The Performance Practitioner Purple Unicorn…?
A fulfilling and financially rewarding career and a happy personal life rich with flexibility and opportunity is the Performance Practitioner purple unicorn.
Or is it?
For me, no. It’s the dream, but this doesn’t make it unachievable. It’s bloody hard to manifest I would say but…
‘The only difference between a dream and reality is action’
Ref: Someone smarter than me
Throughout my career I have drifted in and out of professional fulfilment & financial stability, my personal life has always taken a backseat. Largely this happened not because of the demands of a particular job, but because of my mindset towards each role and the time and energy, I chose to attach to it.
So this is a list of actions you can take to shift your mindset towards creating the career and life that you want.
Create healthy barriers
Build them and protect them as if your life depends on them. Because in many ways, it does. To quote Sam Portland ‘A mobile phone is for my convenience, not yours.
Establish your values
Who are you as a person? What are your needs, wants and desires? These may differ for you both personally and professionally. The most important thing is you can easily identify hell yes or hell no situations. For a bit more guidance click HERE.
Establish your professional identity
- As a performance practitioner, I want to achieve……….
- I want to be the type of practitioner that……….
- I want to be recognized and respected for……….
- I can achieve this with these actions ……….
For a deep dive, you can see HERE.
Periodize your career
Map out your career on a micro-meso and macro level based on the core competencies of your field. Stay tuned for some big info on this coming soon.
Hold yourself accountable
Find an accountability partner who will hold your feet to the fire when your actions and behaviors aren’t in line with what you said you are going to do.
Get real
Understand the challenge, the scope of it, the cost, and the investment and be realistic about the timelines required to achieve these.
Assume the challenge
Be ready to tackle the challenge as if your life depends on it. Because it does.
Invest in you
Employ experts to support you in areas of your personal development and business in which you are weak in.
Plan your investments
Mix quick returning investments of time and money with long-range investments with large growth potential.
Learn business and sales. Yesterday.
This is vital and critically overlooked. Learn it, engage with it and execute then reap the rewards. Become a student again and embrace where you are right now if it is not where you should be just yet.
Get yourself an anti-echo chamber
People who will challenge your ideas and drive you towards positive change.
There are literally hundreds of these short tips which collectively make up elite behaviors. If you aren’t ticking all or most of these boxes then there is scope to improve. The elusive passive income, financial freedom, work when you want to, and be the ability to turn work down situations CAN be created. But you and you alone need to build it from the bottom up, you need to invest the time, energy, and effort into it and raise it as if your life depended on it.
