Table of contents
Wow! I am so excited! As I already wrote in my newsletter, I joined on 23rd of January 2024 the Peak Performance Program hosted by Eric Partaker.
Eric Partaker advised Fortune 50 CEOs while at McKinsey & Company. He is the CEO Coach of Ali Abdaal, charging 2500 USD per hour, and held a live workshop at the beginning of 2024 which I though was absolutely amazing.
I decided to book his 5-week Peak Performance Program to gain the knowledge and experience he usually charges 50,000 USD per year per client for a fraction of the money.
Eric is very down-to-earth, and I enjoy the easy-to-use framework he uses to condense information overload.
👨⚖️ 6 Rules I comply with, when participating in an online course
If you already know me a little, you know that i have already attended a few courses in the last few years. And to make the best use of my money and time, I always set myself a few important rules.
- Ask one question during each live session.
- Actively participate and share my experience in the chat.
- Write down how and why I will implement what I learn while going through the material.
- Write as many things that come to my mind when doing self reflection exercises, and set a timer for about 2-3 minutes each. (better less than too much time)
- I will read the Book "The 3 Alarms" to consolidate my knowledge.
- Most important: To execute what I learn. Knowlegde only isn't power anymore.
I would probably only get 20% of the results if I only read the book. The video-course, community, and live sessions will help me actively implement everything I learn in the next five weeks. Thus I will give my all to get the most out of the next weeks.
👩🚀The Peak Performance Program: An Overview
The Peak Performance Program is basically about balancing the 3 most important areas of life: Health, relationships and wealth (work). If you remove a foot or even cut it off by 40%, the chair breaks down.
You should be aware that focusing 100% on work and disregarding your relationships and health may work in the short term, but sooner or later the chair you are balancing on one foot will fall.
You get lifelong access to the videos and the workbook. The workbook contains great templates that you can print out. The videos are between 5 and 20 minutes long and therefore ideal for "snacking" during the day.
We even got a recommended reading list to expand our knowledge on different self-help topics. Bonus after bonus 🎁
🤓 My Top 11 Takeaways from the Peak Performance Program with Eric Partaker
- Motivation Formular: value * expectancy / impulsivity * delay
- Turn Pro: Action generates Feelings, vs. remaining Amateur: feeling generates action
- Eric splits life areas into 3: Wealth, health, and relationships. Each area should be given about the same amount of attention.
#4. How you talk to yourself massively impacts your productivity. Swap negative with positive self-talk.
"Don't try to stop negative thoughts. Don't worry about them. You don't need to do anything except to consciously think as many good thoughts as you can every day, and they will cancel out all the negative thoughts. If you practice this daily, you will soon have trained your mind to continuously develop positive thoughts." - The Secret
#5. Try a physiological sight if you feel overwhelmed during your QTB (Quality Time Blocks).
"Huberman explained how it works: "You have little sacks of air in the lungs, which increase the volume of air that you can bring in. Those sacks collapse over time, and as a result, oxygen levels start to go down and carbon dioxide levels go up in the bloodstream and body, and that a big part of the signaling of the stress response."
The double inhale of the physiological sigh "pops" the air sacks (called alveoli) open, allowing oxygen in and enabling you to offload carbon dioxide in the long exhaled sigh out." - How stress affects your brain and how to reverse it, Stanford Medicine
- 1-minute centering: Eric Partaker taught us the breathing exercise of inhaling for 5 seconds and exhaling for 7 seconds.
- A study by the Draugiem Group used a computer application to track employees' work habits. It found that the 10% most productive employees worked 52 minutes and took 17 minutes of breaks. They focused on quality breaks and intense focus sessions instead of 8-hour workdays.
- Use the acronym WOOP (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan) to evaluate and mitigate risks. Ask yourself: What are the likely things that may come my way, and how can I mitigate them?
- What scares you but is necessary for your growth? What one step could you take to get a little bit closer to this goal?
- Start by focusing on the evening routine, as this sets you up for the next day. Getting high-quality sleep is important to starting a morning routine the next day. For this, look at Bryan Johnsons sleep advice. It is lifechanging.
- The 80/20 Principle (This is something I want to be focusing on throughout the course)
The vital few will always matter more than the trivial many. A simple explanation is this: go over a task once, giving it 80% effort. This is often enough, and you can move on to the next task."
Two rounds of 80/20 effort in this way yields what I like to call “the 96% solution.” It's not 100%, but it's pretty damn close. And you have the added benefit of not aiming for perfection each time. - The 3 Alarms, page 59, Eric Partaker
Someone go back in time and tell Sisyphus how the 80/20 Principle works! 🦣
🥗 80/20 for health:
- get eight hours of sleep,
- eat well,
- and work out.
👨👩👧👦 80/20 for relationships:
We can acquire half of the improvement we seek in our relationships simply by reacting better to those around us. We're often so preoccupied with what we could do proactively that we miss the reactive side of the coin. - The 3 Alarms, Eric Partaker
📖 The 3-Alarms by Eric Partaker
I can 100% recommend the book The 3 Alarms by Eric Partaker.
You can download it for free on Eric Partaker's website. It is only 100 Pages packed with literally more "Aha moments" than there are pages. It reminds me of my teachers saying, "Less highlighting is more."
But in The 3 Alarms by Eric Partaker I have more words highlighted than left blank.
Implementation Session (27th of March 2024)
This 1.5 hour Zoom Session session took place approx. 4 weeks after the end of the Peak Performance Program. We focused on implementing what we had learned from the 5-week peak performance program.
There weren't quite as many of us as at the beginning (around 25 people), but everyone was still highly motivated. I noticed that the motivation was definitely lower compared to when I was in the middle of the program. However, I am happy with my daily routines and the change I have experienced in the 2 months.
- Which 20% of the program could bring the 80% positive shift in my life?
- Identify the TOP 3.
- To which degree have I successfully implemented the TOP 3 into my life on a scale from 1 - 10?
Theory of constraints: The link is only as strong as the weakest parts.
Then we implemented the theory of constraints.
The Theory of Constraints is a methodology for identifying the most important limiting factor (i.e., constraint) that stands in the way of achieving a goal and then systematically improving that constraint until it is no longer the limiting factor. In manufacturing, the constraint is often referred to as a bottleneck. - leanproduction.com
- Identify the ONE weakest part of your TOP 3. This is the one with the lowest score from 1 - 10. (theory of constraints)
- Regarding your weakest part: What is the number #1 thing you are getting right when it comes to implementation?
- Regarding your weakest part: What is the number #1 thing you could do differently to improve your implementation?
- How will you hold yourself accountable?
- What's your next action-step and when?
After this great brainstorming and reflection session, we still had about 45 minutes for questions.
Feedback
The only thing i think could be improved is the course platform kajabi. I watched the videos several times on the app on the Iphone and Ipad and the videos always went black when I switched from an app back to kajabi.
This is just a very small detail, but i think it should be said and hopefully will be picked up by eric if he reads this post.
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