As a Performance & Life Coach in a nutshell, my job is to help my clients get more out of themselves in their business or their career.

Whether you are an Entrepreneur and you want to achieve more business growth or an ambitious professional who is an executive or aspiring to become one and you’d like to have a greater impact within your role, my role as a Performance Coach is to help you do just that.

To see what is getting in the way of you having the greatest impact/success, to see what is holding you back and how to point you in the direction of really extracting the most from yourself and performing at your best.

One of the key things that I find often really gets in the way of us producing our best work, is down to the misunderstandings we have around performance.

Whenever I first initially meet a client who is an ambitious Entrepreneur or a Vision led leader, it often feels to them that key to performance, is to do more and throw more actions and as much work as humanely possible at where we want to move the needle and succeed.

The problem with this approach is that more often than not, it causes more stress, overwhelm and frustration at the same time and also it probably won’t have the best effect on the people around you, your teams or the office culture.

I am sure you have probably felt at times, there is so much to do yet so little time and it is almost impossible to keep up with everything and somehow you just about manage through the day to get everything done and all you want to do is collapse on your sofa at home and shut away from the world until tomorrow at the least.

Now there may be one slight element of truth here, that in the past, sure you may have succeeded doing just that and it has got you to where you are today, but that doesn’t mean this approach is doing you a real service and allowing you to tap into your full potential.

Driving at gear 3 around a race track is ok only until you realise there is a gear 5 which is a new level of performance all together and there is so much more you can create, accomplish and do with a slight adjustment to how you run your day each day.

The Principal I’m talking about may sound like Essentialism but this is something I’ve really explored deeply with my own coach.

(Raghav, you are a coach and you have your own coach? Why?… that is a great question, I’m so glad you asked and I will answer that very question for you in another blog coming soon)

Through working with and coaching over a thousand people over a number of years, I have found there is a really simple but fundamental truth that holds us back…

Truth: We all think there is so much more for us to do than there actually is…to do

Result: As a result of really believing we need to hustle and overwork our way to success, we often feel overwhelmed with incredible to-do lists that only grow bigger each day along with the feelings of not having enough time and often experiencing huge stress levels and burnout.

Does this sound familiar? It often feels even more intense if you have the responsibility of also managing/leading a team and others.

I’m sure you know people that look so stressed and give their company/business everything….. and they do well.

I’m sure you also know people that are very calm, grounded and look like they are having fun that may even work half the time, yet are just as impactful and successful or even more so in many cases

Truth: How long you work and how much you do/take on is NOT a direct correlation to how effective or successful you will be.

Now that we’ve debunked this myth, I would love to share with you one of the keys to maximising your impact and performance both in and out of your business and work.

Truth: Consistency trumps intensity

Whenever I look at any high performer who is very successful at what they do, they remind me of this quote by the famous Philosopher Aristotle

‘We are what we repeatedly do, therefore excellence is not an act but a habit’.

There are really 2 key elements to this quote.

Excellence becoming a habit by what we do -but High Performers spend more time looking at what are we repeatedly doing?

Coming back to the relation to Essentialism, I’m really pointing to, what are the main, key and critical actions that really and truly will help you create more growth, success and impact toward your goals?

Whether that is increasing profit, maximising employee engagement, meeting strategic targets and objectives, leading others and your teams effectively…..this same principle applies.

So often we start with 5 or 10 things and we may even do them with something short of our fullest conviction and commitment but if I were to ask you to start fresh and identify the top 3 activities that generate the greatest return or results for you? Per day or per week, what would that be?

If I were to ask you to eliminate your entire to-do list and make an essential list…what would be essential?

When I say essential, I mean the very key things that really move the dial towards your growth and success?

Are there things that immediately stand out to you that are just consuming your time, energy and focus from stepping into tasks that could deliver more return for you and your company?

It can be so easy for many of us to lose focus on what’s essential and get lost in the hustle and bustle of things but where we are effective is bringing things back to what is essential?

Surprisingly, this could even just be 1-2 things daily, that you can prioritise and build in amongst everything else that you can do consistently.

As a result, as you approach each day focusing on the few key tasks that bring the most value to you, you will feel more calmer, grounded, focused, inspired, motivated, energised and also confident.

Your to-do list will actually be crossed off each day and you will be achieving much more toward your goals/objectives more effectively and efficiently.

The other great advantage about Essentialism is that it helps us focus on your longer-term success and vision versus burning yourself out looking for quick wins.

Truth: Playing the short term game and looking for quick wins is like eating fast food consistently, it may feel like a great idea at the time because many people do it but

A. It’s not good for you
B. After a short high, comes a horrible crash and energy drop and you feel terrible
C. It’s not sustainable
D. It doesn’t support your health/wellbeing and effectiveness long term

This can be so insightful as I’ve even gone through experiences and coached clients who are spending time and energy on what may look like the right tasks but actually are masked under short-termism and don’t have as much benefit toward their longer-term play and vision.

I also talk about this HERE in my article with Stylist Magazine

So, I invite you to grab a journal, step away from your desk to a new environment for a nice hot cup of coffee and reflect on your goals and targets with the question, what’s essential?

What is really and actually essential?

See what ideas and actions emerge for you, rate each out of 10 and identify

1. Which activities are the most effective and produce the greatest ROI
2. Which activities can you do less of
3. Explore how you can prioritise the activities that deliver more ROI for you

I’d really love to see what shows up for you through the exercise and any insights you may have gained from this article…and hearing what is now Essential for you?

Please do reach out or even feel free to email me at [email protected] and it would be great to hear from you.

Thanks once again for visiting my website and reading this article, if I can support you with the insights shared in this article or toward anything you’d like to accomplish this year in your business or career, please do send me an email telling me more and it would be great to connect with you.

My best wishes,
Raghav Parkash