Most of us would like to better our results in one or more areas of our lives. That’s a given. Almost daily, I have at least one exchange with a client, a friend or someone on staff regarding how their personal performance can be improved.
It seems like the more time goes by, the more people want to see results faster. It’s the whole “instant gratification” thing going on here. They want to be the best in days or in weeks. They are looking for ways to get optimal results right now. Yes, you can start to see results with many things with little time, but for most things, to reach your absolute best, it takes more than that.
I’ve discovered over the 25+ years that I’ve been studying personal development topics and the 20+ years that I’ve been working directly with other people that there’s a pretty simple formula on how to reach your optimal best.
The Formula for Being Your Personal Best
1. Decide what you want in specific terms
It’s not enough to think, “I want to be a great golfer.” You need to specifically lay out what being a great golfer means to you. Does it mean being good enough to hit the professional circuit? What will it take for you to do that? Does it mean being good enough to win a tournament at your local golf club? Does it mean playing a specific course under par?
On top of laying out what being a great golfer means to you, you also need to set time frames for achieving this. Do you want to win the tournament in May, 2012 or May, 2015? Where should you be in pursuit of your goal at various time intervals?
2. Find others
Find others who have done what you want to do and ask them what they did to get there or read/research what you can about their history. Find others who can help you reach your goal.
Whether you want to be a better golfer, better writer, better marketer – you should be studying the experts. The people who are at the top of the field.
Finding others who you can model yourself after and who you can learn from will help you speed up the process of reaching your goal.
3. Practice
Want to be a better writer? Then write – daily. Want to be a better golfer? Then golf – daily.
Tiger Woods is known for being one of the best golfers ever. He’s also known for putting in more hours of practice than most other golfers.
4. Spend 80% of your time on what you’re best at
It’s a lot easier to reach the top of a field when you focus your time and efforts in studying and practicing in the area you already excel at. You don’t need to be the best at everything in a given area but the best at one core component of it.
The mistake a lot of people make is that they will spend most of their practice and learning time on improving their weaknesses. You’ll see much greater wins and hit the top considerably faster by focusing on your strengths.
I’ve kept things intentionally simplistic here. Typically just working through these steps is enough for many people. But more complicated goals can involve more steps. The important thing here is just to key in on what you want, figure out how you are going to get there, who can help you (directly or indirectly) and focus on improving what you are already good at – then work at this daily.
