Removing self-imposed limitations is the first step, but practising the 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 thing is another step towards maximising one’s potential.

#MaximizeYourPotential #Leadership #MotivationalSpeaking