Everybody has a high performance pattern.  When you are performing a task in a high performance pattern, the task feels easy, and you enjoy doing it.  It feels second nature.  You don’t feel worn out.  You feel exhilarated!

This isn’t Peak Performance.  You can only function for a brief time at your peak, but you can function at a High Performance level for extended periods, even years, yet very few of us do.

How much more would you enjoy your life if you were able to perform at your highest level in almost every situation?  The problem is that I wasn’t aware of my high performance patterns.

I am taking a Coaching Class that recently introduced me to High Performance Patterns.  You take three life stories from times that you felt like you were performing at the top of your ability, and then your coach helps you look for patterns that repeat.

When have you performed well?

I knew one story right away.  When I was in Seminary, I worked for a man who had started building computers out of his garage.  We started working together and grew the business out of his garage into a thriving business with several employees.  I felt like I was in my niche in that job.  I never dreaded going to work.  I was often tired but never burnt out.

But I wasn’t sure what the other two stories should be.  So I asked my wife.  She was pretty quick to mention my time as PTO (Parent-Teacher Organization) co-president and our marriage.  I immediately didn’t like her two stories.  It isn’t that I wasn’t performing at a high level in both of those situations, but I immediately saw a pattern that I didn’t want to be my high performance pattern.

In all three stories, I had a partner.  Something in me, probably my ego, didn’t want to admit that I only perform at high levels when I have a partner.  I can also think of times that I had a partner that I didn’t perform well at all.  But as usual, my wife (my partner) had picked two great stories.  The more I think about the patterns these stories told about my high performance patterns, the more I know they are true.

Let me share with you more about this one pattern.  (There were several patterns but this one stood out.)

• I perform at a high level when I have a partner who has a different personality (typically SC on the DISC) but who is as equally as passionate about the project as I am.

• I perform at a high level when I have a partner who I enjoy being around.

• I perform at a high level when my partnership does not feel like a competition.

• I perform at a high level when my partner has good organizational skills.

This is a pattern.  It doesn’t work for everybody, but I have recognized that when I perform at my highest levels, these are all true.

So how can I apply this to my various situations today?

• I don’t have a partner in my church planting network and the two most obvious candidates do not have the right personality.

• I don’t have a partner in heading up the backpack food program in the local school district and another pattern that I recognized tells me that I should probably turn over this work to someone who can create a sustainable organization.

• Just this year, my wife has become a partner in our ministry at church.  She changed jobs over the summer and now has time to really partner with me.

• In my coaching business, my wife is a partner with me, and I hired a coach that meets these requirements as well.

Based on these observations, my prediction would be that the last two ministries will thrive as I’m able to perform at a high level and that the other two are in danger.

What are some of your high performance patterns?