Shifting Your Behaviour for Sustainable Performance
SUMMARY
Do you find that when you decide to change some habits, you encounter many problems with doing so? You start off well with great intentions, but it doesn't stick. Well, stay with me because this week I will show you why that happens and how to change it.
If you're operating in the performance trap, you'll behave in a certain way to avoid damaging the possibility of getting the approval you're looking for. If you feel like an imposter, you'll perform in a certain way, and those actions will become habits anchored in that negative psychology.
Just like with every other area that I work with you on, it goes back to that identity—shifting that identity, building it up, challenging those limiting beliefs you have, and looking at yourself in a totally different light. Once you've done that (and by the way, that happens over a period of time as well), you can do things differently. You can, because you're looking at things differently, try something new.
Having sustainable performance strategies is crucial to avoid burnout. I've been there, and I want you to take advantage of working with me and my experience so that you don't need to go where I did. I'm still a work in progress, but I've gone from burnout to breakthrough. I want you to enjoy life and have the energy to be whoever you need to be in every area of your life.
Well, that's it from me for another week. We will put performance down and move into the next area of your career: your positioning.
I'll see you next week.
TRANSCRIPT
Do you find that when you decide to change some habits, you encounter many problems with doing so? You start off well with great intentions, but it doesn't stick. Well, stay with me because this week I will show you why that happens and how to change it.
Hi, this is Grant Herbert, leadership and sustainable performance coach and today I want to continue this conversation around performance by helping you shift your behaviour for sustainable performance.
Over the past few weeks, we have been talking about performance and transitioning from a high-performance mentality alone to a more sustainable model. This model allows you to get more done without burning out. We talked about the neuroscience behind that and how the brain and body work together. Last week, we looked at 7 different areas to focus on to have your brain in the best possible place to give you that sustainability.
I know, because I'm also a human being, that sometimes you get a lot of this information and discard it. You might think, "Well, that wouldn't work for me." I hear this all the time from clients: "You don't understand, Grant. It's different for me," or something similar. I understand that the reason you do this is because you don't know what else to do. You don't have a track record that says, "I can change habits.” The reason for this is that many people work in a dichotomy. You think, "I'm either here or I'm there." I'm here to tell you that doesn't work. It seems overwhelming, and it doesn't seem like you will ever be able to get there. You might think, "I've been doing this for so long. How do you expect me to go right to the other end of that spectrum?"
So, what do you do instead? You make sure that when changing your behaviour, you do it incrementally and take little steps.
The hardwired connections in your brain, the conditioning that leads to the behaviour that happens instantaneously, developed over a period of time. You and your brain and body, which are part of you, got used to doing it a certain way. Muscle memories are formed, and the underlying psychology of what you think you need to do then validates that behaviour.
If you're operating in the performance trap, you'll behave in a certain way to avoid damaging the possibility of getting the approval you're looking for. If you feel like an imposter, you'll perform in a certain way, and those actions will become habits anchored in that negative psychology.
Just like with every other area that I work with you on, it goes back to that identity—shifting that identity, building it up, challenging those limiting beliefs you have, and looking at yourself in a totally different light. Once you've done that (and by the way, that happens over a period of time as well), you can do things differently. You can, because you're looking at things differently, try something new.
What I want to do to finish off this month's conversation around performance is to show you a model that helps you rewire your brain. We talked about the brain being this magnificent thing that's in your head. It has somewhere between 86 and 100 billion neurons, depending on who you're talking to. They're all connected with neural pathways and synaptic connections. It's chemicals and electrical impulses, and it's all wonderful.
Through neuroplasticity, you can reconnect different neural pathways. Instead of going from an initial thought to a learned behaviour in one 250-thousandth of a second, you can build a new path so that when something happens, you can now do something different.
If you look at that in the context of your identity, as you shift those beliefs and what you make things mean, you build a different foundation for yourself to move and behave differently. The key thing to understand is that it's all about incremental change.
The reason why I don't just teach my clients but also coach them is that I need to give them 2 elements: support and accountability.
Support provides an environment for you to make incremental change. It gives you the resources, tools, and everything you need to make the change. It works on those limiting beliefs and builds a new and more positive psychology for you to operate from. Accountability ensures you remain responsible for the changes you say you're going to make.
So, incremental change is the way to go. You are here now and want to go there, but more importantly, how do you take that first step?
What I love to do when working with clients is to give them small changes that may seem too minor, just so they can get a quick win. When you get a win, your brain says, "This is good, we'll keep doing this." Then, take the next step. "This is good, I'm really enjoying this. What do I do now?" This incremental building up of a new frame of reference, for whatever it is you are working on, will empower you and push you forward.
Just like everything else I do these days—and I say these days because I was never such an organised person or someone who worked with models or procedures; I just did everything off the cuff—I want to give you this model that I've put together. It's a simple way of understanding how you utilise neuroplasticity to rewire your brain. Remember, as I said, it's all about incremental change.
So, the first step is to recognise.
Recognise is all about having a self-awareness that says, "This is what I'm doing; this is what I'm thinking." It's about checking in and looking a little bit deeper into why you're behaving the way you do and what has led you to build up that conditioning over time.
There are things you can see for yourself. We talked months ago about the Johari window—there are things you can see, things others can see, and things in the unconscious that neither you nor others can see. That's where you need me to come and work with you to help you gain that awareness.
However you achieve it, you need to recognise the behaviours or thoughts that are leading to the results you are currently getting.
Step 2 is to reject it. This is where you need support and help because you are rejecting old beliefs. You are rejecting things you think are keeping you safe and giving you the results you need.
That internal dialogue, that "mini-me", as I call it, will remind you, "We do things this way because we are worried about this." That fear of not belonging, the fear of not being enough, the fear of not being loved—whatever it is—you feel the need to please people, to be the best at this so that people like you. Whatever that psychology is, that dialogue is, will fight back.
Unless you reject that behaviour and call it out for what it really is—not giving you the results you want—you'll never shift it.
It's like in marketing: we talk about the forces working on your potential clients, the things they want to move away from, like pains and frustrations, and the things they want to move towards, like wants and aspirations. So, you need to utilise that for yourself and say, "You know what? I'm not thinking that way anymore. I'm not operating and behaving that way anymore because it's not taking me where I want to go.”
Only then can you move to step 3 which is to replace the old thinking and behaviour.
Over the years, I've worked with clients who wanted to give up something like smoking. Instead of just saying, "Hey, just stop smoking," we first look at why they do those things. Why would they take something into their body that they know is harming them? We work on the psychology. On top of that, we consider what they could do instead.
For example, I've had many people say, "I get stressed, and I go and have a cigarette." What could you do instead? Stress is one thing, but what could you do differently? You could go downstairs just like you were going to have that cigarette, but instead of having a cigarette, you could do something different. You could replace the behaviour that you normally do.
I used to even get clients to cut up carrot sticks the same size as their cigarettes so they held it in their hand, making it less of a drastic change. Instead of breathing in smoke, they would breathe in fresh air and take some deep breaths. Whatever it is, the idea is to substitute the harmful behaviour with a positive one.
I'm not trying to get you to stop smoking; this is just an analogy, an example of how this works. Unless you replace the behaviour with something that will give you the results you want, you'll revert to the old behaviour very quickly.
Step 4 is to repeat the new thinking and the new behaviour. Your conditioning was built up to where you are today by the repetition of those same thoughts and behaviours. So now, with a new behaviour, it needs to be repeated over and over again.
By the way, you will slip back occasionally because that internal dialogue, that "mini-me," will be in your ear. But incrementally, over a period of time, step by step, you will change your habits. You will turn what was holding you back into something that pushes you where you want to go.
Remember, you need to do this incrementally. So, what I want you to do today is choose one thing. Going back through those 7 habits of brain optimisation, what is one area you could work on that you could recognise is not getting you where you want to go?
So, reject it, replace it with more resourceful behaviour, and then repeat that over and over again.
Having sustainable performance strategies is crucial to avoid burnout. I've been there, and I want you to take advantage of working with me and my experience so that you don't need to go where I did. I'm still a work in progress, but I've gone from burnout to breakthrough. I want you to enjoy life and have the energy to be whoever you need to be in every area of your life.
Well, that's it from me for another week. We will put performance down and move into the next area of your career: your positioning.
I'll see you next week.
