There’s an interesting truism in life:
If you love what you do, you maximize your opportunity to achieve peak performance. And by achieving peak performance, you invariably love what you do!
This concept was tested by John Silva and Diane Stevens in 2002. They learned that increases in self-efficacy – the extent or strength of one’s belief in one’s own ability to complete tasks and reach goals — cause people to maximize their performance. On the other hand, they also found that decreases in self-belief alter other variables, such as stress and anxiety, creating a negative, snowballing effect on performance.
Simply put, they scientifically proved that when people love what they do and believe in their ability to do it, they achieve peak performance!
Many of us forget this truth and spend time on activities that drain, rather than energize and inspire us. Finding the match between your purpose, passion, talents, values, and Unique Ability® is the key to living a self-fulfilling life and maximizing your performance.
To generate sustained peak performance at home and work, it is important to determine what kind of activities are most satisfying. Start by asking yourself these three questions:
- The activities that fill me with excitement, passion, and purpose are …
- My core values are …
- My natural talents, those that come easily to me are …
These three questions represent the critical foundation, the structure, for finding activities that you love, where you can sustain peak performance.
“The secret to happiness is not doing what one likes, but liking what one does.”
– Sir James Matthew Barrie, Scottish author, dramatist, and creator of Peter Pan
What do you love to do?
Summit by Scott Addis 