All right, In this video, we are talking about performance. And I want to share with you an equation that comes from the book, the inner game of tennis. This book was written by a guy named Timothy Gall. Well, in 1974, we're going to come back to that. So equation is performance equals potential minus interference. Performance equals potential minus interference.

So, there's a lot to unpack here. And let's start with the fact that this was written in 1974. So what was distraction? What was interference in 1974? Well, there was no internet. There.

Were only like three TV channels. Nobody had cell phones. I mean, think about the world and think about what our distractions were. And now think about 2019. What are our distractions now? How many more ways can we be distracted?

How many more ways can we be pulled off course? How many ways can we spend our time that is procrastinating or seeking incapacitation. There are just so many ways that interference can negatively impact the expression of our potential, which, as we just found out, that expression is performance. So if we want to be the high performers that we want to be, we have to look at the things that distract us we have to look at our sources of interference, and we have to figure out how we can eliminate or mitigate their negative impact or negative influence on that expression of our potential. We're also going to talk about how we elevate our potential. Let's use the squat as an example.

If the most that I could squat today is 500 pounds, that's my potential, my performance is going to be 500 minus all the things that interfere with me being able to express 100% of that peak potential. Right? Now, that doesn't mean that for the rest of my life 500 pounds is the maximum or my potential, I can get stronger, I can improve my rate of force development, I can improve my total force development, I can do a lot of things that will elevate my potential. But on any given day, my ability to express that potential is going to be limited by interference, okay, so there's two ways that we can improve our performance, increase our potential, remove interference or distractions. Okay, and for the rest of this video, we're going to be talking about eliminating distractions and interference. So the next page in your book are workbooks here.

I'm posing a question to you I just want you to look at it and think about it right now, at the end of this video, your homework your exercise is going to be to answer these questions. But I want to know who were you before the chocolate before the distractions before the interference? And why do you think about that? I'm going to show you this picture. And if you can't see this picture very well check out the slides. And I have a slide that shows this image, right so if you're following along with the slides, you're going to see this you'll see a close up version.

This is me and the back of the picture does not have an age. I'm gonna guess. I don't know somewhere between five and eight years old. But this is me before the distractions This is me before the interference. If I were to pose like this today and posted on Instagram, it would clearly look like I am posing this for some extra external validation that I'm looking for lights that I want people to see a certain thing, whatever, right? Those are all the distractions.

That's all the interference. That's the exact stuff we're talking about here. What I see when I look at this is unfiltered, unbridled enthusiasm. It's just me being me. And that's what we're working on getting towards here. I want you to understand the distractions and the interference that get in the way of you being you identify them, and be able to wipe them clean so that you can be this version of you.

Okay, in the next video, we're going to talk about higher and lower level thinking. But for me to exist as this version of me, I have to be operating in my higher level thinking I have to be connected to my values. I have to Be free of all of those distractions and interferences, all of the negative stories, the bullshit narratives, the psychological compounds that we generate when we tell ourselves all that shit that's in our head, right? That's what prevents us from being this version of us. And so I want to know, who were you before the distractions before the interference, if you can find a photo of it, and use that as an anchor, look at it every single day and come back to this and say, every morning, okay, Ryan, be this version of you today. Not the one that is scared and insecure and bored and is worried about what other people think.

This guy didn't give a fuck what other people thought of him. He was doing what he wanted to do, because he loved it. And for no other reason. wasn't worried about lights wasn't worried about the comments that people would put on the picture. wasn't worried about Oh, you're holding a guitar. Wrong.

Fuck that shit, right? Be the version of you before the distractions in the interference. And if you can get remember the earlier videos we talked about the more granular you can get, the more detailed you can get with these things, the easier it is to to create that thing in our head. And so another way of thinking about this is I pull lessons from everywhere. So in the Austin Powers movie, Goldmember, his dad is fighting some of the the evil, the bad guy like assistance for Dr. Evil.

And there's this one scene where this anonymous henchman comes up and he says, you know, hey, look at you. So you don't even have a name tag. You're just anonymous henchmen. You're gonna show up in the credits as anonymous henchmen. Do you even think you have a chance now? And so he just says, All right, lay down.

I'm not going to hurt you. And we'll just go on with our things. So the guy lays down and he moves on right When wolves were released into Yellowstone National Park, the scientists who released them and tracked them and cared for them made an effort not to name the wolves because they didn't want to become attached to them. So they assigned them numbers rather than names. When we give something a name, we attach ourselves to it in some way we personify it and we develop attachments. So when you get granular when you get definitive with your goals with your desires with the version of you, give it a name, give it a voice and give it power.

It is so much harder to kill your dreams or to turn your back on them when they are not anonymous. So don't let your dreams don't let this version of you be an anonymous henchmen. Alright, so this video is about to end. You're going to take this piece of paper in your workbook and I want to know who are you before all the drama before the trauma before the distractions before the interference, we all have it, it's okay. It's not a problem. What is the problem is if we allow that to negatively impacted shape, our behaviors and what we do in the future.

So after you have identified who you were, in this section, I want you to write down the things that you want to keep. And then in this section, write down the parts that you want to shed, what do you need to shed? A lot of times in the personal development, or the self help or the self improvement world, we fall into this trap of thinking that we need to add, we need to add and we talked about this in a previous video of thinking of yourself as a master craftsman with all the tools. Well, the problem there is, there's nothing wrong with us. There's nothing wrong with you. You don't need to constantly add you have all the answers within here.

But we when we interact with or when we actually Experience trauma, or distractions or interference, we assume masks we put on a shell that may be protective in a certain moment, or in a certain Season of Our Lives. But when those things no longer serve us, we need to be able to shed them. Right? It's not about adding this is not an addition problem. There's nothing wrong with you. What do you need to shed?

What do you need to remove or let go of so that you can move through life as this version of you? And everything that you come up with? As an answer to that question goes here in what do you need to shed and for the stuff you want to keep? The passion, the enthusiasm, the joy, whatever the things are, that you see when you think about or look at this version of beautiful? Alright, you got homework, we'll see in the next video.