When I invented this term to describe what I had started doing, some thought I had become a fitness trainer.
In a way, that was true. But instead of focusing on the body, interested professionals asked me to help them focus on their targets and how to achieve them. So, what is High-Performance Training after all?
First, one must set goals ranging from extremely high to otherwordly. Small, humble targets never helped anyone, are equally difficult to achieve, and you will not make the necessary sacrifices to accomplish them since they are not worth it.
A grand vision is necessary. Next comes the methodology. As anybody who knows me can attest, I never doubt that someone can achieve whatever they want. If I do, I refuse to undertake such a ‘mission.’
After that, an extremely detailed plan monitoring even the tiniest progress takes shape. And as a prerequisite, the interested party must adhere to what we have agreed. In the US, this is currently called an ‘accountability coach.’
In my system, it forms only a tiny but vital part of the methodology. Once agreed that we must take a particular series of steps and that these are possible, it must be done, and by when it should.
The only other condition is that after achieving the initial goal, we will commit to pursuing at least another one. Not because our relationship needs to be prolonged or my will imposed. The reasons are obviously psychological…
In my experience, nobody who accomplished whatever transcendental goal they had envisioned settled just for that and refused to go further. This is not greed but the realization that once you break through the ceiling, the only limit is the sky. And such individuals have the right and obligation to their families, friends, co-workers, and themselves to reach their potential.
It would be a lie to claim that everyone accomplishes exactly what they have dreamt of. But even those who miss, miss by such a niche that they are thrilled by their eventual accomplishments and success. To me, however, this still constitutes a failure, technically speaking.
If you are a poor kid in Kozani, Greece, or Bristol England, and you dream of becoming an astronaut for NASA, success (to me) is not to end up working for NASA as an analyst, unless we had concluded early on that this is best for you and preferable for specific reasons. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter if you are thrilled, and your friends and family ecstatic. If we missed, even by 0,01%, we did. The fact that you are pleased regardless, is a byproduct of setting insane targets and deploying massive action.
Many of my colleagues from the classical music, teaching, and art worlds were surprised by my new undertaking back then. They thought I was becoming some sort of life coach. But after decades of operating in these worlds where subjectivity prevails, and individual interpretation of esthetic parameters decides success, I had no interest in entering another highly subjective field (of life therapy or coaching) where how one ‘feels’ is more important than plain facts.
And in High-Performance Training, results and their success are measured objectively, clearly, and unforgivingly so that we all know where we are going, how to get there, and how much we missed the target if we do.
Feeling great the whole way through and ecstatic in the end is the undisputed result. Feeling just fine because a top talented, trained professional managed to make sense of failure is not part of High-Performance training. And unsurprisingly, I know of no one who wanted to try something else once they tried truth.