Let's Start Your Journey to Self-Discovery

Do you know who you are?

If you were sitting in a class and a teacher asked, “Tell me who you are,” you may answer back, “A student,” or “A daughter,” or “a ball player.” All of these are answers are true to some extent, as being these titles are a part of who you may consider yourself to be. However, when was the last time that you sat down and asked yourself:

“What do I value? What are the core values and character traits that help guide who I am as a person? How do I act in the ways that are true to what I value?”

This is a pretty serious question to ask yourself. However, becoming great at anything involves asking some serious questions along the way. This Journey of Self Discovery as we will call it, requires honesty and holding yourself accountable to your standards and values. And the first step in this journey is to honestly evaluate yourself and the values you hold.

Now, if you are an athlete and you are reading this you may be thinking, “What does finding out what I value and who I am have to do with me doing well in sports or my job?” The truth is – it has everything to do with it. When you are in times of stress, when you need to be at your best and you feel that the pressure is on, you need to be the person you really are and have trained to be when it is time to perform. This could be performing in a competition, work, or dealing with stressful situations at home. Can you be the ideal person you want to be when you need to be? Or do you get so overwhelmed and stressed that you lose sight of who you are and can’t compete when the pressure is on?

Whether you do this frequently or every once in a great while, we all have been there before. SO…let’s take the first step in your Journey of Self Discovery get started with identifying your values.

Here is a list of the 30 most commonly held values and character traits across the globe. Identify the 5 that most define who you are when you are at your best:

Accountable, Adaptable, Ambitious, Awareness, Balance, Caring, Committed, Compassion, 

Competitive, Competence, Courage, Humble, Honest, Family, Friendship, Generous

Independent, Leader, Listening, Openness, Perseverance, Power, Recognition , Reliable

Risk Taking, Self-Discipline, Teammate, Trust, Vision, Wisdom 

So now that you have identified what your character traits are and values that matter to you, ask yourself this question:

When times get tough, and you need to be at your best, are you still the person that respects the traits that make you your best self? Are you still courageous or do you get nervous? Are you still compassionate or do you lash out at others?

If you can answer these questions honestly, then you have taken your first step towards self discovery. If you are having a hard time answering these questions, that’s okay! Think about who you really are, who you want to be, and what matters to you – and discover your values. It is the first step to discovering who you are and are you guiding principles in living your life to the fullest.

Remember to follow Achievement Consulting on Twitter @achievementllc and if you want to connect with us, just email chris@achievementllc.com

Do you have the Six Skills of a High Achiever?

Everyone of us walking the earth has the ability to perform at a high level in life, business, and sport. Sadly, not many people take the time to learn the skills on how to get there. But YOU have made the right decision in first, reading this post, and second wanting to learn the skills that high achievers have. As you read through the next 6 skills, ask yourself “When things get tough, whether in sports, business, or life – do I do any of these things?” If you answer yes, great! If not, that’s OK too! We are here to make sure that you gain the skills needed in order to become a High Achiever, and over the next several weeks, teach you the skills you need to reach your maximum potential.

SO…let’s take a look at the 6 Key Skills of High Achievers…

SKILL #1: Having an awareness of who you are

-          Knowing who you are [also known as being self-aware] and having a philosophy that drives you is the first step to being a High Achiever. A person who is self-aware has a set of core values that drives their sense of purpose, and assists them in how they will make decisions in times of calmness and [most importantly] stress. People who are High Achievers know who they are when times are tough and are not willing to get away from those core values that have gotten them to where they are.

Question: What are your core values that drive you? And if you know them, do you have a personal philosophy that defines who you are and what you want to achieve in your life?  

SKILL #2: Being able to generate confidence whenever, wherever - no matter what the stakes are

-          Knowing how to generate confidence, no matter what is happening is the next skill of a High Achiever. This comes from an understanding of yourself [the skill that we just discussed], the environment that you are in during a particular moment, and how you react when it is time to perform. High Achievers understand how to be confident under any situation, from how they present their body language, to how they communicate with themselves and others.

Question: When times get tough, how do you present yourself [do you stand tall and use strong eye contact, or do you act the opposite]? And how do you talk to yourself and others – meaning are you hard on yourself and your team – or do you use language that will build you and them up?

 SKILL #3: Having a very clear vision of where you are going and HOW you are going to get there

-          The HOW is part is the most important piece. We can all set very high, very lofty goals, but to understand how you are going accomplish those goals is one of the keys to achieving at a high level. It’s not just about having grit and perseverance when it may seem that your goal is far out of reach, but rather understanding how you are going to get there is more important at times than the goal itself.

Question: What are your goals [both long and short term]? And if you have some, how are you planning on reaching them? Remember that when discussing the HOW, be specific – this will make things much easier.

 SKILL #4: Knowing how to generate a sense of calmness

-          When the stakes are at there highest, being able to be calm in the moment can be the difference between winning and losing. That is why we talk about ‘playing the game [and living life] one play/pitch/moment at a time.’ When you have the ability to live in a stressful moment while you are calm and relaxed, you will have a greater ability to recall all the things that you have been trained to do. Also, this calmness will stop you from making decisions that get away from who you are and your core values. Remember – no matter what the stakes, true victory in life, business, and sports comes from always being one’s true self.

Question: How do you act when things get stressful? Do you stay true to who you are or do you stray from the person you are and/or want to be?

SKILL #5: Knowing how to re-focus

-          It’s easy to say “So what, next thing, moment, or play.” However, it usually is not effective since you may tend to ignore the mistakes you have just made. When you grow an awareness about yourself, you also grow the ability to become aware of when you are saying and doing things that are hindering your performance. By being aware of yourself and the situation, your ability to re-focus after a negative situation, or even after a positive situation in which you are overcome with emotions of excitement and joy, can be invaluable to your success. The goal however is to have a key word, effort, or reaction to situations that put you back on course. This could be a simple as a deep breath, or a few phrases that you say when you get “knocked off course.”

Question: When you get ‘knocked off track” what do you do to re-focus? Is it a slogan you repeat to yourself or do you take a deep breath? Having a plan to re-focus, no matter what the plan is – is a great start to taking control of yourself and the situation when times get tough.

SKILL #6: Being able to create images in our minds that support the training that we have done – A.K.A. Visualization

-          The majority of the time when in training and things are going how you want them to go, you are relaxed, focused, and confident. Being able to continually visualize these moments in performance situations and recall upon them during stressful times can help improve your game drastically. High Achievers take the time to visualize situations that occur in life [and important conversation with a loved one], or business [a big meeting with their peers] and put themselves in any situation that could occur so when the time comes, they know how to react and perform their best.

Question: Do you visualize important situations before they happen? If so, how do you do it? Is it in a quiet place where you can really concentrate, or is it in your car on the way to work? One thing to remember is the more you are able to focus in a calm environment while doing your visualization training, the more effective your session will be.

How did you do in answering the questions that came with each of these skills? If you don’t do many of the things that high achievers do – don’t worry, that’s why we are here! Make sure you have (1) signed-up for our weekly Monday Motivation, (2) follow us on Twitter @achievementllc, and (3) if you have any further questions and really want to start living your life its maximum, you can email me at Chris@achievementllc.com.

Remember – it’s never the wrong time to take control of your business, life, or sport. Start doing it today!