Archive for the 'High Performance' Category

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High achievers do this…

Published on 6 February, 2009 in High Performance and Purpose. Closed Tags: .

As I looked a little further into motivation, I came across Greissman’s interviews of highly successful people. He found the following commonalities:

  1. They love their work.
  2. They become highly competent in a speciality.
  3. They commit themselves to their work, giving it their time and even their life.
  4. They meet most of their needs through work.
  5. They long for recognition and self-fulfillment.
  6. They focus on their work to the point that they ‘flow’ with it, loosing themselves in the work.
  7. They have few regrets.

This is a post-hoc analysis, rather than being proscriptive, but I have to wonder how long it would take you to become highly successful if you were demonstrating these behaviours.

Talent matters… but not as much as determination.


Interesting note on Lincoln… whereas most Presidents since have chosen their supporters to be on their cabinet, Lincoln chose his rivals. Seward became Secretary of State, and had been governor and Senator for New York; Chase later became Treasury Secretary and had been governor of Ohio; Bates became Attorney General and was an accomplished judge. But to do this, he had to keep his ego out of the situations by focusing on the real goals…

Daniel Smith

What makes somebody good at something?

Published on 4 February, 2009 in child genius and High Performance. Closed Tags: , .

Great minds frequently encounter violent opposition from mediocre minds. Yet, those great minds should also be physically superior if you listen to our friends from Cambridge (Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance).

Observing that those born earlier in the year tend to perform better – especially at age-level sports but also beyond – researchers are trying to understand why. While having a few months as a child over the person sitting beside you might give you a little advantage as a child, it’s the gap created by teachers, coaches and the public reinforcing talent that really creates an advantage. By inadvertently rewarding earlier development rather than genuine talent, and punishing delayed development rather than accepting variations as just part of the heterogeity of childhood, we make the smart kids smarter, and let the less talented students trail.

I didn’t realise that it was so marked until I learned about how national youth teams (the ones that feed into the senior teams) have children born in January, February and March – at the start of the measured year – outnumber those born in the rest of the year by up to a dozen or so to one!

Sure talent has a role – especially in grabbing attention – but, according to Ericsson, the key to learning is less talent: the game is really about immediate feedback and specific goal setting. So do what you love… it’s the only thing that you’ll bother to do well anyway.

Further reading: New York Times article, "A Star is Made ".

Daniel Smith

The Nature of Genius – Dispositionism

Published on 30 January, 2009 in child genius, High Performance and Personal Growth. Closed Tags: , , , .

A great deal has been written on the development of genius focusing upon neurological structures, heredity and social conditioning. Here, I would like to add a concept to our understanding of the development of the human mind.

Dispositionism means that each individual exhibits a range of behaviours that are selectively reinforced and thence evolve into habitual responses and patterns of thought. Those initial behaviours are "determined" by elements of social conditioning, genetic factors and an element of chance. Some individuals with little talent are able to overcome this difficiency by a combination of great external stimulation and perhaps an amount of luck. Equally, those with great genetic potential, and outstanding environmental influences may fall down through chance occurrences.

Let us examine some examples. John Stuart Mill is best known as the one who brought Utilitarianism into everyday usage. Many who have learnt of Mill’s theories and ideas have overlooked his extraordinary upbringing. Quite simply, Mill received one of the most intensive and extensive educational and mental development programs that has ever been known.

John Stuart Mill thus provides an example of how powerful external stimulii may be in the development of a great mind. Would Mill have been successful in his path had his father not taken such an interest in his education? Nobody can really say with any degree of certainty. However, we can be sure that the foundation of intellectual development that placed Mill 25 years ahead of his contemporaries positioned him uniquely, and ensured that he would at the least be an outstandingly average individual.

In all we can see a variety of factors contribute to the development of a genius. It is difficult to say that this is really the way human beings operate in an experimental sense due to the difficulties in eliminating chance. However, this certainly provides a model for interpreting and understanding the development of great minds – and the failure to do so. While we can not predict with absolute certainty do to the intrinsic random nature of the chance variable, we can certainly improve the odds of nurturing great minds.

Daniel Smith

What is NLP?

Published on 28 January, 2009 in High Performance. Closed Tags: , , .

After some pretty heated discussions about NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), I have below summarised some of the most important concepts that are linked to NLP.

To me, NLP is an attitude and a methodology that grew into a movement. Attempts to put boundaries on NLP run into difficulties of conflicting interpretation, as the term means different things to different people. NLP attracts some people who regard the methods and philosophies as being able to help align them with excellence, and facilitate them living a richer and more rewarding life. For other people, NLP is a therapeutic system. For still others, NLP is a method of separating naive people from their money.

NLP is not theoretical by nature, though theories have arisen over time. Academic psychology has found little in support of "NLP." However, my searches of PsychLit and PsychInfo in addition to looking through unpublished theses from Australia’s largest research-based psychology department, suggest that most of these studies have been aimed to discredit rather than to enlighten. Academic psychologists can find it easy to discredit by strawcasing a field that is more interested in finding things that work than it is to proving them academically.

Rather than focusing upon the limitations of an area of information or study, one interested in expanding one’s mind would be better served with focus on what they can gain, rather than defensively criticise that which they do not understand.

Daniel Smith

Can you really teach mental skills?

Published on 26 January, 2009 in Change, High Performance and Personal Growth. Closed Tags: , , , , .

I was explaining to a woman that I help people use their brains more effectively, when she told me that it couldn’t be done. For a moment I was floored: surely she could see how different people, with similar talents and starting points, can produce totally different results in their personal and professional lives?

Surely she knew that there were some people who won, and others who lost?

And she did: She just didn’t believe that the skills could be taught. At that point, I decided to probe deeper. I don’t konw why: I could have simply presented to her countless evidence showing that we can help people increase their level of thinking and subjective experience of life. Instead, I probed further. Then I realised what was driving her doubt: she was scared. The intelligent, successful professional woman, was scared! As we spoke further, it seemed that she was scared of challenging herself and her world, and scared that somebody might tell her that there could be a better way. Perhaps because that would mean that she no longer had an excuse to be angry ten times a day!

I had almost forgotten how most people think. Most people think that life is hard, that success comes only after sustained struggle and a pinch of good luck. Whereas, I know that the real world is created in our minds, then manifested in reality.

Anything that you desire, you can have. Indeed, anything that you demanded, you already have. Those things that you didn’t really need, you didn’t get; not because you didn’t have the capacity to get it, but because you didn’t pay the price that you needed to pay.

What is the price? It depends upon what you want. But when you identify what you want, you can also identify what you need to do to get it; you can create a plan for creating what you want.

No matter what it is, the most important step is to know your outcome. When you know your outcome, retain it clearly in your mind, and resolutely move towards its fulfillment, you will either achieve your objective, or decide not to pursue that outcome.

That being said, sometimes we don’t really know what we want. How many times have you thought that you wanted something, yet didn’t really want it in the end. A friend of mine ‘wanted" to have a job as a commercial lawyer, working long hours under high pressure and making a lot of money. Yet, the closer that she came, the more that she realised that to do so would rob her of what she really wanted. To get what she "wanted" would mean that she would lose her connection with her loved ones, have less time to spend with her partner, and be forced to adopt beliefs, values and behaviours contrary to the way that she saw herself.

Know thyself

Ask yourself: What do I really want? And when you get the first answer, challenge yourself to go one step further, towards the deeper issues and underlying desires that often drive our superficial wants.

The closer you come to knowing yourself, the closer you will be able to align your desires with your dreams, and the more effective you will be in pursuing whatever objectives that lay before you.

So who are you? What do you really want? Do your drams really align with your desires? Sometimes we don’t realse immediately that it’s time to change… and sometimes it can be very difficult to change. But, in time, you know that the more accurately you know your destination, the faster you will be able to get there.

Many people criticise the goal-directed life. Yet, everybody is goal directed in some way. The only difference is that not everybody knows their objectives! Certainly, you should strive to enjoy and experience all the wonders and pleasures that the beautiful world in which we live has to offer. Yet, don’t be confused – don’t be hypnotised – by the trappings of the physical world. You know what you really want: you want to be happy.

What that means is for you to discover.

Daniel Smith

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