How Can You Accelerate Your Performance?

No one will deny the fact that if they are able to accelerate their performance, they can climb the rungs of their career ladder quickly, or if they are entrepreneurs, they can completely transform their business, achieve big surges in sales and profits, and move to the next levels faster. How can you accelerate your performance? Before knowing this, you should understand what acceleration of performance is and why you must continuously strive to do so. 

Performance acceleration is nothing but increasing the speed at which you carry out your related activities, of course without compromising the quality of your work. Not taking the right steps to accelerate your performance on a continuous basis will result in the asphyxiation of your goals, however great or noble they may be, or however strong-willed you are. Experts have repeatedly been emphasizing that if you adopt a few specific methods, you can certainly see a visible and positive impact on your performance. Though these methods may differ from one person to another, there are a few that are common to everyone. Let us delve a little deep into these common methods.

1. Try to work to your full potential.

Not everyone is working to their fullest potential. You may also not work to your full potential. You may be in denial of this fact, though, in the heart of your hearts, you are aware of it. But why are you not able to work to your full potential? The reason is that almost every one of us gets overwhelmed by trivial things in life. Due to this, we lose our focus. How can you focus on your life or career goal when you get diverted by unimportant matters or activities? If you are an entrepreneur and if you allow your efficient hours to slip through your fingers by focusing on not-so-urgent and not-so-important matters, you will lose several smackeroos of sales. You may lose customers as well. 

Let us look at an analogous situation on your domestic front. Let us assume that you have bought an appliance for use at your home. According to the reviews you have perused before your purchase, the appliance is a high-powered one and is supposed to work to its full potential. But what will be your reaction if you find that the performance of the appliance is not to your satisfaction? You should have the same feeling if you do not carry out your activities with all your efficiency, sincerity, and potential.

Therefore, you should make conscious efforts to perform optimally regardless of the activity you undertake.

2. Change your mindset.

What is the major difference between high performers and those who come out with mediocre performances? The difference lies in their mindset. While the former group possesses an "I can" attitude, those who belong to the latter group are habituated to uttering phrases such as "we cannot do this," "this sucks," "this is not possible at all," and so on. 

High performers, with their positive mindset, are able to step up their efforts even when challenging situations confront them. On the other hand, those who possess a negative attitude struggle and even wilt under pressure. If you belong to this latter group, it is high time you take immediate steps to change your mindset. The point is that if you approach any situation, however challenging it may be, with an "I can" attitude, you will amazingly find that innumerable possibilities are clearly "visible" to you. Of course, the process of changing your attitude needs persistence and consistent practice. 

Self-talk is one of the best tools that can help you change your mindset. Of course, you have to assess your improvement on a daily basis. But once you achieve small successes with your changed attitude, you will get motivated to a great extent.

In short, you have to make conscious efforts to accelerate your performance. Even if the speed of your activities increases by 50%, it will get you mammoth results.

Get Rid of Your Mind Trash If You Want to Succeed in Your Career Or Life

We all have various types of fears and among them, the fear of not having enough money when it is needed the most ranks high. Perhaps, we have developed this money fear during our childhood. Our parents or other elders who might have been oblivious of our presence might have discussed the bills they had to pay and the wide gaps between their incomes and their domestic expenditure. We need not dig into the aspect of how this money fear has sneaked into our minds. But we have to worry about the offshoots of this fear.

Some of the offshoots of this money fear are: "We do not deserve education from Ivy schools, cannot become entrepreneurs, or cannot land jobs that require high qualifications." To put this differently, thoughts such as "these things are only for the affluent" and "we cannot afford them" get etched in our subconscious minds. The fact is that these thoughts belong to a category known as "mind trash" and they are worth getting rid of. But how do you get rid of them? Experts suggest a few ways using which we can erase these thoughts from our minds and implant a "we deserve them also" attitude in their place. The following are the steps that need to be followed.

1. You cannot change your past and so, accept it.

Can you change your past? The answer is a big "No." Of course, had we had good backgrounds, it might have been easy for us to pursue our passion or lead the lifestyles of the affluent folks. But at the same time, it is wrong to think that you do not deserve them or you cannot achieve them since you do not have such backgrounds. You should accept this in order to move to the next step. If you keep clinging to your past, the limitations and fears that have been haunting you will not leave you.

2. Stop comparing your situations with those of people with good backgrounds.

Comparing your present circumstances or your past with others is futile. Further, these comparisons will upset you so much that you will start doubting your abilities. Such doubts will add to your mind trash.

3. Focus on your aspirations and choose only those that can take you ahead. 

This step will help you jettison those aspirations that shackle you and do not allow you to move ahead.

4. Identify the patterns that distract you from the chosen aspirations.

Do an introspection and find out the habit patterns that place hurdles along your path. For example, if you have to master a particular subject and if you waste your time on social networking sites instead of studying, you are allowing distractions to overpower you. Remember that even if you take incremental steps, you will come out of the habit completely sooner than expected.

5. Build the edifice of "you," steadily, and consistently.

Building a personality is analogous to building an edifice. So, building the edifice of "you" needs steady and consistent practice. But the edifice will be strong only if you use bricks made of "positive thoughts" about your abilities. So, cultivate the habit of thinking positively about your abilities. Once you succeed in building a strong personality that does not succumb to distractions or negatives, you can easily get rid of the mind trash that has accumulated in your mind. Then, success in your career or life will become low-hanging fruit.

Know What Prevents Your Personal Or Career Growth

You may believe that you have all the skills required for your personal growth or for climbing up the rungs of the career ladder. Quite often, you may have proved that you are astute and a high performer. In addition, you may possess an optimistic attitude as well. But despite these things and your bloated ego, if you find yourself in the unenviable situation of having stagnated in a particular position or not being considered for elevation to the next level, you may wonder why it should be like that, why luck has been tyrannical towards you, and what mistake you have committed that is putting a brake on your growth journey.

Unfortunately, you, like several other people, may refuse to accept if someone points out the mistake you are committing. Perhaps, the intoxication of the small successes you have achieved may be blinding you and not allowing you to explore "within" yourself and find the mistake. Refusing to acknowledge that there is some problem with your approach or mindset is the foremost deterrent that is obstructing you from correcting your mistake. If you continue with the same behavior, you may descend into what is known as the sinkhole of mediocrity. This will make you more miserable and frustrated. 

The point you should remember is that you may not be committing this mistake consciously. The mistake may have got embedded in your subconscious mind and you may be committing it without your intention. Perhaps, this is yet another reason for your refusal to acknowledge that you have this problem. But regardless of the fact that you are committing the mistake subconsciously, you can be certain that it will weigh you down.

So, what is the mistake you are committing that has caused stagnation in your personal and career growth? The mistake is you have become euphoric over your small successes and got complacent. Complacency is capable of killing ambitions. So, how can you fight this flaw and emerge victoriously? How can you remove the cobweb of "complacency" from your mind and unleash your fullest potential? Unless you do this, you can't lift yourself out of the quagmire of stagnation and be once again on the path of personal or career growth.

There are a few steps you should take to get rid of "complacency." They are:

1. You must check if your goals are clear and specific. There should not be any ambiguity in this. Even if there is a trace of ambiguity in your goals, you are vulnerable to getting confused and committing mistakes such as getting complacent. 

2. You should be clear about the deadlines within which you should achieve your goals as well. Deadlines help you in being true to yourself and your actions. If you do not put in place deadlines, you cannot plan your journey towards the goals. Experts advise that you must split your big goals into subgoals and be specific with the dates before which you desire to achieve your sub-goals.

3. Thirdly and most importantly, you must acquire what is known as the "burn-the-boats" attitude. With such an attitude alone, you can tune your mind to work relentlessly and with a laser-like focus. 

The above are proven steps and so, you should necessarily embrace them if you want to get rid of complacency. Once you succeed in this, your growth will no longer be some pie-in-the-sky.