SigmaU Blog

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...

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...

Did you know that the most successful people in the world are firm and vigilant about boundaries? They set boundaries with friends and family members. They set boundaries with team members, and they set boundaries with themselves. They know that boundaries are critical to their focus and success. They have heightened levels of clarity as they approach each day and anything that is a distraction needs to be eliminated. 

High performers think long-term vs. instant gratification. That means they can say no to what's in front of them right now if they know it will not impact them positively for their future long-term success.

Boundaries with Family and Friends

We all have that friend or family member who seems to be consistently operating in crisis mode. They need you and often call during work hours. They have a difficult time regulating emotion so often those phone calls are tear-filled or even manic. High performers must protect themselves from taking on that energy,...

The definition of stretched is “of something soft or elastic be made or be capable of being made longer or wider without tearing or breaking.”

I’ve been studying resiliency lately, listening to podcasts, reading books, and doing so because I feel like, recently, I’m being stretched. I also see colleagues and team members who seem stretched as well.

During one of the resiliency podcasts I was listening to, the speaker said that we don’t bounce back we rebound forward further. I’m paraphrasing but I loved the concept!

We don’t necessarily go back to where we were before because the situation changes us!

Go back to the definition above. It refers to something soft changing into something bigger without breaking. How cool is that? I don’t know about you but there are times when I feel soft when I feel like I can’t take on anymore and somehow, someway, I keep pushing and I do come out stronger.

When we’re at the gym, we mold...

You have the time! Time is not your issue! This was something that came across in a booming voice during my motivational workout video the other morning. I’ll be honest, it initially triggered me. My first thought was, “Dude, you don’t know me and the expectations people have of me. You have no idea how many meetings I have today.” The imaginary verbal attack ensued! Perhaps it did for you as you read my opening line!

Ryan Blair famously said, “If it is important to you, you’ll find a way. If not, you’ll find an excuse.” It seems that it’s not a lack of time but a lack of clarity around the importance of a task or goal that derails us.

I recently uninstalled Instagram from my phone. It was no longer serving me, and I was appalled when my weekly report showed that I had spent 8 hours the previous week scrolling. I mean, come on, that’s an entire workday!

Immediately I reclaimed 8 freaking hours of my week just by removing...

According to Wikipedia:

Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.

When we’re not mindful, we’re not fully present. We’re not engaged in the moment and may feel overwhelmed with racing thoughts which can often become anxiety-producing. When we’re distracted and not being mindful, we easily forget things, scroll for hours on Instagram or find ourselves arriving at a destination like work and thinking “how on earth did I get here!” It’s difficult to be mindful in a digitally-crazed world! Here are a few hacks that I use in an effort to be more mindful…

Set Intentions

I never used to set intentions. In fact, I operated for most of my career in a reactive mode. I would let email set the tone for my day and I wasn’t intentional with my routines. Everything shifts...

I have not always had energy. I have not always wanted to jump out of bed and start my day. I have dreaded a work week and lived for the weekends.

There was a time, when I was so depressed that I didn’t want to leave the house and rarely did so. I remember sitting on the couch and it was the day of a friend’s wedding and I wept because I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, and I didn’t want them to see how out of shape I was! In fact, I hid from social media for several years for fear of judgement about my appearance!

So when I recently had someone comment that I “always” have so much energy, I felt like I needed to share a bit of my journey with you and share that I wasn’t a miracle. It was small, incremental habits and changes that have brought me to a place where I feel like I’m living a ZESTY life!

Z – Zealous Belief

One habit I needed to adopt was a zealous belief that what I did mattered and that my...