Achieving Sustainable Peak Performance

Achieving Sustainable Peak Performance:
Understanding and Managing the Instinct you’re Born with in Relation to Your Learned Behaviours

Why do I do that?
It’s Friday night and you haven’t finished that report. It’s due in on Monday. You have to go out tonight and you don’t really want work to intrude on your weekend. You could have done it today but you kept finding other things to do – things that were more interesting. You leave the office promising yourself that you’ll do it on Saturday. Yet you know that by Sunday night you’ll be burning the midnight oil to get it done on time. And you’ll be asking yourself “Why do I always get myself in this situation?”

.... It’s Monday morning and the report is on the appropriate person’s desk. It isn’t too bad really; you seemed to have a stroke of genius just at the right time. You tell yourself “Well, I really work well under pressure”. That’s true, but it’s not something you would admit to anyone at work. They’d tell you that you need to plan ahead – you need more discipline. Yet something inside you resists all that conformity.

Or…

Perhaps you’re the one waiting for the report. You told the person responsible for preparing it, that Monday was the deadline. You gave them all the relevant information at the beginning of the week so that they had plenty of time to complete it. But you know what they’re going to do. They’re going to leave it to the last minute again. They do it every time. You watch them messing around all Friday. So you remind them on Friday afternoon – just to give them a last chance. You know you can trust them, they have the ability and you know they’re going to deliver. Yet you can’t help worrying. And you watch them leave on Friday night with the file under their arm. And you ask yourself “Why do they do that?”

….. It’s waiting for you Monday morning. It’s a great report, it always is. You have no idea when they finished it. But it’s here just when you need it. You’ve spent the whole weekend worrying – it even spoiled your game of golf. And you ask yourself “Why do I always get myself in such a stew? Why do I do that?”

Of course this scenario is not just relevant to business – these situations are also replicated at home between parent and child, on the football field between player and coach or within the close confines of a personal relationship. This behaviour is often referred to as a ‘bad habit … usually by the other person in the equation.

Why do we do things in a certain way that feels right to us but can frustrate those around us? Why does there seem to be this drive inside us that makes us repeat the same pattern again and again? Why is it that when you try to do it differently it becomes so hard to do and feels almost awkward?

There is a natural innate difference between people that answers many of these questions. Each of us is driven to do things our own way, a way that suits our own unique approach to the world. Understanding these differences and learning how to work with them for each person’s mutual benefit (rather than as a point of frustration) improves these situations whether they be at work, play, or any other setting we find ourselves in.

These drives we have found are “instinctive”, which means that they are natural to you (and will never change) and while we are sometime conscious of them, for the most part, they operate sub-consciously (which means they will influence and control you whether you are aware of them or not).

By understanding and knowing your Instinctive Drives™ (I.D.™) you are able to operate and sustain peak performance in all areas of your life. This paper is an introduction for you to the I.D. System™, how it relates to your personality and experiences and ultimately how you manifest your I.D. to the world, making you so unique!

What is the I.D. System™

The I.D. System is the only proven method of measuring Instinctive Drives™.

I.D. is the equivalent of your instinctual thumbprint - it's the essence of who you are and like your thumbprint it NEVER changes. It is your 'right' way, your instinctive innate natural operating system. And once you understand it, you can discover the mysteries of those times where everything worked.

A recent independent study by the University of Western Sydney, showed the I.D. System to be a clear industry leader amongst the top tools and leadership methodologies in the market today from a validity, application and effectiveness viewpoint.

When we have that feeling of being in-stride, we are working in a way that comes naturally to us – it just feels right, it fits and it’s effortless. Your I.D. describes this state of being in stride for you, uniquely. Now here’s the exciting news – knowing your I.D., means that you can duplicate those situations so it’s effortless ALL of the time, it is a road map or formula that you can apply every day to make feeling in-stride a day to day occurrence for you..

By understanding what makes you tick you can harness those innate characteristics that come naturally to you, rather than working against your natural grain or worse still ignoring them. If you could do this everyday, imagine what you could achieve.

If we understand ourselves and those around us, we can massively improve the meaningful relationships of our life. If you knew the I.D. of your children and were able to really communication with them so they felt listened to, honoured and appreciated – how would that affect your relationship with your children?

If you knew the I.D. of your partner and were able to avoid the petty arguments that result from miscommunication and misunderstanding – how could that improve your relationship?

Take a look at the graph on the following link called the Peak Performance Indicator™ the coloured bars represent you in-stride, you at your best. When you are living like this you will get all of the good components at the top of the chart. However, if we try to live the way others want us to or the way we think we should we begin to feel some of the things below the line.

So the question is…...where are you on the Peak Performance Indicator™ graph now? Are you living life your way and therefore getting all of those things at the top of the chart? Or is the way you feel right now best represented below the line in black and white?

The more you are in alignment with your I.D., the more you will enjoy, experience and model the 8 vital components:

1. Fulfilment
2. Achievement
3. Peak Performance
4. Self Worth
5. Self Esteem
6. Confidence
7. Good Health
8. Energy

The horizontal axis above (represented in black and white) is an indication of what happens when you DON’T know your I.D. and therefore can’t honour it, or if you’re living your life in a way that opposes your I.D. The symptoms below the line show how this - being out of stride - can affect your behaviour, health and wellbeing.

The more you work against your I.D., or move further form the coloured bars in the graph, the more you will experience stress, anxiety, frustration and the 8 vital components of an abundant life will be increasingly diminished.

Your personal "best way" represents your best route to experiencing a life of fulfilment and achievement. But as we journey through life we are often pulled away from our instinctively natural way of operating by parents, teachers, employers, society’s expectations and partners.

Many of these influences genuinely care for you and simply want the best for you, they want you to know what took them years and sometimes pain to learn, but if your best way doesn't mimic their best way, or your way doesn't meet with cultural expectations, then you can be pressured to conform and be pulled off course. The further away you get from your true north, the further off course you get from your best way, the more stress you feel in your life.

This is why understanding and knowing your I.D. will lead you to experience a more valued and fulfilled existence.

Using your Instinctive Drives™ for Sustaining Peak Performance Indicator™

As we have mentioned your I.D. is like your own personal success recipe. By understanding I.D., you are finally in a position to unlock your own unique gifts and talents, assisting you to identify your passion in life and tapping into your life purpose. At the same time, the insights that come from I.D., allow you to appreciate your natural vulnerabilities so you can manage them effectively.

The I.D.System does this by identifying:

Your natural operating style including natural strengths and vulnerabilities and therefore career suitability and other appropriate options

The way you need to work with others for you to be at your best

How to stay focused on the right things, how to stay motivated, the type of feedback you need

How you can best compliment others, especially those with whom you work or live with more closely

How to best tackle other challenges or obstacles in your life that may be a distraction to you being at your best

The kind of colleagues and customers that will suit you best

The specific communication strategies that work best for you

Ultimately it gives you the instruction book to your own motivation and peak performance. By knowing your I.D. you can at any (and every) moment ask yourself are the needs that I have to be my best being met right now? And if not, your I.D. can tell you how those needs need to be met so that you can sustain your motivation and performance.

What makes the I.D. so powerful is that when you understand why you do something, you can meet that need in a more productive or effective way than you do today. If you don’t understand your I.D. often you are just trying to change your behaviours, the surface level “display” of a need being met, a need that won’t go away by simply changing your behaviour. Another way to look at it is that you continue to treat the cause rather than the symptom.

Understanding your Instinctive Drives™ and the differences of those around you will give you the tools to:

communicate and deal effectively with people who are very different to you

stay on top of your time management especially when working with others

motivate others using yours and their natural talents

help people achieve their full potential

achieve common ownership and focus

delegate more effectively

keep people on track

get the right people in the right jobs

There are many ways of assessing or measuring behaviour BUT not the intent of that behaviour (or as we call it the drive) and as such, resulting actions and recommendations can have limited application or impact because behaviour is so significantly affected by other factors such as society expectations, conditioning and values.

I.D. on the other hand side steps all that CAN and often does change, and gives you a clean and accurate insight into the things that DON'T CHANGE and are so powerful when they are understood - the core essence of who you are. It is the drive that motivates you to do what you do in the way that you do it. How that plays out in life however, can be dependant on a number of different and ever changing influences which we refer to as the Onion Skin Model (see next section).

The I.D. System is unique in that it measures instinct and provides strategies that harness your identified talents and gives you clarity around your innate needs, therefore enabling you to sustain peak performance.

Onion Skin Model

What is the Onion Skin Model and why are we referring to vegetables when we talk about something as profound as the I.D.?

There are many things that make up who we are today - our experiences, values and level of education. As with the layers of an onion, these are the things the world sees when they look at us. People don’t see each layer when they look at us -what they do see when they look at us is all of these layers interacting – they see what we commonly call ‘personality’.

This is important, as it is your Instinctive Drives, not your personality, that motivate you to do what you do, it is the reason you do something. How that plays out or the way that you do it, is dependant on a number of different things that we refer to as Onion Skins. One doesn’t work independently of the other!

So your I.D. is the why, and the actions or personality we see is the how.

As an example, two people might happen to have exactly the same I.D. and therefore be driven by the same motivators yet appear to be very different people. When we think of the I.D. interrelating with our onion skins it is good to think of a persons onions skins as the way in which their drive and motivation is expressed, the way their I.D. ‘shows up’. This difference in expression can therefore make them outwardly appear very different, though they are both trying to express the same core thing.

Say for example you have a friend/colleague who was strongly motivated by an impossible challenge. Typically, these people love the excitement of that, they are high energy and thrive on risk and pressure. But one person because of their onion skin layers (e.g. personal moral values) could go on to become a drug smuggler while the other could start a revolutionary business!

Both fulfil the need for risk and challenge, yet how they each manifest that drive is dependant on their values. Quite clearly, the drug runner would not have the same values as the entrepreneur.

I.D. is your gift - how you choose to wrap it depends on your:

Values

Beliefs

Experiences and Family

Confidence and Self Esteem

Skills and Knowledge

Attitude

It is these influential factors that explain the external differences of behaviour that are seen between people with the same or similar I.D.

The I.D. however remains accurate and intact and it represents what drives that individual, when left to his or her own devises, but the other layers of the onion will influence how that motivation is expressed in the world. They can influence the career someone chooses or the mate they chose or where they live or whether they are happy.

Discovering YOUR I.D.

As we have discovered your I.D. defines your most fundamental innate needs. Needs that are essential to optimising your health, attaining peak performance, energising your relationships and enjoying ultimate fulfilment.

The I.D. System doesn’t focus on your behaviour or personality. It is a proven system with unparalleled success for achieving peak performance through understanding the real you.

For a true and accurate representation of your own personal set of innate needs and talents, we encourage you to visit www.idcentral.com.au to discover your own true I.D. and obtain your personal Instinctive Drive™ Report.

As you signed up as a member of www.idcentral.com.au you have access to a great deal of information regarding I.D. and its different components. It can be tempting to ‘guess’ your I.D. but with the mix of onion skin layers at play, it is hard for such a guess to be accurate, even for some of our best practitioners.