SigmaU Blog

Pain sucks but it may just be the gift required to propel us forward!

Most of us avoid pain at all costs when, in reality, pain can serve as an amazing indicator that it’s time for change.

People will often stay in jobs, relationships, and countries they aren’t happy in until something painful enough to move them to action happens. Pain can be a great communicator if we’re open to learning.

Potential

When we experience pain, it is often because we recognize that we’re living below our potential. I remember experiencing this when I sat down at a family BBQ and I had to keep pulling my shirt away from my belly. I was embarrassed that I had let myself go and decided in that moment that I was living below my potential. The experience was awful BUT it made me commit to a healthier lifestyle which would expose me to my greater potential. What pain are you experiencing right now that could be an indicator that you were created for more than what you’re living...

Much of our success is contingent on the relationship we have with our self-talk. Often, we can be much harder on ourselves than others ever would be and, when it’s destructive, it will derail our goals and dreams!

There are four ways that you can mitigate this…

1. Set Intentions

The highest performers start each day with intention. They know what their high value tasks are, what their interactions will look like, and they predetermine how they will show up. They typically choose one word or three words that would describe their best selves. They think through what the day has in store, and they are deliberate about focusing on those three words.  My three words are disciplined, joyful and kind. I will make sure I think about the meetings, coaching sessions, and personal interactions I have coming up that day and ask myself how I can align with those words.  Choose a word today that would describe the best of who you could be. How would showing up that way...

Does it fire you up or frustrate you?

The relationship.

The job.

The hobby.

The course.

F - FACE IT HEAD ON

Often when we’re in survival mode, contemplation mode or busy mode we neglect facing challenging questions or situations head on. The highest performers demonstrate courage more often and get real with their emotions. They recognize that what once served them or made them feel fulfilled now frustrates them and they evaluate if they want to keep the relationship, job, or activity in their lives. They don’t drag out their unhappiness. What situation do you need to tackle head on today with curiosity, clarity, and courage to feel more fulfilled and aligned with your best future self?

I - IGNITE

Perhaps a goal or dream that once created a spark of excitement in you has fizzled. Perhaps the career you thought you should pursue has turned out to be unfulfilling. I have a friend who spent years in school to become a lawyer, who has zero passion for it but continues to go...

I’ve been on a quest for the past few years to lead a High Performing life! My journey started by reading “High Performance Habits” by Brendon Burchard. I gravitated towards the concepts because it was backed with science and when it started changing my life, I was hooked! I then enrolled to become a certified High-Performance Coach™ and have been a coach and student witnessing literal life changes happen before my eyes!

Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way…

1. You are the powerhouse!

I used to think I didn’t have energy to work out until I learned that you and I generate energy. When your energy levels are low, a high energy work out will create the energy you need to pursue your goals! It shifted my perspective on something that held me back for years. I could create energy and I didn’t have to buy in to the lie that I was too tired.

2. Intentional Living Creates Purpose

Often clients will start coaching because...

I share a lot of high-performance insights on this blog and on social media, but I don’t ever want people to think I’ve got it all figured out. We’re all a work in progress and, yes, even I get off track as a High-Performance Coach™!

If I’m honest about the second half of 2023 I didn’t show up as my best. The reality is, I gave in to old habits, slowly, which compounded overtime until I looked at myself in the mirror a few weeks ago and said, “Who is that?” Has that ever happened to you? You don’t realize just how far off track you’ve gotten until your current situation is unrecognizable.

Rather than dwell on where you’re at, act! Here are a few tips I’ve implemented over the past few weeks and can honestly say, I look and feel like a different human. Change can happen in an instant once we face whatever we’ve been avoiding!

Clean Food

If you’ve ever experienced grief or pain, it’s comforting...

The highest performers have an incredible ability to release the negative and move forward.

I was challenged this morning when I woke up to no internet connection. After rebooting and realizing that Wi-Fi today may not happen for me, I immediately jumped into solution mode. What could I accomplish without this thing that is really oxygen to most of our lives. To start, I could write this blog to serve you and I could also spend time on content, strategy and “thinking time” that I had scheduled last week but got too busy to do.

Admittedly, I wasn’t always so quick to find solutions or move forward. I would get stuck in the emotion of frustration and focus on all of what I couldn’t get accomplished during this inconvenience. Then I started thinking about high performers. What would a high performer do in this situation? Of course, they would focus on what they could control and keep moving forward.

The highest achievers are always focusing on agency, what they...

Have you ever finished a workday and thought “I got nothing done!”? There’s nothing more frustrating than going through the motions, completing tasks, and feeling unfulfilled. Why does this happen? It could be that you’re working on tasks versus high value activities.

To be a high performer, we need to focus on high value activities. What exactly are those? Activities that move the needle, that make a difference, that have a meaningful impact.

How do we determine what those are? An assessment of your current reality is in order. Let me explain. I was working with a coach, and I was complaining that I felt I was busy but not impactful. He challenged me to do an exercise that opened my eyes to where my time was being spent. He encouraged me to take a full week, and as tedious as it was, make a note of everything I was doing in time blocks. I was astonished at the work I was doing that I could have paid someone else to be doing. It also brought light to a...

A mentor reminded me that rarely does a good idea chase you down, you need to seek them out!

With that in mind, you and I must rise to the person of excellence we’re looking to become. That version of us will never come to meet us where we currently are!

How do we go about that? Through actively seeking that next level.

SEEK

S- Seek Through Insightful Questions.

One of the reasons I absolutely love High Performance Coaching™ is that it’s less about teaching and more about self-discovery. Clients and coaches go through a journey of understanding and clarity through transformational questions that are empowering and lead to change. The reason that this is so powerful is that our minds typically lead to negative thinking and disempowering questions. Coaching is focused on the future, changing thinking to seek the positive and possibility vs. visiting the past for excuses and reminders as to why we’re not equipped to reach out big goals. Daily high performers ask...

Perhaps you're embarking on a new year with grand ambitions. Some goals may even seem risky and require courage to take on.

Calculated risk is what high achievers do to leapfrog past average performers. They demonstrate courage more often than their peers and as a result, they see consistent and significant success.

We’re naturally inclined to minimize risk or avoid it all together. But what if we thought about risk in a new way? 

R- RISE UP

New levels if success will require us to abandon old habits and patterns that aren't in line with the person required to meet our bold goal. Look at calculated risk towards a big goal as a way to rise up. What are some of the habits you currently have that no longer serve the person you’re striving to become? What habits do you currently do that support that future best self and how can you amplify them to reach your goal? Where do you find inspiration to rise? Is it a friend, coach, author, or podcast host? What would it look...

People often associate personal development with mirror affirmations of positive vibes, but High-Performance Coaching™ is all about taking action!

We get a sense of unease when we’re out of alignment because often we’re procrastinating on what we know we need to do.

Eat the Frog!

One of the high-performance pillar habits is productivity. During this session in the curriculum, we uncover amazing productivity hacks and one of those is to eat the frog! Tackle your frog, aka the most important task of the day first thing. Before turning on your email or phone, grab a coffee and map out the strategic plan you’ve been avoiding, or the expense report that is due tomorrow. Tackle it today!

Courageous conversations

Courage is another high performance habit we navigate in coaching with high levels of success and happiness for those who take courageous action. Today I’m going to encourage you to tackle “the talk” you’ve been avoiding. Imagine...