What is Whole Life Performance?

Spring has arrived! You can feel the warm fresh air and see the buds peeking out on the tree branches. It’s been a cold winter and you are excited about going for a long bike ride. You venture into your garage to dust off your bike. As you lift it off the bike rack you notice the tires are flat and the chain is dry. The bike is a metaphor for your life. Is your entire life in working order? Are there some areas that could use a little maintenance? In this article we will define performance, look at the foundational areas of your life and look at some performance indicators for each area of your life. Our goal in this article is to support you in bringing performance to your whole life.

What is performance? It’s your effectiveness at fulfilling on your measurable results through effective actions within certain timelines to accomplish your plan. When you bring performance to your life things move quicker. Things that never moved start moving. Dreams come into reality. Why is effective performance so powerful? It creates a roadmap from your current position to a future position. Most people wing it. Here is a common excuse; “a plan takes too much time and effort.” A plan is your word on paper. It’s how you can accomplish anything and hold yourself accountable for what you promised to accomplish. When you become effective at performing your plans move to completion. Your “maybes”, “what if’s” and “some days” disappear. They transform into "how are we going to accomplish this and by when." When you become effective at taking a dream to reality consistently with velocity you become an effective performer. When you bring performance to all areas of your life. Your life, like the bike, starts moving more efficiently and quickly.

Similar to a bike, your life has foundational components. We define these foundational components in the 11 areas below:

Your Core Components:

1. Mindset - A Powerful Mindset is Your #1 Asset.
2. Body - A Strong, Mobile, Flexible and Resilient Body Will Age Well.
3. Nourishment - Nourishment from Nature Will Provide High Energy and Healing.
4. Clothing & Equipment - Functional And Quality Clothing Will Perform Well on Your Body.

Your Supporting Components:

1. Shelter - Your Choice, Design and Organization of Your Shelter Supports Your Rest and Nourishment.
2. Mobility - Your Ability to Travel Provides More Opportunities.
3. Security - Your Situational Awareness Determines Your Security.
4. Healing & Medical - Your Mind is Your Most Powerful Healing Asset and Nature Provides the Medicines to Heal All Infirmities.
5. Rest & Recreation - How You Rest, is How You Perform.

How Your Components Operate in the World:

1. Communication & Relationships - The Quality of Your Life is Determined by the Quality of Your Relationships?
2. Business - Working for, Investing In, and Building Cash Cow Businesses Grows Your Resources Quickly.

Mind:

Your mind is your #1 asset. It drives everything you do. Do you treasure your #1 asset? Do you recognize it as your #1 asset? If you don’t, now is a great opportunity to transform your mindset. How is your mind performing? To answer this question, ask yourself what you have created in the last year, the last 365 days. Have you created new income? Have you developed new relationships? Have you organized and improved your shelter? When you are creating anything your mind is performing. Your mind is growing stronger.

Body:

Your #2 asset is your body. Your body holds your brain which is your is your #1 asset. The words in your mind drive your body. Your body is how you take action through your five senses; touch, taste, smell, hearing and seeing. Through these senses you take action in the world. Its these actions which bring your plans to reality. How effective are you at taking action? Here is a simple assessment. How many of your scheduled action items are you completing in a day? This tells you how effective you are at completing your actions.

Nourishment:

Your two core assets are your mind and body. They are the most important assets in your arsenal. Your next is your nourishment. How are you nourishing your mind & body? Are you feeding high quality, local food grown organically in rich soils? This food has the highest nutrients and energy. Also, what type of water are you drinking? Are you drinking filtered and alkaline water? Highly energized and alkaline water has powerful health benefits. Here is a great quote about water:

“Water is not just a hydration element. Water has been used in medicine for thousands of years. In fact, it is one of the oldest healing agents documented. Early hydrotherapy practice has been documented in ancient Ayurvedic medicine and Chinese medicine; as well as the medicines of the Greeks, Polynesians, Aborigines, North American Indians, Incas, Mayans, Japanese, and Egyptians.” Naturopath, Case Adams. Pure Water: The Science of Water, Waves, Water Pollution, Water Treatment, Water Therapy and Water Ecology (p. 159). Logical Books. Kindle Edition.

What you eat and drink is essential to optimal functioning of your mind and body. Here are some performance metrics you can observe. How much organic food are you buying each week? Calculate the percentage of your feed that is organic. Also, look at the quality of your water. You can buy test kits to determine the alkalinity.

Clothing & Equipment:

Your next asset is your clothing and equipment. Clothing is essential to your environment and your activity. If you are in the office all day, do you have functional suits and shirts and underwear that feels comfortable, fits well and looks nice? Spend some time searching out high quality, functional clothing. Instead of buying 10 suits buy 2 quality suits. Take exceptional care of them. Be careful when you are eating. Dry clean on a regular basis. Does your clothing have functionality, quality and proper form and fit? Take an inventory of your clothing. As Marie Kondo recommends, throw it in a pile in the middle of the room and select what sparks joy and excitement. Give away the rest. When you follow this process you will release 2/3 of your clothing.

Shelter:

Shelter can come in many different forms. Maybe you are a road war warrior or you have perfected hammock camping or you live in a house or apartment. How are you organizing and setting up your living situations? Organization and cleanliness is essential for rest, relaxation and thinking. Do you own too many items? A cluttered household will clutter your mind. If you are looking to downsize by 2/3 test Marie Kondo’s organizational process. (Explained above in the Clothing & Equipment section)

Mobility:

Your mobility is your ability to move and travel outside your shelter. You can travel by foot, bike, car, plane, boat, truck and various other modes of transportation. Do you travel efficiently and effectively? Mobility provides you opportunities, freedom, flexibility and security. When you offload your mode of travel to others you lose a little of each of the 4 items just mentioned. Do you have the ability to pilot a plane or boat, can you drive a car defensively, can you walk long distances with a heavy load, are you proficient on a motor cycle or atv? These are all essential questions to ask concerning your mobility.

Security:

Security begins with Situational Awareness (SA). SA is the most important aspect of security. SA is knowing your environment which is knowing the normal flow of your environment. Each environment has certain daily flows to them. Knowing these daily flows is essential to your security. IE: If you work at home and your neighborhood is quiet with minimal foot traffic between 9:00am - 4:00pm and you start seeing two tinted cars showing up to meet at the corner that’s not normal to the neighborhood flow. Start looking for predictable behaviors in any environment. When those predictable behaviors change start paying attention. Also as you walk outside your shelter put your cell phone in your pocket and look at your environment as you are moving through it.

Healing & Medical:

How are you healing yourself. There are many natural ways to heal yourself that prevent you from going to the hospital or pharmacy. If your knee is sore take a mobility ball and find tight areas above and below your knee. Roll out those areas until they loosen. If you have a headache use ginger instead of Advil. Prescription drugs can destroy your gut. If your feeling tired assess your mindset. There are many local remedies you can use before seeking a professional. Do you know how to heal yourself?

Rest & Recreation:

Are you sleeping 7 hours hours or more per evening? Are you taking breaks throughout your day? I struggle with this, as I am inundated in the online media world managing multiple projects and platforms. It’s essential to get outside, daily, and breathe fresh air and feel the warmth of the sun. If it’s possible, walk barefoot to ground yourself to the earth. Take a some time to sit under a tree, people watch or observe nature. Even just sitting under a tree in a park in a busy city can have huge rejuvenating effects. Break away from the tech and work and connect to nature. Also, do you have dedicated time to work and dedicated time to rest? These are simple performance questions you can ask yourself to improve your rest.

Communication & Relationships:

Here is an essential and valuable skill set for life. “The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your relationships and the quality of your relationships are determined by the quality of your communication.” This is a quote I heard multiple times when I was engaged in Communication Training through Landmark Worldwide. Your communication comes from how you communicate with yourself. If you speak to yourself poorly you will communicate poorly. Improve your communication with yourself and you will improve your communication with others. How do you communicate with yourself.

Business:

Business is how you create your resources to live and flourish. Performing in all the areas above will have huge performance effects on your business. If your performance is on point in your life it will support you in being more effective in your business whether you work for a business, own a business or invest in a business.

Also choosing the right type of business is essential to growing your wealth. Cash cow businesses that makes 20 - 30% operating margins or more effective at growing your wealth. (You choose where to set the bar for the operating margin.) Since these businesses grow cash flow faster, re-invest those cash flows and pay you those cash flows your wealth as an employee, owner or investor will grow faster.

In Conclusion, how you perform in these 11 areas will drastically improve or degrade your quality of life. Work each day on improving each area through performance and you will watch the quality of your life grow.

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