The Basics of Peak Performance

I've realized that the term peak performance is used a lot, but it still seems out of reach for many people. So, I decided to share the basics—of what I've learned so far.

If you're a type-a person, you likely want to perform at your best and continue to grow. Operating at peak performance is how you unlock the impossible.

Unfortunately, most people never experience this level of performance.

Peak performance is clouded with complexity

While the vast majority of people never experience true peak performance as founders or knowledge workers, there are a few key reasons why that is:

• It's an actively developing (and super old) subject

• It's a combination of many other subjects like Flow, Productivity, Motivation, etc.

• Putting existing knowledge into an actionable protocol is overwhelming

After countless articles, books, and a few (very) expensive courses, I've been able to put together the foundation (the basics) of peak performance, which has helped me massively increase my capacity and capabilities.

Here's how to step by step:

Step 1: Create your Massively Transformative Purpose

A Massively Transformative Purpose (MTP for short) drives a massive amount of internal motivation, which is far more important than external motivation as you grow based on specific income milestones.

Before you can deploy advanced subjects like Flow (being "in the zone") you need to have a clear goal in mind. One that lights you up when you read it—it's massive for a reason.

Also, purpose drives passion, and peak performance loves passion.

For example — let's say you want to build a business to make money. That goal alone will get you started and a little progress. However, once you're making enough income, you'll eventually get bored and lose interest, which happens more often than you think.

Now you're in a limbo state of unfulfillment and no peak performance.

If we instead start with an MTP that makes us want to get out of bed, something that's inspiring—the meaning of our lives potentially—then we can blow past that limbo state and peak performance becomes easier to achieve.

Step 2: Reverse-engineer outcomes

So many people either have massive dreams (and no idea how to get there) or are in "hustle mode" (to nowhere fast). Instead, we want to reverse-engineer our MTP into smaller goals that can more easily be achieved.

For example, you can reverse engineer your Massively Transformative Purpose like so: MTP —> High, Hard (5-10 year goals) —> Yearly —> Monthly —> Weekly —> Daily.

In doing so, you're creating clarity in where to spend your time and making the seemingly impossible more easily achieved—hello chunking!

Step 3: Optimize your daily performance

With a clear purpose and passion, you should be fired up to work on things. Now, we need to shift toward the "how" of getting into peak performance mode.

However, this is where things tend to split into other topics like Biohacking, Second Brains, and Productivity porn.

To save you some overwhelm, we'll first focus again on some basics to get right.

Here's what you need to get right every day:

1. Have a max of three outcomes you're working towards (see reverse-engineering above)

2. Externalize as much information as you can to reduce cognitive load — task managers, note tools, etc.

3. Aim for >4 hours of deep work (known as Flow) where you work on the most impactful work undistracted

4. Use as many forms of leverage as possible in your work

Again, the above is just scratching the surface of the basics of peak performance. In future posts, I hope to close the gaps on things like Second Brains, hacking Flow states, and Biohacking.

Jumping off points

Ok, you want more—I get it.

Here are some tools/resources that helped me get to this point and dramatically further along.

• Zero to Dangerous Flow course — it's expensive, highly detailed, and oh-so-worth it!

• How To Biohack Your Intelligence — With Everything From Sex to Modafinil to MDMA by Serge Faguet — get ready to have your mind blown by what some people are doing

• The magic of doing $10,000 per hour work — helps you prioritize your tasks and time

• Getting Things Done by David Allen — How I manage and externalize my projects/tasks

• Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte

TL;DR

The basics of peak performance are about driving a massive amount of internal motivation through purpose and passion, then working daily on impactful tasks that get you closer to your ultimate end goal.

I hope this brief overview lays the foundation for you to begin operating at a different level moving forward.