The Goldilocks Approach To Wealth, Freedom & Joy – with Peak Performance Daily

• A month or a few months just whizzed by and you ask yourself secretly “What have I got to really show for it?”
• You have tried all the time management tips, youtube videos and book recommendations and nothing seems to fit you or your style.
• Do you look at your bank account and wonder when you would (if ever) make luxury money for yourself and your family?
• You get to the end of your month, and you wonder where all that time went and where it was spent – because it seems like it was just at best, another barely satisfying month, if not a total wash.
• You have all the talent, brains and smarts … and even a fairly if not great team.  Then why (you may wonder) are you still not performing at even 10 percent of what you know you are capable of?

THE CONUNDRUM:

Most people desire to have a day with just the right feeling of flow and productivity; of being engaged without stress, of being in love with your work – without the unnecessary headaches.  

However, most people are either too activated (e.g. too much coffee, too much drive to get something done or too overwhelmed) or too relaxed.   Both states yield low performance. 

Is there another way? Is it possible to get the right feeling of flow and productivity? 

THE CHANGE IN THINKING:

The old way of looking at performance involved these equations:

1. Performance = Desired Results per Unit Time. 
2. Good performance = Establishing a minimum set of results per unit time. 

E.g. if you produce three sales per hour, you are performing well. 

The failure in this old model lies in the following points:

1. A failure to look at what really are comprehensive desired results. E.g. if you are doing three sales per hour, does that 
   1. Build enough profits?
   2. Leave you as the sales person and the client in a better place (i.e. healthwise, relationships-wise, financially, etc.)?
2. How do you really define what  good performance is? i.e .how do you establish what should be the minimum set of results over time?  Does attaining that minimum (again) leave you and the client in a better place?

THE SOLUTION:

“And Goldilocks then tried each of the three bowls of porridge.  The first one was too hot and not to her liking. The second was too cold and she pushed it away.  The last one was just right and she slurped with great joy and satisfaction.”

• From the Fable / Story of Goldilocks & The Three Bears

“Everything has to be just right (for optimal brain performance and productivity.)”

• Amy Arnsten, Neuroscientist, Albert E. Kent Professor of Neuroscience and Professor of Psychology

So what are a few ways that I teach to get it right for business owners and leaders?

1. Challenge vs. Skill – Shifting towards a more practical approach of what you are capable of and how we can build from there. 

When I work with a client, I look for the areas of work or life where challenge is either too low or too high compared to skill. For example, if you are not so good at managing a certain kind of project or task, then I look to see how I can help you reduce the challenge or increase your skill in the area.  

This may include (and probably will include) lowering your expectations initially on what you can accomplish in this kind of project or task for the first few weeks. It is nothing short of an experience of a miracle that my clients experience in this simple move; Pressure, tension and stress comes down accompanied by an increase in confidence and peace of mind coupled with an actual increase in productivity. 

You go figure, by setting up lower expectations, you get more done?  

Sounds crazy? Well it works. 

I think the reasoning is simple; the brain works best when there are less artificial expectations cast upon it, resulting in a freeing up of “brain bandwidth” and creativity to get the job done. 

2. Managing the Optimal Activation of Your Brain

To get things done, you need to activate or ramp up your brain activity.  For example, if you want to start your day with sales calls, you will need to build up or ramp up activity. This could be done for example by starting off with easier calls to make i.e. calls to people you feel more comfortable with. Think of it like an athlete warming up before she sprints 100 meters at a gallop – the warm up is important to do. 

But oftentimes, the problem is that the brain is overactivated by doing something that you genuinely enjoy doing.  For example, I have a client who loves to write and will spend a lot of her time doing so.  But the output of her writing diminishes within 3 hours of her starting to write. She reaches a peak at about the 1.5 hour market. 

We have found if she stops writing at about the 1 hour and 45 minute mark (i.e. just past the 1.5 hour optimal peak),  and then shifts into another task or takes a rest, her writing output per day doubles! 

Again, the lesson appears to be “Less Expectations implies More Productivity.”  But there is more to this!

There is an optimal; doing too little results in boredom or no productivity while doing too much results in overactivation of the brain (too excited or geeked out – think too much coffee) and a strong decrease in productivity. 

So there is a necessity to gauge what this optimal is. This is very tough to do by yourself. You need an outside person (eg. a mentor like me) to observe with you to gauge this. 

3. The Rule of Four – How picking the best four outcomes per day can radically make your calendar and your workflows look and operate effectively.

I explain this a little more in the free download that I am offering you.  You can download this here: www.JoyfulCalendar.com 

4. The Beauty is always in the details. Nuance is needed – Guidance one on one helps

By all means, please download the free report as above.  

I have found that this overall joyful calendar & workflow process is very difficult to convey to anybody via a simple online training i.e. you cannot do this alone. 

A guide or mentor like me can make the process much easier and infinitely more likely to succeed. 

If you would like to learn more about how I can guide you to double your productivity, have more free time and have more joy and success than before, please click here to learn more about My Joyful Calendar Discovery Session – subscribepage.io/Discovery-Call-Sunil 

Have a great successful week!

Sunil Bhaskaran