John Whitmore is widely viewed as a creative force of what we now experience as executive coaching.
His principles are foundational in the governing body of professional coaches – the International Coaching Federation (ICF).
He believed that the path to your success is through performance. The better and the higher level you can perform the more success you’ll find. The theory expands from business to all areas of life or any endeavor we choose to participate in.
He created the performance equation whereby performance equals your potential minus any interference. Or as written – P = P – I
Let’s break P = P – I
Your performance is simply the actions you take – what you do and how you do it.
Your potential is the virtually limitless ability you have to find success in nearly any endeavor. Do I have the potential to play in the NFL? Given my age and build, no, that’s not in the cards. Do I have the potential to amass the wealth required to be an owner of an NFL team, yes, I do. (And so do you!)
What stands in the way of that potential is interference. It’s the friction that slows down your unbridled potential. Interference comes in two main forms – external and internal. External interference is anything outside of yourself that creates friction. Could be found in your environment, the people in your inner circle, market forces, others stigmas & biases, financial, etc. Internal interference consists of your thoughts, emotional responses, beliefs, values, habits, etc. Anything within you that holds back your potential.
Strategies to Remove Interference
First of all, allow me to share a couple perspectives off the top. First, we ALL have interference. You have it. I have it. Everyone you see on TV or read in the news, every CEO – everyone – has interference. Second, the interference that is most consequential and that will get the most benefit in removal is internal interference. Therefore, we’ll concentrate on ridding ourselves of internal interference.
Reframe Interfering Thoughts
The most insidious ideas we get about our life come from our own head. We’ve all heard the cliche that goes something like: if you spoke to your friends the way you spoke to yourself you might not have any friends.
We hear that quip and we nervously laugh, because it hits close to home. Our inner critic frames situations and our perceived abilities to get through them in ways that are unhelpful. Problem is, those pervasive thoughts land to create interference in our actual life.
When you notice that your mind is interfering with your potential through unhelpful or negative thoughts, you can help to change your mind by choosing a different frame – or reframing the thought.
Literally say to yourself:
“How do I know that’s true?”
“What’s another way to look at this?”
“What skills or resources do I have to tackle this?”
“What’s the worst that could happen?” (and “Could I deal with that?”)
Your goal here is to create the cognitive distance from the negative thought to make room for a more helpful one that allows you to lean into your potential more and take the best action.
Focus On Others
Too often, when our mental interference kicks in, we focus too much on us. More specifically, on our shortcomings.
One way to beat an internal focus is to focus on something or someone outside of ourselves.
When you place focus and attention and use your gifts and tools to help someone else or take action in the service of something else, you shift your perspective from you to them for a greater purpose.
Through that shifting of attention, you’re able to take bigger & bolder actions that are likely to produce greater levels of success. You can use that success as evidence of your abilities and potential, which reduces the interference.
Create Momentum Through Action
Bottom line is to take some action. What can you do?
Action and movement gets us out of our heads where the main source of interference lives, and into our bodies. Movement and action naturally forces our attention in whatever we are doing and not on the inner critic in our minds.
We’ve all experienced this. Go on a walk and all of a sudden you have a brilliant idea that you’ve not had before. Talk with a friend and you know exactly how to fix a problem at work that has stumped you.
Action is the catalyst to success. so, taking action that creates success gives you confidence – not only in achievement. You actually get confidence doing the work toward the achievement.
To unlock your potential and perform at your best, it’s our job to let go of any interference that is holding us back. IF you want to get specific strategies for navigating and getting rid of your interference, schedule a consultation coaching call.