6 Aspects of a Peak Performer You Need for a Sustainable Life

Once upon a time, there was someone eager to do well and fill fulfilled in both life and work.

Common, eh? !

It's probable that this sentiment resonates with many, including you and me.

Most of us share this similarity because, for both of us, life lacks meaning without some form of work (however one defines work).

Similarly, life itself seems incomplete without a sense of purpose.

Therefore, let me make the assumption that our common pursuit revolves around finding fulfilment in both our lives and our work.

However, very often both of us feel that work-life ( or shall we maybe say life-work?!) balance doesn't really exist.

I'm still contemplating that question, but I firmly hold onto the belief that success (as defined by each individual), should not be achieved at the cost of our well-being.

Some weeks back I refined productivity for myself as: how well I manage my mental and physical well-being, relationships, knowledge and skills to serve me play the longest I can. In the rhythm I can sustain the longest.

If I adopt this productivity mindset, what kind of performer am I evolving into?

The truth is, I'm just beginning, and while I may not have all the answers, I'm inclined to label it as sustainable peak performer.

Sustainable peak performer: someone who achieves through an optimal journey and output (regardless of field), ensuring longevity.

The key words here are achieve, optimal and longevity.

Remember, I'm transitioning from achieving sprints to embracing long-term marathons. I'm embarking on my ultimate journey - a marathon that is my life.

I'm not just after reaching my potential in a hustle and rushed way rather sustained peak performance, optimal delivery across aspects of my life, for the longest I can.

Now, let's consider this idea of a sustainable peak performer.

Traditionally associated with sports, I believe there are various definitions.

I'm personally redefining it to include achieving sustained peak performance in a broader sense, not one domain or one aspect of our life. General life.

First of all, I believe a sustainable peak performer should have clarity.

Clear directions and intentions.

Let's put aside the idea of "setting clear goals."

If setting goals works for you (especially with the new year's trend), that's great, and I encourage you to stick with what suits you best. However, life is incredibly unpredictable and dynamic, demanding adaptability.

It's almost impossible to achieve all the goals you set for "this year" all the time.

Instead, I believe it's crucial to establish some general directions for ourselves.

For instance, rather than stating specific tasks like "I want to wake up at 5 am each morning, read 30 pages each evening, and meditate for 20 minutes every day," how about defining a broader direction for yourself:

"I want to be recognized as a disciplined person." Or,

"I want to be known as a healthy person."

For both directions, you provide yourself with enough flexibility to adapt without being restricted by rigid targets.

In the end, waking up at 5 am, reading for 30 minutes, and meditating for 20 minutes contribute to making you a healthier and more disciplined person, don't they? Plus, you still have the flexibility to substitute the 20 minutes of meditation with, for example, taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

Have clarity while allowing for flexibility.

It's like having a map to know where you want to go.

Directions act as guiding stars in your adventure — there are multiple roads, but all lead to one destination.

You can use the same method for yourself, your family, or even in organizations and companies. Just give your family or team a purpose, and they will work towards it with the freedom to be creative and learn from their mistakes and decisions on the way to achieving their goals.

Clarity is essential for living a life with purpose because it provides us focus, a sense of meaning and control over our life.

I notice a growing trend, and I've experienced it myself for extended periods: people wake up, tend to their basic needs, immerse themselves in work, and go to bed without a sense of meaning.

Burnout and dissatisfaction happen when we lack sense of meaning.

Yet, clarity is the tool that aids us in navigating the complexities of life without getting lost in the woods, without losing ourselves along the way.

I've experienced losing my sense of purpose several times, and I understand the confusion of being caught up in the fast pace of life without a clear direction. I'm writing this note as I'm resetting some aspects of my life to gain clarity for myself as well.

Some might have more comprehensive and aspirational directions for themselves. It's highly subjective.

The key point is that a purposeful life needs to be guided by clear directions, whatever those are; otherwise, we might find ourselves swimming in a lake thinking it's an ocean.

In my definition, a sustainable peak performer also has healthy habits.

They cultivate routines and practices that support physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

Prioritize sufficient sleep, regular exercise, nutritious eating, and mindfulness to enhance overall resilience and performance.

I think my diet is reasonably well-balances; we typically prepare meals at home, and about 90% of the time, we steer clear of processed and fast food. I'm also quite disciplined about my sleep.

Nevertheless, I'm notably lacking in the appropriate amount of movement and exercise in my life, and I struggle with mindfulness. I have a few ideas on how to develop a more sustainable habit of moving more in my daily life, however, at the moment, I haven't taken any actions in that direction, so I can't provide any comments on that aspect.

Practicing mindfulness is challenging; the current lifestyle demands constant engagement, frequent context switching, and rapid absorption of an immense volume of information.

Reflecting on the past three months, I evaluated how often checking my phone first thing in the morning, reviewing messages, quickly scanning work emails and texts, and swiftly scrolling through X, LinkedIn, and Instagram served any meaningful purpose. I could only recall one specific work incident that needed urgent attention - 1 out of 90 days.

That's a 0.01% chance that looking at my phone the moment I wake up serves any reason to rush things.

This implies it's more of a (negative) habit that doesn't bring any benefits, as all it does is create a sense of anxiety.

I've made the decision to practice avoiding it and become known as someone who's less attached to the phone.

Are you someone that checks phone first thing in the morning too?

A sustained peak performer is a continuous learner.

They embrace a growth mindset and commit to ongoing learning and skill development.

They are genuine and present themselves as vulnerable too because they understand that it's the only way to allow themselves to accept, learn, and embrace different aspects of themselves.

They stay curious, seek new knowledge, and adapt to changing circumstances to remain at the forefront of your field(s).

I'm a big consumer of YT, Podcasts and audio-books whenever I have a moment.

I'm usually tidying up the house and playing something while I clean, do laundry, cook, or engage in other household tasks.

BUT,

Everything we read, listen to, or consume will never hold all the answers for us.

First of all, we need to acknowledge that all advice, opinions and thoughts one can find are inherently subjective and context-dependent.

So I encourage you to broaden your knowledge and education by embracing diverse perspectives and insights.

Secondly, all the theoretical knowledge you acquire holds little value unless put into action. If you've missed it, I invite you to read The Anti-Mediocrity Note which talks about taking action.

The transformation in learning you require is shifting from being a consumer (theoretical learner) to becoming a creator (hands-on practitioner).

Learn as much as you can, that will keep you in the game for the longest possible.

Ignorance is a slow death.

A sustainable peak performer builds sustainable and effective stress management systems.

They manage energy, not time.

This is a hard one. For me at least.

There's a book by Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness titled: Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success.

I haven't had the chance to read it yet, but I've caught wind of a specific system through a podcast that summarized ideas inspired by the book.

If you aim to grow, reach your highest potential and perform at your peak sustainably, then you must master this equation:

Stress + Rest = Growth

Work can be anything you've decided is personally meaningful to invest your energy in.

Growth doesn't have to be restricted to a particular field.

It could be as simple as mastering the art of baking the best sourdough bread possible, as long as it serves your purpose and meaning in life.

The same equation applies whether you're aiming for a promotion, cultivating an incredible garden, or engaging at your peak while playing with your kids. You got the point.

The book encourages us to push ourselves into a "stress" mode, and then it emphasizes the importance of taking a rest.

When I mention "stress," I'm not referring to being asked to complete a project in no time with no resources. Instead, I mean the energy you need to expend - a conscious effort you put in to accomplish something.

The concept is to regularly alternate your energy between being On and Off:

Generate significant waves instead of maintaining a flat line. That should be the spirit of a sustainable peak performer.

Let's zoom out and think of this model on a long term.

You can either go through your days without much engagement (leading to stagnation - orange line in the graph above), or you could be the type of person who consistently tries to stay up without taking a break (unsustainable performance - blue line above; that has been me throughout time btw).

The latter is a recipe for burnout.

Creating significant waves is how you grow anything - whether it's your muscles or cardiovascular system or your knowledge and skills in general.

You stress yourself, allow for proper recovery, and then you grow, coming back even stronger.

That's the core of the equation for developing into a sustainable peak performer.

We engage in a cycle of: work, rest, work, rest throughout our entire day; it doesn't matter what type of work it is.

For me, the most significant takeaway is genuinely focusing on training recovery.

The book also proposes that the optimal work phase (On mode) should be between 50 to 90 minutes. Following that, your recovery should be 7 to 20 minutes long (obviously, you can adjust this to best suit your lifestyle and calendar as long as you create the waves).

You go all out for 90 minutes of focused work and then take a 20-minute break, and repeat.

Working hard and then switching off, that should be the spirit.

But take both work-hard and rest-hard seriously and don't lie yourself.

If you're reading this, you likely don't struggle with turning on. That's probably not an area where improvement is needed.

It's not a challenge for me either, as I'm quite good at being on.

My difficulty lies in oscillating down into rest mode, from the constant On moment.

So, my primary challenge is fully disconnecting for recovery phase.

If we genuinely want to recover after being in an active state, we can't use activities like checking emails, social media, or news as our off cycle because we're still in that dopamine-intense, adrenaline-stimulated mode.

We need to step away from technology and truly check out - walk outside, take a nap, meditate, sauna, or find our own ways to genuinely train your recovery mode.

That's where I've been lying myself over the years - really check out, and the challenging (yet beautiful) part is that it's entirely within our control. Nobody can come and fix that for us.

Becoming proficient at taking constant breaks is crucial if we aim to be sustainable peak performers, my friend.

The key here is consistency. Trust me, I know from experience, if you only plan to take a break at 7 pm, you're likely exhausted after a stretched day where you haven't performed optimally either.

We only imagine we did, a bit like thinking multitasking exists without any cost and that we should be proud of having this skill.

And now, I can almost hear you thinking - my job doesn't allow for real check-out moment, my kids demand attention all the time, and my household tasks are piling up.

Let's have an honest chat now.

Paradoxically, the more you recover, the more you can engage in your active moments. So your output is much more valuable for yourself, those around you, those you work for.

Those with a bit of emotional intelligence will likely recognize this, but I understand that some may work for different employers and bosses who may need some education to grasp this concept. I encourage you to help and support them through mentorship to reach that understanding; they likely need to oscillate too.

Many modern companies have relaxation rooms - spaces where you can meditate or simply be quiet and check out for 10-20 minutes. Or I'm sure you can easily find a bench in a park or a private spot outside near your office.

Many of us have a typical 9-5 job with a 1-hour lunch break. Suppose you need to track every minute of your workday and can't have both a lunch break and a 10-minute break, in that case, what if, for 3/5 days a week, you bring your food, eat in a quiet space for 20 minutes (while forcing your mind to rest) and use the remaining 40 minutes to split among multiple short rests throughout the day? The other 2/5 you might decide to join your team for a lunch together.

But how many of us truly take advantage of these sort of benefit in our own favour?

How many of us are genuinely ready to work on ourselves to become proficient at taking that rest and intentionally placing ourselves in that mindset? Are you? Good.

I don't have kids personally, but I can imagine that after engaging to provide them attention at your peak for 90 minutes, you could take 20 minutes to simply sit beside them and ensure their basic safety without taking on any additional tasks (or checking your phone). While you may not be able to turn yourself fully off in this case and enjoy a sauna, I believe you could slow down to the maximum extent possible.

The challenging part is making that off moment happen even if your to-do list is a mile long. Even if there's still laundry or other crucial responsibilities waiting to be tackled. Or hobbies and desires, dinner to cook.

Manage your energy first. Acknowledge that you might be asking too much for the capacity and space you have.

It requires training, however.

It's about zooming out and remembering that if you allow yourself those 20 minutes of a break, you'll sustain the rhythm in the long term rather than crashing at a certain point, making the recovery afterwards longer and more painful.

My typical work schedules can be quite hectic, so I understand.

I know the feeling of seemingly having no control over it. However, we can control the decision to incorporate some breaks.

I was once told, "If you don't look at something, someone else will pick it up."

On another occasion, a friend mentioned: "Kids will take as much energy and attention as you give to them."

So, are you really keeping yourself in a continuous On mode because there's no way to shift and adjust the workload and meetings in your calendars or find alternatives for household tasks?

Or is it because we've formed a habit of living under the influence of high adrenaline and dopamine, hoping we'll be able to achieve it all (eventually trying to be perfectionist too)?

Or is it due to the false impression that we will disappoint someone (or be nudged by someone) for not being fully engaged in taking care of our tasks during the entire 20-minute break (even though we return stronger and provide full attention to whatever was waiting for us)?

If your answer is yes to any of these questions, bad news my friend; from experience, that's unsustainable and far from being optimal.

And before you think I don't understand or acknowledge your impossible situation, that absolutely doesn't allow for breaks - first of all, that's normal, we are humans and we all have moments when we think our problems and situations are the most critical ones. Secondly, I invite you to give these thoughts a genuine and honest reflection in the next 2-3 weeks. Review everything you do, track all those moments when you couldn't take a break but wanted and needed it so much. Write things down, spot your patterns, and make decisions based on data. I'm more than certain that what blocks us from adopting this mindset are our own limitations, but we're ready to overcome, aren't we?!

Lastly, I believe a sustainable peak performer has resilience and a supportive network.

Only with great resilience we can finish the marathon.

Build the ability to bounce back from setbacks and adapt to adversity.

Resilience involves learning from failures, maintaining a positive outlook, and using challenges as opportunities for growth.

And surround yourself with a positive and supportive network of friends, mentors, and colleagues.

Build strong connections to collaborate, to exchange valuable insights, and that can offer you emotional support during both On and Off moments.

Have you ever seen an athlete without having the support of a coach or without being part of a team?

Humans are made to survive in tribes and not alone.

Don't reinvent the wheel; seek clarity from those who have achieved what you desire for yourself.

Learn from your boss about how they've achieved their leadership career if that's what you aspire for. Seek support from your senior peer to advance your career. Ask friends you trust and who have kids for parenting tips. Join courses, circle groups, read books, and diversify your knowledge so you don't end up trying to be the hero reinventing things.

If you're experiencing something, most likely there's at least another person going through the same thing; chances are that our problems and situations are common.

Cultivate and synthesize from your own and others' experiences and failures too.

Combine that with clarity, healthy habits, knowledge, your systems to manage your energy and stress, and you're ready to leap into action as a sustainable peak performer in life.

That's it for this week's rambling note, my friend.

I hope you got a tip or two to help you in mastering a bit better modern life (in a fulfilling and sustainable way).

I'll catch up with you next week, and until then, I wish you optimal and sustainable progress for a fulfilling and sustainable day-by-day life.

-Luciana