“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated!” Confucius.

In last week’s blog, I talked about challenges and how some people overcame them to produce some outstanding results. It occurred to me as I wrote it that we’re all born with unlimited potential but sometimes we can simply get in our own way. On occasions, we all make life more complicated than it needs to be.

Sometimes the biggest limitations we have in life are the ones that we impose on ourselves and have in our own minds. When I was completing my coaching skills training in 2001, I was taught a very simple but powerful formula. I’ve subsequently used this with thousands of people to help them identify and deal with the obstacles to them being the very best that they can be.

The formula is:

Performance = Potential – Interference

It was devised by Timothy Gallwey who previously worked as a tennis coach. He said that on a tennis court the biggest opponent isn’t the one you’re playing against but the one up in your own head. His book “The Inner Game of Work” is all about helping people overcome mental obstacles for maximum performance. He has also written books called “The Inner Game of Tennis” and “The Inner Game of Golf.”

Gallwey claimed that performance in any activity, from hitting a tennis ball to solving a complex business problem, was equal to one’s potential after the interference factor had been subtracted from the equation. Performance rarely equals potential.

A little interference is all it takes to greatly diminish one’s actual performance. Some common examples of interferences (obstacles) are self- doubt, fear, lack of confidence, self-condemnation and negative self–talk, procrastination, self-consciousness, busy mind etc.

One of the biggest interferences is fear, or as I like to call it “False Expectations Appearing Real!”

I was once told we are only born with just two fears ­- the fear of noise and the fear of falling down. Every other fear that we have is a learned behaviour. The good news about interferences including fear is that as it’s a learned behaviour, we can unlearn it! It requires us to form some new habits and behaviours

Changing our daily habits and rituals allows us to get out of our own way, as 90% of what we do each day is habit! In his book “Habit busting” Pete Cohen gives guidance and tips on how to break habits. He suggests that it takes 21 days to break a habit. So, patience and determination are required to achieve a change in habits.

This week why not pause for a few moments to reflect and consider how you get in your own way. Decide if there’s something that you would you like to change or if you’re happy to keep things as they are.

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk