When I got the title of this column, I was overjoyed because it gives me a golden opportunity to contribute to this all important aspect of human life. I would be further overjoyed if my thoughts would help you find the joy involved in reaching the peak. In the context of this piece, peak is the highest possible level of achievement in the life of an individual. While this is a beautiful point to be in, most people do not know how to get there. For the person reading this piece, I wish to present the views of several peak achievers blended into one to become my view. I hope it takes you to the peak in your life.
What would you do if you found out that reaching the peak in your life is as simple as only one step? IMPOSSIBLE is the word that comes to your mind but I want you to carefully read this piece before you throw it out. I found out that all peak achievers in history had to do one major thing to kick start their journey to outstanding achievement.
“They located their route to the peak and followed it through “YES you are correct to conclude that your route to the peak is quite different from mine and I would reach nowhere if I attempt to go through your route. This route is called POTENTIAL. Therefore to reach the peak, you have to discover your potential (route) and build on it (follow through).
How then do you discover your potential and build on it? To fully exhaust these sub-topics, I would take them one after the other.
(a) Discover your potential.
(b) Build on it to get to the peak
DISCOVER YOUR POTENTIAL: – Your potential is a natural ability that you could develop to make you very good at something. To discover this natural ability if you haven’t, you need to do a very thorough analysis of yourself. This action would provide answers to the following questions and eventually expose your potentials.
i) Who am I? – This is a concrete description of you. It involves your behaviour your likes and dislikes, ambition, mentally and other things that differentiate you from other people in the world.
ii) What do I love doing? When Michael Jackson first signed a record deal, all he wondered was why someone wanted to pay him for singing. For him singing was something he could not do without. Likewise, you must discover that thing you can spend hours even days on end doing without getting tired. For J.J. Okocha, it is football, for me writing, what about you.
iii) What do I do easily? Another way of asking this question is what am I picking up so easily and I am having fun doing it. For some people it is an innate ability to do something e.g. singing while for others, it’s the possession of qualities that make achieving a thing easy. The combination of answers to these questions clearly points out your potentials.
However, care should be taken to give correct, un-influenced answers to these questions. It would be disastrous if you realize few years down the line that you based your actions on assumptions. You should also answer the question “why do I love what I love doing. This would show whether your answers are based on influenced by external factors. “So many people love football now because of the wages involved. Also, you could ask people you trust and respect to give you answers to these questions. The un biased answers would point put those things you have not thought about yourself. A combination of all these answers tells you to which degree you are correct in discovering your route to the peak. Through it is tough and sometimes unpleasant processes, believe me it is worth the efforts. Now, you have “FOUND YOUR ROUTE” and you can follow it with certainty.
(B) BUILD IT TO GET TO THE PEAK.
Discovering your route to the peak is where most people stop. But those who move further increase their chances of getting there. You need to do the following to move further in your route to the peak.
(A) BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND: This means determining how far your potential would take you. Since we are talking about the highest possible level, you need to strongly believe in your ability to get there. This is called FAITH. It releases the required energy to reach the peak of your potential.
Most people fail to target the very peak of their potential because they lack faith in their ability to reach it. They do not think they can get there as such they would never get there. When determining the peak of your potential, realize.
(i) You have just one life to live and one opportunity to reach the peak.
(ii) If your target is easily reach, it is not worth much.
(iii) Impossibility doesn’t exist.
To increase your faith, you may need to
(i) Talk to your God.
(ii) Read about people who have achieved great things with their potentials.
(iii) Check your process of discovering your potential. Realizing you did not make any mistake increases your faith. Now that you have great faith and have set the peak as your target, let’s proceed.
B) CREATE AN OPERATION SEQUENCE
According to my MEE 203, an operation sequence is a list of your actions in sequential order that gives you a predefined result. When you have a target, you must determine the things you need to do and when you need to do them to reach your target. Relating this to the peak, you must determine the steps you need to take to get there. To do this, you need to first determine where you are in terms of knowledge, financial capacity, people you know, skills and other necessary ingredients. You may need to get additional qualifications, learn new skills, start a saving scheme, and meet new people before starting out. With this in place, you know where you are going, you know where you are so determining how to get there becomes a piece of cake.
One important thing you should do is set a time target for carrying out all the actions in your operation sequence. This would give you a sense of urgency and increase your dedication. It would reduce your tendency to procrastinate. An operation sequence without a time frame is just words on a piece of paper. You should also make sure you do not forget the work you have put into designing the sequence. Paste it on your walls where you will see them daily. This helps to increase your speed and eliminate distractions. Most people do this much work and then file it away where they would not see it again for the most three months at last. Before long, it would become just a piece of paper in their personal archives. There ends their journey to the peak of their potential.
(C) TAKE ACTION: This is the most important part of the journey. It is also a point where some people tail in their quest for the peak. Whatever happens along the way, always remember that it is useless to do “a” and “b” if you would not do “c”. It’s like drawing a building plan without putting bricks together. YOU WON’T HAVE THE HOUSE. However, in taking action towards reaching your peak you should note the following.
(i) You would encounter problems along the way: What you do at this point directly determines whether or not you would reach your peak. People who reach their peak have a form of resilience that helps them hang on. They analyze the problem, adjust their operation sequence and most importantly they forge ahead with their plans. They repeat this process each time they encounter a problem until they reach their destination.
(ii) There is always light at the end of the funnel: This means that reaching the peak is assured if you successfully implement your operation sequence. There is a great feeling in knowing without any doubt that you will reach your goal. Problems along the way become easy to bear, focus and concentration increases. Also there is a full supply of required energy to go the mile. This is supported by the adage “A horse is never tired on the homeward journey”.
(iii) You would definitely need help: Acknowledging this fact beforehand helps you to be on the lookout for people who can help you reach your goal faster. When you meet them, it is important to create a relationship with them and nurture it with great care. They would make your journey a more pleasurable one.
(Iv) Reaching the peak takes time: The fact that we are in an instant world creates the illusion that everything should happen in split seconds. Knowing that you need time helps reduce the pressure greatly and helps focus your energy on the tasks at hand. This is because you would set realizable targets for all your action. The result is that you can reach your peak with peace of mind without losing out on every other thing that makes life great.
Having said this much, I want to conclude by saying maximizing your potential and reaching your peak is possible for anyone who dares to. Therefore, start making a conscious effort to reach your peak TODAY and same day down the line, you will get there, when I get to my peak, I would see you there.
