High Performance Leadership

Hard fought lessons can be forgotten. What we forget can't help us. It's easy, but foolish, to disregard the lessons of the past. Remember what you've learned and your learning will serve you well. -- doug smith

What do you do when you are really stressed? Having lived in Colorado for eight years, I became quite tuned into how a lack of oxygen can effect your performance. The higher you go, the more rare the air. And sometimes, that makes it very hard to breathe. High performance leaders live in rarified air. They go places others are afraid of. They lead people on new challenges. They get stressed. Breathe. Learn your limits. Learn your capacity. Learn what you need to keep going strong. When we pay attention, breathing teaches. Breathe. -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action: Pause, Take one minute right now to breathe, slowly, and carefully paying attention to your breath. Give it at least a few deep full and complete breathes. On the exhale, make sure that ALL of the old air is expelled. Breathe in with your full attention.

When we reach our limit, it means we have an opportunity. We can stay where we are, which eventually leads to sliding backwards, or we can find a way to learn. We can do better than our best by learning. Learning is how we grow. Learning is how we improve. Learning is how we do better than our previous best. What have you learned today? -- doug smith

Sometimes I like to imagine that I can go back in time and fix some mistake. Something I said, but shouldn't have...something I didn't say, but should have. A look, a sigh, a moment taken distracted when someone needed my attention. Could I just please fix all that? We are who we are and we got here the way that we got here. There is no changing that. And -- there's no stopping us from learning. From it, and from more. To keep learning. We can't fix the past, but we can learn from it. To say what we want to say. To do what we need to do. To grow instead of standing still. To make the gesture, hold the hand, hug the friend, attend to the one in need. We can learn. -- doug smith