6 Performance Principles

It is 5 am. I can only hear the easterly wind shaking the leaves in the trees outside while a few birds start to sing their morning chords. The dawn light is ever so slowly starting to move the darkness of night into another marvelous day.

This time and space are sacred to me. It is when my mind is clear, and I often meditate, journal, or write to make sense of myself.

One of the main #Principles for the many achievers and performers whom I know is that they quite unapologetically take time for themselves and their thoughts, alone. To become someone whom we admire, these deep spaces with ourselves are fundamental, or at least so they are for me...

I have gathered six #lifestyle principles; Six Ps for myself and people who want to live a deep yet performance-based life. They are well beyond your typical eating clean, sleeping well, and exercise often advice that we hear often.

Three of the inner game principles are Potential, Passion, and Purpose. Whereas the outer game Ps are Power, Perseverance, and Poise.

My other monthly #Coaching newsletter, Performance Principles, will dive deeper into each one of them in the following six months. You can subscribe to it here.

The following is a very brief introduction to these Principles and frameworks.

The Inner Game Mastery

Potential Unlocked (Mind & Body)

What more am I capable of? How much #potential is left in the tank?

These are some of the central questions that I often ask myself and define this principle quite well. It is the capacity of our mind and body primarily. But also, how we set goals for ourselves and how far we can stretch the mind-body-mind connections.

Passion Activated (Heart)

What does my heart really desire? What would light up my day, if I allowed myself to follow my heart?

The crucially important idea to remember here is that it doesn’t have to be one or the other, meaning the head or the heart. Because our best Performance is often achieved when our #Passion aligns with our Potential.

Purpose Fulfilled (Soul)

Our soul graves for Purpose, Fulfillment, and meaning more than anything else.

Purpose is also perhaps the most important ingredient in the Mastery of our inner game, the game which has no finish line.

Fulfilling our Purpose is often a byproduct of us following our Passion and Potential, hence the reason I have left it last, yet possibly the most important of the inner principles.

The Outer Game Mastery

Power On (Strength)

This is surely the part I need to work on the most. Power and strength do not come to me naturally, so I must work extra hard to keep myself in shape and powered up. Especially as we age, physical strength and power are the aspects that keep us moving forward when the going gets rough and tough.

I have yet to know a better way to work on our personal power than Gym and hard physical exercise. Strength in the body translates almost automatically to a strong Mindset as well as Emotional Fitness.

Perseverance in Pursuit (Endurance)

Endurance and tenacity are the principles that come to me the easiest. I have always had the determination and ability to watch the grass grow and paint dry, so to speak. It is not something that I need to consciously work on a lot, although I’m fully aware that many do.

One of the better ways to work on our #Perseverance is many of the Endurance based sports that require copious amounts of determination. Trail Running is my current favorite by a long shot.

There are so many similarities between long-distance endurance sports to running a business that it is no wonder why many leaders enjoy running. Plus, it is possibly the easiest and cheapest sport to start.

Poise in Check (Stability)

Many people talk about Balance, yet I’m not a huge fan of it since it is almost impossible to reach let alone sustain it. Especially when dealing with high performers and achievers who are constantly pushing their boundaries.

Poise is a more suitable term in my world. A sense of stability and foundation where we operate from. It is more about the way we act and the state of how we present ourselves to the world.

Another important external factor is physical stability. Because your body posture and its possible misalignments show you the direct energy leaks that you might have.

One of the more interesting exercises is to work on your feet and ankles. When you think about the foundation of our posture and poise for that matter, where are our only touch points to the ground?

Maybe it is our feet, posture, and those foundational aspects of our life that we need to be working on now…

In Short

This was obviously a very quick scratch from the surface of this framework and #PerformancePrinciples that are all foundational.

My point is always to start from the one that has the easiest entry point and get you going. For example, for me personally, it is the Power and physical strengthening of my body with stability and Poise that needs work.

Where do YOU need the most work currently??

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Stay Connected,

Tuomo

PS. Follow Tuomo Vauhkonen Coaching Page ( 700+ Followers) and subscribe to my monthly Performance Principles newsletter to dive deeper into these Principles in the next editions!