In the movie Rush there’s a scene where Formula 1 driver James Hunt is down on his garage floor.
Laying there like in his Formula 1 machine eyes closed, gripping the imaginary steering wheel, pumping his feet like pedals, with the sound of racing roaring in the background.
Here you witness his intense focus and hardcore psychological preparation required to master extreme human performance.
You see beneath his playful persona Hunt had a deep mastery of the mind and was unleashing all his potential to win.
How about you?
Top performing?
How much of your potential are you unleashing?
Out of 10 how much would you say you’re driving your top performing and winning?
Would you say it’s something you’re focused on every now and then say for big meetings or is top performing part of your daily routine?
I’m curious too if you would like to share, what does this even mean for you? When you think about your own performance, how do you measure it and what does it mean to unleash your full potential?
Because so few people even think about these things.
Top winning
I met a trial attorney who is focused on unleashing his absolute best performing and winning.
It’s crucial in his business, working on contingency the difference between winning and losing is getting paid nothing!
So decades ago he sought to find ways to develop courtroom mastery and began deeply studying persuasion and even honing his skills in front of audiences doing standup comedy.
Like Hunt on his garage floor all this was top preparation for top performance because it was something he saw was deeply missing in his previous firms.
He says everyone was working hard but few were working on being your best.
Top preparing
Just this week a hedge fund founder said the same to me.
He would ask his team, “How excellent can you be?” For years he tried to get his team to take these things seriously.
And in the end he had to go a different way. Over years of encouraging his team to read books and work with coaches seeking every edge in mental conditioning and trading performance he eventually gave up.
He saw few people in top jobs are serious professionals looking to unleash all your potential and he just kept cycling through talent finding those who are serious about top performing and winning.
This too was my experience at Goldman and Carlyle where most are naturally good but few are seeking every edge to be the best you can be.
Few crush
Those were the few who crush.
If you work in a top firm you can typically name those few on one or two hands.
In a sea of naturally good people having good careers those are the few taking enormous leaps.
They know where they are headed. They’re focused on getting here. They’re honing their mindset, process, skills working at their career like a master craftsperson.
That’s what this trial attorney wanted to talk about with me.
Next level
See, there’s top performing in a goals, process, skills kind of way. That’s rare to find.
This is a huge unlock for every top professional looking to perform beyond your natural ability.
But then there’s an entirely different level few people even know exists, let alone talk about, let alone are actually doing all day every day.
Because it’s like you see watching James Hunt on the floor of his garage imagining driving the perfect race. He’s putting in all this effort just perfecting the tiniest part of the equation for winning.
Most his winning is driven by a car engineered to perfection but all he controls is engineering his own performance the same way.
Engineer perfection
What do you do when you first wake up?
I mean in those first crucial minutes of your day, what is happening in your brain? What are your first actions?
What things are you allowing that brain of yours to think about? How are you feeling? What exactly gets you in gear for top performing this day?
How about every minute after this? What are you eating and drinking? In what ways do you sequence your actions for best launching into and powering through your day? How exactly do you engineer your day for best perfecting mind and actions all day?
Few people think about these things and those who do are seeking every edge perfecting. This is why my System for Ultimate Days.
Tiniest tweaks enormous leaps
I’ve been perfecting methods like this for decades now still I’m fine-tuning every day.
It’s essential for me, what I do is so difficult and my target is perfecting mind and actions, which demands dialing in every minute, every day.
Even just this week I made a small tweak that opened up energy in a new way by pulling forward a couple hours when I first get sun in the eyes and how I “dose caffeine” early in the day.
Tools like James Hunt is using of mental rehearsal is hypnosis baked into every action and even just these tiniest tweaks to how I’m building and managing energy had an enormous impact on my day.
Point being if you want to unleash your absolute best thoughts, feelings, actions, full potential, top performing, winning… keep seeking these tiniest tweaks that drive enormous leaps.