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March 2 - March 3, 2025
To better understand what motivates human beings, Maslow proposed that we have five categories of needs: physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization.
When a lower need is met, the next need on the hierarchy becomes the focus of our attention. Self-actualization, or the fulfillment of one’s potential, is at the very top of the pyramid.
Perfectionists live in a world where everything must be just right. Optimalists share the same high standards, but also embrace reality. They focus on progress, not perfection, knowing that all the marginal gains compound over time.
Health, work, and relationships represent the three-legged stool that provides stability and meaning to our lives. Remove a leg, and the stool becomes imbalanced. Remove two, and life will be very wobbly indeed.
A happy, healthy, well rested you is a more productive you.
None of us knows how much time we have, so we must make the most of it right now.
The secret, Brendon advised, was to remind yourself of your values, within your different life domains, while also deciding the bold actions you would take to prove your greatness, on a daily basis.
It’s actually easier to step into a new identity than it is to try to create new habits and behaviors in a vacuum.
Champion proofs let you rack up small wins, day after day, to prove you’re stepping into the person you’re capable of being.
Most people aspire to become their best selves some time in the future, but peak performers define what “best” looks like right now and start behaving from that identity today. Closing the gap between your current self and best self is about continually getting better, little by little, and bouncing back more quickly from your mistakes.
Ask your employees the same question: “What could I work on? What could I do to make your job easier?” You’ll learn so much from it, and it will make you a better person.
Pursuing a stress-free life should not be your goal. Your goal should be to step into discomfort and challenge, expecting stressors as a natural part of that, and to use those to make you stronger and better.
When faced with a stressful situation, take a moment to pause. Close your eyes and imagine the most courageous you standing right there next to you. Ask that version of you how best to tackle or process the stress at hand. Listen for the response, and then follow the orders.
In 1963, the American psychologist Rollo May wrote in “Freedom and Responsibility Re-Examined” that “human freedom involves our capacity to pause between stimulus and response and, in that pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight. The capacity to create ourselves, based upon this freedom, is inseparable from consciousness or self-awareness.” Stephen Covey, most likely influenced by May’s article, wrote, “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
In his best-selling book Principles, Dalio takes us through a five-step process involving Goals, Problems, Diagnosis, Design, and Doing. I’ve found the process below to be helpful for both me and my coaching clients: Set clear goals. Identify the problems that stand in the way of achieving your goals. Diagnose the problems to understand their root causes. Design plans or solutions to overcome the problems. Do what’s necessary to push these designs through to results.
After all, if you want to improve as a leader, ask those you’re leading.
