YOU’RE ON FIRE! Thanks, I’m really high performing and about to have a meltdown…
Psst….high performance doesn’t have to feel like you’re on fire
When we talk about high performance, we often talk about results.
Growth. Progress. Delivery. Achievement.
We talk far less about what it actually feels like to perform well as a human being.
Because human high performance doesn’t necessarily feel like being permanently energised, inspired and on fire.
Sometimes, it simply feels like connection, calm, purpose, momentum.
The understanding that you are showing up, making a contribution and bringing something of value to the work in front of you.
You may be doing work you absolutely love.
You may be doing a job that serves an important function in your life.
You may be juggling work alongside childcare, caring responsibilities, health challenges, financial pressure or a significant season of personal change.
High Performance is Human makes room for all of that.
It recognises that you do not stop being a person when you begin working.
And it asks an important question:
What becomes possible when we stop trying to perform despite our humanity and begin performing through it?
BEING SUPPORTED TO FEEL ENOUGH
For me, sustainable high performance begins with a fundamental understanding that you are already enough.
Not when you hit the target. Not when the business grows.
Not when you receive the promotion, complete the project or finally reach the end of the list.
Right now.
This isn’t an invitation to stop developing, striving or taking responsibility. In fact, I believe the opposite is true.
When people feel secure in their value, they are often far more able to learn, contribute and stretch themselves.
They don’t need to spend so much energy protecting themselves, proving themselves or managing the fear that they are about to be exposed as not good enough. They can bring that energy to the work instead.
Enoughness is not the end of ambition, it can be the foundation from which healthier, braver and more sustainable ambition grows.
BEING OF SERVICE CHANGES THE FOCUS.
I personally perform at my best when I feel grounded and connected to service. Being in service allows me to take my ego, personal agenda and internal noise out of the centre of the work.
My attention shifts towards the client, the team, the project and the outcome.
What do they need?
What am I here to contribute?
How can I use my experience, energy and skill to move this forward?
This doesn’t mean ignoring myself or abandoning my own needs, quite the opposite!
If I’m going to serve well, I also have a responsibility to take care of the person doing the serving.
That means looking after myself physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. It means doing my best to arrive ready for the work — and recognising when the most responsible thing I can do is step back, rest and recover.
Because service is not martyrdom, it is contribution with a whole heart and without making everything about you.
And I have found that when I move from “How am I doing?” to “How can I help?”, the work often becomes easier.
Imposter syndrome quietens, self-consciousness goes away. The next best action becomes clear.
SUSTAINABLE DOESN’T MEAN STEADY
And, I think we need a more realistic understanding of sustainability - in modern life, sustainable performance does not mean plodding along at the same speed every day.
Life doesn’t work like that. Business certainly doesn’t.
There will be periods of intensity: launches, deadlines, opportunities, growth, change and unexpected demands.
There will also be slower periods: time to recover, reflect, prepare, refine or wait for decisions to be made.
Human performance has tides, it ebbs and flows. Different seasons ask different things from us.
Earlier this year, I spent several incredibly focused months growing my business. I was networking, strengthening relationships, sending proposals, refining my offers and making myself much more visible.
I was pulling a great deal out of myself.
But it still felt sustainable because I had support. I was working closely with somebody who was helping me emotionally, mentally, spiritually and strategically.
I wasn’t doing it alone, and I could see what the effort was building towards.
For me, that is one of the greatest indicators of sustainable performance: the ability to zoom out.
If you judge everything by how today feels, you will struggle to see the progress being made.
But if you move to a higher altitude, you can look at the trend.
Is the work compounding? Is momentum building? Are you moving towards your vision, even if every day doesn’t look impressive?
Sustainability isn’t the absence of pressure. It is the ability to move through periods of pressure without repeatedly abandoning yourself or destroying your capacity to continue.
WHEN PRESSURE STOPS BEING USEFUL
Pressure can be so useful. I need the right amount of pressure to show up and get stuff done. Responsibilities, expectations and deadlines are part of working life. Sometimes, you simply have to do the work.
There are things we must deliver because we’ve made a commitment, because somebody is relying on us or because it is our responsibility to see them through.
High Performance is Human is not an argument against challenge, but there is a point at which pressure stops being productive.
For me, one of the clearest warning signs is resentment.
It begins as a creeping sense of misalignment and disconnection from the original purpose of the work, I can hear the metaphorical saxophones getting louder in the distance.
That is my signal that something needs attention - perhaps a boundary has been crossed., perhaps I have taken on too much, perhaps the expectations have changed without being acknowledged.
Perhaps I am being asked — or asking myself — to self-abandon in a way that is no longer viable.
Experience has taught me to recognise those signs before they become physical and mental depletion. That wisdom came from getting it wrong. A lot. Like most people, I have collected a few bumps and bruises along the way. I have pushed beyond my capacity and learned what happens when you leave it too long to respond.
Those experiences taught me that we are allowed to have upper limits, to honour our boundaries, and we can do that while still being committed, dependable and ambitious.
THREE HUMAN HIGH-PERFORMANCE HABITS
If you want to bring this idea into your own working life, begin with three simple habits.
LOOK AFTER THE HUMAN DOING THE WORK
Sleep as well as you can.
Move your body in ways that feel good to you.
Drink water. Eat properly. Notice your stress. Pay attention to what helps you feel physically and mentally capable.
It sounds incredibly basic because it is.
But the basics are often the first things we sacrifice when life gets busy — and the very things that make everything else possible.
CONNECT WITH PEOPLE
Make time for conversations that aren’t purely transactional.
Check in with somebody. Go into the office when you can. Meet a colleague, collaborator or client in real life.
Flexibility is valuable, and I have deliberately designed my own life around it.
But flexibility does not remove our human need for connection.
We do not have to choose between the two.
CREATE TRANSITIONS
Give your brain time to register when one part of your life is ending and another is beginning.
That might mean switching off your work email, using a separate phone, changing clothes, going for a short walk or creating a small ritual at the beginning and end of the working day.
You may be moving from parent to leader, from home to work, from client delivery to family life.
Transitions help us arrive properly in each place.
HIGH PERFORMANCE IS NOT A PERMANENT STATE
You will not feel calm, purposeful and perfectly balanced every day. Nobody does.
There will be days when everything goes up the wall. There will be unexpected events, difficult seasons and moments when simply showing up is an achievement.
Human high performance is not about maintaining a permanent state of optimum productivity.
It is about developing the self-awareness to know what you need, the perspective to understand the season you are in and the stability to keep returning to what matters.
It is knowing that doing your best with what you have, where you are, can be enough.
And that from this place of enoughness, you may be capable of far more than you imagined.
