The Path To Peak Performance

…People change if and when THEY are ready.

Not you. Not me. No one else.

Furthermore, people change by becoming MORE of what they are, not trying to become what they are not.

Think of a time when you tried to be or do something that your heart wasn't into...

How did that work out for you?

Maybe you had success in the short term, but I doubt you could sustain it.

That's what happens when you don't get the buy-in…from YOU.

When it comes to REAL growth, raising awareness is the biggest success factor - individual and team.

By raising awareness to blind spots, and other obstacles holding you back, you clear the way for peak performance.

Think about it - If you are unaware of defensive behavior when receiving feedback, people will stop giving you feedback.

Without feedback, you CANNOT grow...or improve.

Raising awareness should be the primary method AND goal of all development work.

Incidentally, there are lots of great development tools and methods out there.

I'm familiar with a handful of good personality profilers (Myers Briggs ‘MBTI’, StrengthsFinder, Insights, DiSC).

Before becoming an MBTI Practitioner, I learned about my preference for harmony, and aversion to conflict.

However, helping people confront conflict is a BIG part of my chosen profession.

This information helped me make peace with conflict so that I could better do my job.

If something helps you gain a deeper understanding of yourself or others...I'm all for it.

However, I do NOT believe there is one magic tool or method that holds the solution to your specific situation - individual or team.

Your situation is unique and specific to YOU.

Therefore, the tool, method and approach must be as well.

These 3 core beliefs have guided me throughout my 25 year career journey.

I have seen NO exceptions.

If you agree with any these core beliefs, I'd love to have you in my tribe (see BIO for newsletter sign up).

Hi Friends,

I'm rarely on FB these days - I'd love to be connected with you on Insta.

I look forward to interacting with you over there!

Cheers,
Tim

Man plans, God laughs.

Even if you don’t believe in God, you get the point.

As a wise man once said, even the “best laid plans oft’ go awry”.

That’s certainly been my experience.

A BIG lesson learned on my 30-year career journey:

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

Nearing the ripe old age of 30, after about 4 years abroad, I decided to repatriate to the US.

After a year and a half in the beautiful city of San Francisco, I was on a plane to Munich, Germany.

I’ve been here since.

BOTTOM LINE: You might be through with something, but it might not be through with you.

Therefore, be ready to adapt. AND, accept whatever comes your way.

The second part is not always easy, especially when you have your heart set on something.

Can you think of a time when you made a solid plan only for something to come in unexpectedly and alter it.

For regular tips & ideas to inspire you to ACTION, get The Career Success Newsletter:

https://www.pathtopeakperformance.org/the-career-success-newsletter

...See that sweet little girl with her arms around my twenty-something neck? It's her birthday today...and she's not so little any more. She's actually got 3 little ones of her own now. So does her baby brother, by the way.

Brianna and I have always had a special bond. I'm not sure if it's because I met her as a newborn a few days after she was born. Or the fun visits around Christmastime like in the picture...It might be due to the wonderful memory I have of her signing and playing at my wedding in Big Sur - I can't watch the wedding video without shedding a tear...OK, many tears!

There are so many reasons that connect us. It's been so fun getting to know her kids - they all have the same twinkle that she did. She still does.

So happy birthday, dear Brianna! In some ways you'll always be that little girl with pigtails and pink pajamas. Thanks for all those sweet hugs and smiles over the years...keep 'em coming!

Sending lots of love your way,
Uncle Tim

Personal growth and career success are intertwined. Inseparable, in fact.

If you don’t prioritize personal growth, you might have some success...

BUT, you won’t be able to sustain it.

Look no further than this TRINITY OF PERSONAL GROWTH:

• Self-awareness
• Personal Resilience
• Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

Think about it - to effectively lead yourself or anyone else, you have to be aware of what drives you, what you need, etc.

The same goes for leading people - you have to understand what others need to feel and perform at their best, for example.

PRO TIP: If you want to grow self-awareness, I recommend doing something outside your comfort zone. Do something where you are surrounded by people different from you. The more uncomfortable you feel, the more you grow.

Let me know how it goes?

FREE TOOL: https://www.pathtopeakperformance.org/slow-down-to-speed-up-5-mindful-strategies-for-personal-growth

My mom Nancy Nash Lund is a warrior. Not in a military or physical sense. Although I remember going to a yoga class with her about 25 years ago and feeling embarrassed. It wasn't the age difference. She was kicking my butt!

It has more to do with her thirst for knowledge, and her curiosity about herself and others.

Mom is many things to many people - mother, wife, friend, therapist. To me, she's the one who turned me on to Woody Allen's best films in the 80's - ones that led me to Dostoevsky and other great thinkers. (Love him or hate him, you can't deny the brilliance of "Hannah & Her Sisters" or "Crimes & Misdemeanors")

She's the one who was always reading, always learning, always discovering new things. She went back to school in her 50's and began working as a Marriage & Family Counselor. She's still at it.

One time while visiting her home near Sacramento I looked through her book collection…I had to laugh when I saw that most books were marked up and “worked through”. I do the same thing.

She’s one of the few people I know that still sends “real” cards – birthday, anniversary, etc. She never forgets those special occasions, one of the many things I am grateful for when it comes to my mom.

Here is what I have to say on the subject of gratitude – if you are grateful to someone, tell them. Life is short. You never know how much time you have. So don’t wait to tell someone how you feel about them.

This picture was taken at sunset up at Meditation Mount overlooking the Ojai valley, not far from Los Angeles. The fires started a few days later. In fact, my wife and I drove mom to LAX on January 7th, a few hours after the Palisades fire began. We could see the smoke on our drive. We also flew back to Munich on that day.

Even though we arrived back to freezing temperatures, I was so grateful that we had missed the fires. And that we had had 3 worry-free days with mom. Mostly, I was grateful mom was able to come down from Sacramento and visit us in Ojai over New Years.

We had a wonderful time – exploring beautiful places like Meditation Mount, enjoying great food like raw Buffalo-milk ice cream, and lots of laughing and storytelling in between.

Thanks, mom, for all those cards and gifts over the years. Thanks for passing on your thirst for knowledge, too.

Most of all, thanks for modeling fun and curiosity for me then…and now.

Do you suffer from Newsletter overload? Every 6 months or so I go through my emails and unsubscribe from a few…I even tried a separate email account just with Newsletters...Didn’t work for me. The inbox would just fill up as I didn’t look at it often enough.

My criteria for unsubscribing is simple: Does this Newsletter still provide me VALUE?

AND, for me to subscribe to a Newsletter, it needs 3 things:

1. Actionable tips – Realistic actions I can take, not theoretical or idealistic suggestions.

2. Ideas and stories that inspire me to take action or experiment with something new or different.

3. Humor – A funny or unique way of looking at something.

ABOVE ALL, the writer has to speak from the heart, i.e. with authenticity. It has to come from them, in their own, unique voice.

There’s nothing worse than reading something that has clearly been AI-generated. That could have been written by Chat GPT or someone else.

When I write a Newsletter, I aspire to get all 3 MUST-HAVE’s. In my own voice. Also, NO ONE wants to be bombarded by emails. 2-3 mailings a month is what I aim for.

On a different note, I’ve come to believe that personal growth and career success are intertwined.

If you don’t prioritize personal growth, you might be able to have, but NOT SUSTAIN, success in your career. Look no further than self-awareness, personal resilience and emotional intelligence (EQ).

So here’s my proposal:

Sign up for “Slow Down to Speed Up: 5 Mindful Strategies for Personal Growth": https://www.pathtopeakperformance.org/slow-down-to-speed-up-5-mindful-strategies-for-personal-growth

Here’s what you get:

· A free, practical tool to help you prioritize personal growth.
· My Career Success Newsletter 2-3 x per/mo.

Here’s my pledge:

With every mailing, I aim for all 3 Newsletter MUST-HAVE’s. In my own voice, not someone else’s.

If you subscribe and then decide it doesn’t or no longer provides value, please unsubscribe. I won’t be offended.

Here’s your action to take:

Sign up for FREE TOOL “Slow Down to Speed Up: 5 Mindful Strategies for Personal Growth” and automatically get my Newsletter 2-3 x p/mo. [https://www.pathtopeakperformance.org/slow-down-to-speed-up-5-mindful-strategies-for-personal-growth]

With love,
Tim

P.S. Sign up now to get my next mailing next Thursday. It's a game changer. At least for me. It's still The Career Success Newsletter but with a SHARP focus on personal growth and development. Success in your work can't happen without it. (EQ, etc.) I believe personal growth leads to an alignment of your work and life purpose. THAT is what I call career success.

When you connect to your AUTHENTIC SELF, you focus on what matters. TO YOU.

When you focus on what matters most, you make better decisions. FOR YOU.

BUT…first, you've got to SLOW DOWN. The trick is learning how to do it…

Here’s a FREE TOOL to help you slow down, focus on what matters and take action to get it. (LINK IN BIO)

Next time you're feeling anxious or overwhelmed, try this:

1. Stop going/doing/performing
2. Take 5-10 deep breaths (calms the mind)
3. Ask yourself: "What is most important for me right now?"
4. When you feel ready to restart, focus on your answer to question 3.
5. Take aligned action (w purpose and intention, aligned w your key goals)

WHERE AWARENESS GOES, ENERGY FLOWS!

P.S. Slow down. Focus on what matters. Take action to get it. Get FREE TOOL:

https://www.pathtopeakperformance.org/https/wwwpathtopeakperformanceorg/slow-down-to-speed-up-5-mindful-strategies-for-personal-growth

Over New Year’s, my wife and I spent some time in the magical town of Ojai, about 45 minutes southeast of Santa Barbara.

The Ojai valley is famous for its beauty and vegetation - especially its trees. Standing under one of those magnificent trees, I got to thinking…

Life is full of peaks and valleys. Wins and losses. Or, "strikes and gutters" for Big Lebowski fans.

If you think you can bypass this well-accepted fact, talk to someone who has lived a while. They'll set you straight.

Another thing I've heard from people over the years is this: You learn MORE from the losses than the wins. Yes, it turn outs that failure is a better teacher than success.

Considering that failures DO NOT feel very good, I find this harder to swallow…

But, if you think about it, the ability to bounce back from misfortune (mistakes, failures, losses, bad luck) builds the resilience muscle like nothing else.

So if resilience is something you are trying to build, look no further than your setbacks.

I read something the other day about synchronicity that hit me right between the eyes. Here's the gist:

"...we have to understand that our lives are filled with both positive and negative events. Once we can recognize that one event is neither more desirable nor better than the other …"

I like to think of my events like branches on this massive tree. No one branch is superior to the others. Perhaps older or longer, but not better.

You've probably already thought about your wins from 2024. Specifically, how you can repeat and build on them.

If you haven't gotten around to this yet, take a few minutes to think about these 3 questions:

1. What accomplishments am I happy about / proud of from 2024?
2. Thinking back to my biggest win, what did I learn about myself? About others?
3. How can I build on my 2024 accomplishments?

LEADERS TAKE NOTE:

From Forbes to Psychology Today, you can read how self-awareness is the key to good leadership.

So if you want to be a better leader, take the time for questions that are designed to help you reflect and learn.

Keeping in mind the value of both positive and negative events...

LET'S GO A LITTLE DEEPER -

+What was my biggest loss last year?
+What did I learn about yourself from the event?
+How will this experience and this learning benefit me?

If you can't yet see a Silver Lining, keep digging.

And if nothing comes to mind, just remember - at the very least, you grew personal resilience.

For that you can BE PROUD.

What is your biggest learning from last year? (win or loss)

Get my Newsletter for regular tips & big ideas:

https://www.pathtopeakperformance.org/the-career-success-newsletter

Drop me a note - I'd love to exchange ideas with you!

Hi Friends, just a quick note to tell you that I have moved. I would love it if you came over to my new house. Thanks!