I've spent well over a decade focusing on peak performance- both athletically in my quest to become one of the world's best endurance mountain bikers, but also in business and brainpower.  I used to think the key to peak performance was the focus on mastery: putting in the work to acquire the skills and wisdom to be a top performer in a given area.  While mastery and work ethic are certainly key components to peak performance, I have learned that there are multiple foundations upon which peak performance stands.  So what is the foundation to mastery, work ethic, and ultimately peak performance?

The answer is not as simple as one thing, but it is as broad as one category: health.  Oftentimes, we think health is as simple as sick or healthy, but the category of health goes deep and wide.  Health encompasses emotional and mental health, physical health, environmental health, spiritual health, and relational health.  In my training as a health coaching through Vanderbilt's Integrative Medicine Program and work towards becoming a NBC-HWC, we look at health in our coaching sessions broken down into these specific categories.

What does it mean to be healthy?

Health is multi-dimensional including emotional, mental, physical, environmental, spiritual, financial health and more.  Specifically, we consider these health categories to paint in broad strokes what it means to be healthy

• Sleep and Rest
• Mind-Body Connection
• Compassionate Self-Awareness
• Daily Rhythm and Balance
• Food and Nourishment
• Environment
• Spirit and Soul
• Relationships and Community
• Movement, Exercise, and Play

At the center of health is mindful awareness of your actions, your attitude, your habits, and your thoughts. What do these categories have to do with peak performance?

Think of yourself as a beautiful tree with a large trunk and expansive branches with and vibrant leaves.    Or if you prefer, a skyscraper with a really cool architectural design.  If your tree has roots that are not nourished properly, or if there are cracks in your building's foundation, that tree is going to eventually fall over and that building will come crashing down.  The tree can only grow big and healthy if its roots and nourishment are healthy.  A building can only be built tall and sturdily with a well-planned foundation.

That brings me to today's topic which is taking care of your foundation.  It was the subject of a keynote I did last week to an executive team interested in performance, but also highlighting that peak performance starts with taking care of the person.

The HARDEST thing to do when we get busy, stressed, or super-focused is to take care of our key needs as humans, but they pay the largest amount of gains.  We all want happiness, general well-being, and satisfaction in life, but you have to take care of your foundation before you feel fulfilled and good most or at least some of the time.   Things like achievement, comparison, stress, and overwhelm can crowd out feelings of ease, happiness, and having energy.  Burnout affects over 62% of the workforce.

How do you know if you are getting burnt out?

Symptoms of burnout include apathy for something you generally enjoy, frequent sickness, having trouble sleeping, feeling short-tempered, everything feeler harder than usual, and loss of mot

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The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.