Support Your Thinking
The secret to supporting yourself and performing at your best

I recently read about an entrepreneur worth £100M who was miserable because he spent his life comparing himself with people who were worth £200M, £300M etc.

An article recently in a Sunday supplement said many women spend their lives comparing themselves with other women they deem to be more attractive than themselves.

While it could be argued that this type of thinking can spur an individual to reach ever higher levels of ‘success’, I take a different view. If your thinking doesn’t support you, you may only perform at 60-70% of your optimum.

I go to the gym at 6.30 a.m. most mornings to keep fit. The light can be relatively low as it enters the windows at that time of day, and where I exercise, there is a corner with two mirrors. In one mirror, I look tired and haggard; in the other, I look ok, so which do you think I choose to work out in front of? I choose the one where I think I look good.

Why do I choose to do that? As an ethical and professional coach, I believe it is my duty to ensure I am at my optimum when working with my clients. Many have high-profile roles, and my work impacts them individually and also their stakeholders as their behaviour cascades through the system. It’s my responsibility to take care of and support myself to be the best I can be so I am fully resourced and available for my clients, not worn down by negative thinking and behaviour patterns.

Unfortunately, I meet some coaching clients who are worn out, tired and stressed. On investigation, there are many contextual reasons for this; however, in my experience, it’s often the case they choose not to or don’t know how to support themselves or take support from the environment. To me, this is fuzzy thinking that doesn’t enable optimum performance. Your number one performance and life tool is yourself; if you don’t actively support yourself, how can you support others? If you are operating at 70% of your potential, how does that help you or your stakeholders? I believe artists, managers and executives need to learn to nurture and take care of themselves to support others and have more fulfilling lives.

So the next time you run yourself down, engage in non-supportive thinking and actions or comparing yourself to people far more successful (sadly, they will always exist), stop and ask yourself, how does this support me at a personal level and also within my responsibility to perform to the best of my ability? Naturally, engaging a coach is a fantastic way to support and challenge yourself and your thinking, enabling a positive path to achieve your true potential. Learning to support yourself might also give you the edge over the competition and allow you to function at 100% while achieving some form of work/life balance. So, which mirror are you going to look into……?