by Gustavo Oliveira, teacher of the DeRose Method
Since we were born, we have been conditioned by specific patterns of behaviors. We are what we repeatedly think, feel, eat and behave. Even when we see that our behaviors are not rewarding, rarely are we able to change these habits and attitudes.
It is much easier to plan around them than to change them. Many of us may live a busy and hectic lifestyle. We wake up, work, eat and sleep almost automatically, without asking ourselves what really makes us happy and fulfilled in life? And this unconscious process repeats itself daily, which can lead to a nonfulfilling lifestyle.
Would you like to change some habits, attitudes, and behaviors to live your life fully and to perform at your best?
The basic idea that permeates the system is to identify the conditions and factors that allow people to extract all their abilities and all their skills and start putting them into practice.
Imagine the seed of a tree. Now, place this seed on a marble floor. What will happen? Nothing. However, if you take that same seed and put it in fertile soil with the right nutrients, with perfect moisture and the proper lighting, the seed will grow. And over time, it will grow into a tree, and if the conditions are the most perfect, over time this tiny seed will reach its full potential, becoming a majestic tree, reaching its maximum height.
Could this same principle be applied to us humans? If so, what would these conditions be for us? With these ideal conditions, how much could each one of us achieve in business, sports, and our personal lives? Could we engineer these conditions?
It has taken me 12 years to develop a comprehensive set of ideas and techniques that will help users engineer certain factors that are critical in your ability to perform at your best. When you read these factors, I hope that the one thought that crosses your mind is, “it is so simple!” I think that this quote from Steve Jobs explains it best, “Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
Here are the 8 factors:
1. Focus.
Our modern world, which is globalized and connected, allows us to access a multitude of possibilities. However, at the same time, this generates a massive source of dispersion and distractions. A week’s worth of news from the New York Times has more information than an average person was likely to come across in a lifetime. If you don’t learn how to stay focused throughout the day and even throughout your life, you won’t get very far and will have low productivity and increased procrastination. When you learn to stay focused on the task at hand, and in life in general, you will become a lot more productive.
2. Technical Knowledge.
A more fundamental and clear-cut factor is the technical expertise that you have in your chosen field. A business person needs to know the market and the best practices within it. Athletes need to know all the techniques, rules and strategies of their sport. When you have technical knowledge of the task at hand, you can conquer it more productively. However, please note that a vast majority of people concern themselves only with this variable and although having the technical knowledge will help, it is not the only factor needed to get results.
3. Physical Condition (vitality).
One of the greatest minds that humanity has ever known was Albert Einstein. I would like you to imagine what would happen if we put Einstein’s brain in a horse. My guess: nothing. Your body is what allows you to express your intrinsic potential in your chosen practice. Your body is vital because when we have a toothache, it is almost impossible to focus on any intellectual activity. When we are sick, our professional or sports performance diminishes. Therefore, physical condition influences your ability to maximize human performance. Consequently, we must care for our bodies in order to perform at our best.
4. Energy Level.
Imagine a light bulb. The more energy we give it, the brighter it will shine. Humans function similarly. The more energy we have circulating within our bodies, the more we will be able to put our potential to work. The ability to make good choices about how we spend our energy and the ability to increase our levels of energy is fundamental. Ways to improve your levels of energy include; controlling stress, exercising regularly, getting proper sleep, proper nutrition, avoid smoking and limiting alcohol consumption all are vital steps to boosting energy levels.
5. Emotional Skills (emotional intelligence).
It is imperative to cultivate good relationships in the work environment and our personal lives. Those who do not practice this skill can lose opportunities and waste their energy with non-productive and non-positive behaviors. It’s important to learn how to handle frustration and other bad feelings that we will certainly experience, by channeling them into something useful.
6. Mental Attitude (mindset, mental resilience).
What most beginners’ entrepreneurs/athletes don’t know is that most people don’t really fail, they give up. As time passes in the new venture, professionals experience a lot of failures, and next, they usually lack self-confidence, motivation, self-empowerment, and energy to continue during the bad moments. And finally, most of them just give up because they don’t feel they are good enough to go on. We should continuously enhance self-confidence, attitudes, mindset, and mental resilience in order to have success.
7. Challenge Level.
If you lacked the challenge and started entering a “comfort zone,” that will result in apathy and boredom. You will not be able to fulfill even a fraction of your potential by sticking to the safe and comfortable, because being safe and convenient never forces you to rise to the occasion. It never offers the resistance that can strengthen areas of your mind and body that you didn’t know you had. Please also note, that if you have an excess of challenge you may get mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted, and that will also undoubtedly make you fail. Therefore, there is an optimal level of tension that will support us to perform at our best. We should continuously observe and check this.
8. Maturity (how many tests and failures you had).
Sometimes we are so afraid of failure that we procrastinate testing our ideas and entering the game. This is very common. But maturity and success come from failures. The idea is: the fastest you make your mistakes and learn with them, the more you will succeed.
Gustavo Oliveira has helped approximately 2,000 people world-wide, entrepreneurs and top athletes on how to overcome their limits and cultivate quality of life through The DeRose Method, a unique practice proven to helpdevelop an individual’s brain, body and emotions. His experience has taken him all over the world, he has lectured and taught thousands of students in New York, Paris, London, Lisbon, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Sao Paulo.
