DEEP THOUGHTS: THE PRINCIPLE OF GREAT PERFORMANCE

I must achieve great performance in this life! That is all I have mostly thought about this week. I found a way of bringing that into every conversation I had. When I slept; I dreamt about it, when I ate; I thought about it. My first thought in the morning is on it (dear Father, it is only a hyperbolic statement).

Seriously, we really need to breath, think and live great performance to be able to achieve it. There has been a great improvement since I made a conscious effort towards great performance this week.

Learning more about a deliberate practice which is the major factor in achieving great performance, I found that the first step for deliberate practice is to know where you want to go. You have to know! Knowing is the key word here not guessing, suspecting or thinking about it. Consequently, I brainstormed on what I wanted to be excellent at what I can totally commit to, what I want people to think of me when they say, see or hear my name. I looked at the pictures I had painted of what I was going to become, I tried to break it down to the granular level and finally landed on it: I need to have a high business acumen.

Once I had zeroed in on where I was headed, the next step was critical and challenging; identify the immediate next steps. Sounds easy right? It isn’t. There is no published syllabus or curriculum on this. I read up articles on building one’s business acumen and the advice I kept getting was – read, read and read. In deliberate practice, it is true that knowledge is fundamental to top-level performance but that knowledge needs to be built into a mental model—a picture of how your area of expertise or domain functions as a system.

So I am on my own in deciding which skills and ability to work on and how to do it. I must have you know that I am completely unqualified to figure it out by myself. Therefore I sought for help because I needed help. I sought out a master in the domain that I am interested in – business. I wanted someone who could advise me on the skills and abilities to acquire next and give me feedback on my progress. Finding such a person was not an easy task and I was tempted to follow the general principle of getting other people’s view on what I am doing, what I should be working on and how I am doing.

Following the general principle did not cut it for me so I kept at my search for the right mentor and found one. I quickly constructed an email telling her of my goal and how I need her help, especially her recommendations on steps to take and feedback on progress. She completely agreed and my week has been sailing up from there.

I believe I have improved a lot this week, I have even started reading the newspaper *arrgggggggh* and watching the news. I am trying to selectively read everything I come across and have restricted my anime watching to weekends only (So help me God).

I hope you would follow the steps I took above so we can both work at achieving great performance. I definitely do want to meet you at the top!

See you next week.

Jaa mata!