Would You Know It If You Saw It?
How to Be At Your Best When It Really Counts.
by Jason W. Womack, MEd, MA
Think back over the past week or so, did you have a particularly tough day? Did anything go “not your way?” Were you surprised by an opportunity that quite frankly you just weren’t ready for?
You have the choice every day to show up as the best version of yourself. As an employee. As an entrepreneur. As a parent. As a friend…the list goes on. Sure, you may know it when you see it, but how can you make choices in advance so that you are at your best…more?
Pause for a moment and wonder, “What is my best?”
The Oxford Dictionary defines best as: “the most excellent, effective, or desirable type or quality.”
To be your best requires you’re already ready to make a choice and respond to what’s happening around you.
At your best means, you’ve planned for and are in control of the controllable. It also requires that you create the conditions around you to prepare for the uncontrollable. To be your best requires you’re already ready to make a choice and respond to what’s happening around you.
Before you read the rest of this article, open up your notebook to a fresh page and on tip write, “I am at my best when…” Then, write down specific things that come to mind when you think of that prompt. Ready? Let’s go!
There are three steps you can take to increase the likelihood that you are at your best every time you need to turn it on. Remember that tough day last week? When things didn’t go your way? When you weren’t getting along with someone at work – or in life?
1) Watch What They Do
A friend gifted me the book Tools of Titans. Jacqui is the founder of www.Desk-Yogi.com and she said, “I think you’re going to like the examples of people he writes about in his book.” Even a quick review of this book will give you ideas directly from amazing leaders such as: Tony Robbins, Marc Andreessen, Reid Hoffman and Seth Godin.
A good way to find out what your best could be is to explore and analyze the habits and routines of the world’s best. Now, you may or may not be interested (or even support) the outcomes the best athletes, business icons, entrepreneurs, or community leaders achieve, but you can’t argue with their methods.
Take for example a morning practice from the author and speaker Tony Robbins: Express Gratitude for 3 minutes
Every morning, he feels grateful for three things. He says “I make sure that one of them is very, very simple: the wind on my face, the reflection of the clouds that I just saw. I let the gratitude fill my soul, because … When you’re grateful, there is no fear. You can’t be fearful and grateful simultaneously.”
Look at your bookshelf or visit the local library. Go to the biography section and commit to studying other people. Once you identified the proven routines they used to be their best, you can choose which ones you’d like to try.
2) Reflect On What You’ve Done
Think about the specific times in the past month or two where you really “showed up.” You were the friend you know you want to be. You were proud to be an employee. You knew that the way you treated a family member is exactly what you want to be like…more.
Reflect on your productive days — what happens? How have you influenced the conditions that set you up to succeed? Do you rest well the night before? Do you practice a health or mental wellness routine in the morning? Eat breakfast? Get a particular task done? To the best of your memory, go back in time and reflect on the portions of the day when you were at your best. In the past are specific clues and experiences you can use in the future.
3) Future-cast to A Day When…
Open your calendar and choose a day in the next week or two when you know you will want to have been at your best. Maybe an important work day. Or a travel/vacation day. A day when you want to give all you’ve got, and not go into mental, emotional or physical deficit!
Think about specific things that you can do the night before, the morning of and throughout the day to be at your best. If you like checklists, make one on that journal page I asked you to start a moment ago. If you really want to get the most from this exercise, take a picture of that list and make THAT the wallpaper of your smartphone, tablet and computer.
Personally, I figure I look at my own phone at least 5 times an hour. How about you? Imagine if you looked at your own list of “At My Best When” 50-100 times per day. What might happen? You could make better choices, getting yourself up to be… At Your Best!
To discover how you can be at you’re at your best study how world’s best do it…
To discover how you can be at you’re at your best study how world’s best do it, and also reflect on what you can do to set yourself up to be that way; the way you will be proud of being. Those three steps can help you get there.
Guest blog post written by:
Jason W. Womack
Posted on LinkedIn Pulse
Would You Know It If You Saw It?
Jason W. Womack is an author, keynote speaker and founder of the Get Momentum Leadership Academy. Get Momentum is like a gym…for your professional life. Receive regular Get Momentum Insights at GetMomentum.com
Leave a Reply