My client Tracey seemed to be running a marathon that never ended. Exhausted, frustrated and feeling a bit hopeless, she turned to me to help her find her power again. Tracey seemed to be struggling with what so many of entrepreneurs face: how to achieve the big dream more effectively. During my time coaching Tracey I realized that I too had faced a similar issue — and I flipped from feeling uninspired to feeling overwhelmed before I found what I call the Power Threshold.
A Power Threshold™ is an entrance or zone that can be crossed over. When you are in your Power Threshold, you are “in the zone” – it’s where your efforts are in the flow; you are in the groove, having fun, working with great people, and creating boundless prosperity doing what you love. When you are not in your zone, your efforts are much greater than your results and the joy can get sucked right out of you.
Many entrepreneurs operate outside of their “zone of power” and it costs them in more ways than they know. Let’s see if you are in your zone or out of your zone. Review the statements below and see how many apply to you:
- Do you tend to take on everything that comes your way then feel exhausted?
- Is your workload keeping you from being present to your self care?
- Are you dealing with adrenal fatigue, hormone imbalance, gastrointestinal issues or other types of chronic illness?
- Do you feel like you are spinning in the “not knowing” or don’t know what to do next?
- Are you uninspired to do the activities that could grow your business?
If you resonate with any of these questions chances are you are operating outside of your Power Threshold.
In my own journey to optimize my ability to achieve results, I’ve used the Power Threshold to fine tune my decision making and goal setting. When I honor the best zone for my personal power, I have limitless energy and I accomplish huge goals with ease. But when I slip into one of the other two zones, I find myself pushing boulders uphill — and its exhausting.
I’d like to share what I learned, and have helped hundreds of other entrepreneurs to use, to become peak performers in their own business. Knowing how to create from your Power Threshold is a powerful force. Passion translates to massive impact and income when you can sustain your power. But when you are outside of it, you will often struggle and flail around.
In my experience there are three zones:
Zone of Over Performance
In this zone, you’ve added too many things to your plate and overwhelm kicks in. Depending on how long you stay in this zone, you can start to feel exhaustion, mental fatigue, stress which when prolonged will often result in physical illness.
Zone of Optimum Performance
This is the zone where you have an ideal balance of growth activities that keep your energy high — and move you towards your goals.
Zone of Under Performance
When a lack of clarity or ambivalence surfaces, you might find yourself in this zone. When in Under Performance, momentum is stalled and a lot of false starts or procrastination occurs.
Identifying Your Power Threshold
The key to sustaining your own personal power is to really understand your own threshold – at what point do you move out of your zone and lose traction. I call this a “threshold” because there is literally a zone that you move in and out of that adds or diminishes your feeling of power.
So let me share what I learned about finding my own power threshold (and have applied to numerous clients over the years to help them achieve crazy big goals.)
First, know where YOUR zone is.
I know for myself that there is a limit to what I can take on before the overwhelm kicks in. So I started to play with my ideals:
- How many new projects can I handle at once so that I stay inspired and in forward movement?
- What roles in the business fuel me? And which ones drain my focus and energy?
- What is my ideal number of speaking gigs per month before we overly saturate my visibility?
- What is the sweet spot for client engagements before I start to fade and can’t deliver the best version of me?
- How much do I want to work during the week to sustain my lifestyle and self-care needs?
For some people this threshold is fluid and changes all the time. As you grow and evolve you may find yourself stronger and more resilient. For others, having a clear “ideal list” helps to stay in your zone.
Now if I was coaching you right now, I’d have you make a list of your “ideals.” One way to build your list is to think about:
What gives you energy?
What depletes your energy?
Next, align more with Energy Producing Activities.
In order to sustain your zone of power, you need to spend more time in activities that give you energy.
Let’s face it, there are a lot of activities to run a business. And probably 70% of them are not things you love to do, right? Get really clear on what activities fuel you, and which ones drain you. Come up with a game plan to deal with the activities that pull on your energy. It’s the only way to stay in your power.
There’s three main ways to handle draining tasks:
Delegate Them: Find other people who are inspired by these tasks and hire them to do them for you.
Delete Them: Recognize any activities that aren’t serving you or the bottom line of your business and stop doing them. Sometimes we get caught up in doing what we should do vs. what’s really aligned with our vision and goals. Don’t be afraid to kick things to the curb!
Make Peace With Them: Sometimes for the sake of your greater mission you just have to do things that you don’t love to do. That’s when it’s time to change your thoughts about the activity. Find a way to love the task. For instance, I often feel challenged by some marketing activities. I go through periods where I convince myself that it’s not for me. But if I take step back and see the impact I really want to have in this world. I know I have to do them. So I make peace with it by shifting out of “I hate doing this” or “I suck at this” to “doing this today will help me align with the people who need me the most.”
Another key to staying in your zone of power is having a Compelling Vision
Your vision is like a magnet – it keeps you on track, focused and inspired to do what must be done. If you lose sight of your vision, you may take on opportunities that are not aligned. Or worse, you may fall into the zone of under-performance, feeling lost and disconnected from the very reason you started your business in the first place.
If you tend to live in the Zone of Over Performance, create a ritual of revisiting your vision. Use it as a barometer for what you say yes to. Share it with your team and the people who support you. Its okay to evolve the vision as you change and grow – but don’t neglect it as it’s your North Star on your journey.
If you find yourself in the zone of under-performance, it’s time to create a new vision that inspires you back into clarity and action. If you don’t know what your vision is, get a coach to help you. Or write out a short-term vision to carry you through the next 30 to 90 days.
I’m curious what zone you find yourself in? Share in the comments below?
Want to really ramp up and get into your zone of peak performance?
Here’s a clue.
You’ll need to spend more time in your unique business Superpower.
If you aren’t sure what your’s is, or end up spending way too much time on other activities, download my 7 Step Framework to gaining another $125k a year here.