Are You A High Performer?

BY CAROL QUINN

In order to answer this question, we must first define the term ‘High Performer’. The simple definition is a person who achieves the best results. It’s not just someone who works hard. More specifically it is someone who is able to produce desired results and achieve more of their goals. When we compare high achievers to those who fall short, a discernible difference exists. But this comparison suggests that everyone falls into either one group or the other - achiever or non-achiever. It’s not quite that black and white. The line becomes blurred when we realize that many people pull off certain goals effectively but not others. Some people are accomplished in one part of their life and not in another. For example, someone may be very successful professionally but have less success personally, or the reverse is true. Who is and who is not a High Performer isn’t always clear cut. If we look at how we are doing with each of our goals individually, we can better ascertain our own effectiveness. A good question to ask ourselves is, “Am I moving myself forward towards the outcome I want?” The key words here are moving forward, or making progress. Typically goals are not achieved instantaneously. It’s a process that involves numerous steps, time and obstacles. It’s the obstacles that many people get hung up on.

High Performers encounter just as many obstacles and setbacks as those who achieve less. Somehow they make progress while others become stuck. The critical moment in achievement occurs each and every time a person encounters and reacts to a barrier. Their reaction determines who gets to continue and who doesn’t. We cannot do what we’ve always done and get a different outcome. New results require that we learn to do something in a new way. What we must learn is rarely obvious, often resisted and always has to do with changing ourselves. But many of us refuse to change. We opt to hold out for the obstacle to bend instead. We make achievement longer and harder than it has to be. What we don’t grasp we are destined to repeat. In the midst of every difficult situation, there’s a lesson we must learn to move ourselves forward and beyond the barrier. High Performers go after getting their arms around this information while others choose to ignore it. A friend of mine occasionally calls to get my perspective on a situation he finds difficult. Unable to make progress he realizes he needs another point of view and advice on how to succeed. I do the same. I tap into all my resources as needed and if none of those work, I pray for a new one. But not everyone does this. I am convinced that many people are just going through the motions of achieving, like a hamster running on a wheel they don’t get anywhere.

Blaming and making excuses is what we do before we are ready. It’s an attempt to disown our role and it blocks the necessary learning that would bypass needless repetition. When we deny responsibility we believe we did not play a significant role in creating an outcome - when in fact, we did. We point our fingers at whom or what was in the wrong as if the obstacles should not have happened. Nothing we blame is the sole culprit or reason for our lack of progress. We always play a part in creating our own results. As long as we play the victim, we stay the victim. It’s not until we choose to let go of this way of thinking that we can see the part we played. Only then can we discover our power to create different and better results. Yet so people refuse to take a look at and own up to their role. I’ve had to take my lumps after gaining insight into how my own reactions have sabotaged a good outcome. For the longest time, I believed my way was both logical and right. Not until I sought the right advice and was open to hearing it did I realize just how wrong I was. The good news is once I learned this and changed, so did my results.

“If you want things to be different (different outcome or results),
perhaps the answer is to become different yourself”

Norman Vincent Peale

Achievement takes you to new places. Readiness doesn’t just mean changing something you are doing that’s ineffective and holding you back to something that’s more effective. It’s also about your willingness to step out of your comfort zone and into unfamiliar territory. It requires moving out of the known and stretching yourself. Feelings of apprehension, anxiety and fear pop up in everyone…and I mean everyone. Achievement can actually be a scary place. It involves a greater risk of looking bad and bad outcomes. Some people muster the courage to override their fear. Others become stalled and unable to move forward. Some people retreat. Tough times and difficult situations do not always bring out our best. Obstacles, whether real or imagined, remind us of the risk that a bad outcome is a very real possibility. That’s enough to cause many to retreat back to safety. Unable to cope, they abandon ship and jump off the normal process of achievement. Thinking it’s a sign it’s not meant to be, they quit and wonder why they didn’t get further.

Achievement in itself is a process. Everyone lacks the knowledge and know-how to get past their roadblocks initially. So, what does someone who achieves better results do differently when they encounter walls and resistance? Well, for example, they see obstacles, setbacks and failures as a temporary and normal part of getting to any goal - not as a sign of an ill-fated outcome. They never blame, get mad or frustrated at the obstacle as if it were sent to personally defeat them. While obstacles deter many, High Performers don’t downgrade their goal. They don’t overreact. Fear has a way of making all of us respond ineffectively then justifying our behavior. High Performers don’t allow their fears to determine or control their behavior. They look for what they can change and do differently. They face their challenges head on and look for solutions. Whatever the goal, High Performers identify and stop their fruitless behaviors and opt to learn a better way. They’re not embarrassed to seek advice from those more accomplished. They are in search of wisdom. They are willing do what it takes to achieve to the outcome they want.  Step-by-step and through trial and error, that’s how they make their progress. It’s not in the absence of obstacles people achieve but in the midst of them that great achievements happen.

Achievement is the evolution of self. It is the constant process of learning and changing. What we achieve is less important than who we become. We  discover of our own great power to create by coming to terms with that which we have already created. It is the shedding of perceived powerlessness and the awakening to our great potential. The obstacles are not the problem, they are the gift. In the time it takes to change your mind you can begin to change your results. In each obstacle encountered there lies the perfect lesson that will move us forward and another step closer to our goal. The High Performer is merely someone who learns and changes. Are you a High Performer?

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