Psst… I’m gonna let you in on a secret.  I’ve failed as often as I’ve won.  And I’ve had a lot of wins in life … if you get my drift.  I take some comfort in knowing I’m not alone – but failing is a miserable feeling.  It’s also completely necessary.

The problem is never in the failing.  The problem is when failing – or under performing – becomes a habit.  It’s the perpetual cycle of same old thinking, same old results.

It’s something I know a little bit about.

I have had the privilege of coaching hundreds of people in my career.  I’ve seen people at their best and at their worst, through their challenges and successes. And from this position of trust here’s one thing I’ve learned:

Mindset Always Precedes Performance.  Always.

It doesn’t matter what the nature of the performance is – from day to day job responsibilities, to high stake sales performances, front stage or back stage, top rung or bottom rung – everything we create, every result we produce (or don’t produce), can be traced back to our mental framework.  Good performance, bad performance – mindset precedes it all.

Predictably, if people continue to think the way they do today, they will continue to perform as they do today.

That’s good news for winners.  But what about the rest of us? Read the rest of this entry