Purisco

Self-development and High Performance

Category: Self-development

  • Self-knowledge the basis for success!

    Self-knowledge is the basis for defining goals. We can often aim for something that does not match our nature. We can try to develop various skills, but those that are in our own nature will be developed inherently.

    We must be aware of our skills and what their pros and cons are, especially when defining professional goals. A great example of this is in the technology sector, where we have two opposing elements: the introverted profile, which dedicates itself to more technical activities that require concentration, and the more extroverted profile, which focuses mainly on communication and relationships.

    In the organizational environment, it is extremely important for the leader to understand the profile of each member of their team, and thus be able to provide feedback that is coherent and contributes to the development and greater delivery of results. Therefore, it is important to demand what would actually be capable of being delivered and not what would never make sense to that individual. A good example is wanting a fish to live out of water and climb a tree.

    “Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing itself to be stupid.” Attributed to Einstein.

    Self-knowledge can be obtained in several ways, one of the most popular is through personality tests such as https://www.16personalities.com or reading books such as Human Dynamics: A New Framework for Understanding People & Realizing the Potential in Our Organizations .

    We can often aim for something that at the moment of achieving it we will not be happy or comfortable in our day-to-day life, thus generating disappointment or stress. Ideally, we should define our goals well, knowing exactly what it will represent or require of us, for example, in relation to a position at work, what are its main activities and what personality traits and habits will be required? Will I be happy being there or am I at a point where I am already satisfied with what I do and the next step would be to improve what I am already naturally good at?

  • Observation of the individual and his environment

    Observing those who have achieved similar goals to ours becomes a main pillar as a reference for how to get there. Through this, we perceive characteristics, traits and habits that can be practiced and that in the future will become new virtues.

    In addition to observing the individual, it is important to pay attention to the environment in which they find themselves. Many times, positions are assumed not because of who the person is, but because of what the position requires. In this way, the individual must adapt to the required characteristics and present what is expected of the position.

    For example, what actions are expected of a senior executive? We can list such as good communication, impartiality, general knowledge, the ability to create and establish new connections, and others. Regardless of who aspires to this position, once there, they must develop these traits and later their successor, and so on. The position and its characteristics remain permanent, so there is only a small variation in who occupies it.

    With this we must understand exactly if we have or can develop the characteristics not only to become but also to belong to that environment which will require us to have already established standard behaviors. The same applies to both professional and personal environments. It is often important to question ourselves if we really belong to the environment based on observing those around us and their respective habits.

  • Time and Activities Optimization

    For many years I chose to do many activities at the same time. Despite the many benefits of this, there were also disadvantages that made me question how to organize myself better and thus obtain better results.

    Dedicating yourself to multiple activities has its benefits, such as avoiding monotony and having a high level of learning. However, the big problem is that it becomes humanly impossible to reach your maximum potential in each of them. Even trying your best, there will always be the limiting factor of your health.

    With this in mind, I decided to list and categorize all the activities I was dedicating myself to, categories such as sports, study, work and others. Within each of them, there was a prioritization based on my goals and the number of hours per week per activity to which I was dedicating myself.

    With the main objective of achieving only 1 activity per category, I managed to achieve the minimum possible number of activities for each of them, and thus eliminated activities that were previously overlapping and taking up attention from more important ones.

    For better organization, I also defined periods during the day in which each of these activities could be fitted, in this way the “studying” activity could be allocated to both morning and evening periods, thus providing flexibility.

    Organizing your activities and having a routine may seem boring to many people, but the point is not to be rigid and inflexible, but to have a direction and dedicate yourself to what will bring new achievements in your life.

  • Ultramarathoner Habits

    In the last two years, I decided to focus on long-distance running and completed my first marathon and then 3 other ultramarathons. My search for longer distances was due to the need for better physical and mental preparation, where the basis would be a routine full of healthier habits.

    When participating in these competitions, I always tried to understand how I would become a true ultramarathoner or what types of characteristics I should have to become one. This was difficult because in each competition I met different groups where there was no single standard but rather several groups that shared the same habits, such as the older ones who had a lot of experience, the influencers who would eventually generate their content, the group of those who had a reason to be there, and others who were there for themselves and no one would even know later.

    All of these groups had one thing in common, which was the goal of making their lives better.

    Even though I did several long training sessions and competed, I only started to feel like an ultramarathoner after completing my third ultra race. From this experience I was able to understand the true essence of this practice, which in this case I identified with the following factors:

    • Purpose, the basis of everything, from the moment of training to competing, only each one of us can define the reason for being there, and in difficult times, the purpose will support the discipline and also on overcoming of difficult moments.
    • Overcoming, will be a constant element based on the number of unforeseen events that appear during the race, often greater than we imagined, but there we will have to find the strength to overcome them.
    • Tenacity, the ability to not give up, to have the strength to face the uncertain and to keep going even if there is only the minimum strength or resources available.
    • Spirituality, inevitably in the face of the greatness of the effort and overcoming, beliefs will be exalted regardless of what they are, and eventually things that were previously impossible will happen naturally.
    • Self-knowledge, everyone who wants to go beyond their limits or achieve great things needs to understand themselves, from how they will act, react or feel at each moment, and even how their body and mind will respond in each situation.
    • Connection, at all times, whether with other runners or with the nature around you, both will contribute to the gain of knowledge, experience and strength to continue, because everyone there has a common goal.
    • Balance, extremely importanc to know how far to go, everything that is taken to the extreme also generates other losses.
    • Humility, is to stand firm and understand your own existence, to see the size of our fragility in the face of the grandeur of nature, and even so, to be willing to help and contribute mutually to those who are by your side, always open to listening and accepting that there are elements to be improved every day, it is to understand that those around you are as susceptible to the elements of life as you are and thus we all become equal.

    Each of these factors became increasingly clear with each passing moment, and the most interesting part was that in other areas of life, whether professional or personal, they could be developed and applied, thus contributing to better results.

  • Digital Information Detox

    Considering the high speed and exposure we have to various types of information, we can guarantee that we consume more information than we really need. Thus, there is a saturation of topics that we are bombarded with every day, if not through social networks, it will occur through people who will eventually comment on what is happening there.

    How much of this information is really benefiting or harming us? When we consume unpleasant content, will our brain be able to discern whether it is real or just media being displayed on a cell phone screen? Discernment does not exist and we naturally assimilate it as reality, the same occurs with the production of dopamine when we see satisfactory content.

    The impact of this on both sides is increase of anxiety, fears, paranoia and difficulty concentrating. In addition, we will be occupying our time with topics that are far from our reality and that we may consider close to us.

    We don’t necessarily need to exclude ourselves from technology, but ideally we should increasingly filter what we consume and understand what types of information channels we should consume, because currently, in order to consume relevant content, we must navigate through thousands of worthless channels. In this way, we use technology to further our development.

  • How to reduce stress and increase productivity?

    The best way to reduce stress and increase productivity is to know exactly how many hours you are dedicating to each activity. The focus is to understand what we are doing in the moments we are free during the day and when we don’t have mandatory activities or any which involve responsibilities.

    The moments we are free during our day are important for recharging our energy and dedicating ourselves to activities that will make us feel better. Many times we can fall into the trap of distractions and end up consuming information on social media that will lead us to fatigue, panic, sadness, low self-esteem and anxiety. The same can also happen if we surround ourselves in our social circle with those who complain daily and don’t seek for solutions or those who only talk about themselves and do not practice empathy.

    When we seek activities that bring us well-being and life quality, we recharge our energy in a way that strengthens us to face life’s adversities. Free moments should be well used both for rest and also for improvement and development. How this will be done is only a unique and personal decision of each one.

  • How Running can help you and make your life better?

    Running has been part of my routine for a long time, it’s a sport that has time and location flexibility, not requiring so many conditions to train it. We can find a great number of benefits from running such as improving brain functions due to seratoning, endorphin and dopamine productions and also enhancing thinking and neurotransmitters functions. Running produces naturally endocannabinoids, a substance that is similar to cannabis, providing a short-term feeling on reducing stress and providing calm. Depending on the situation, running can also replace antidepressants for patients with depression and anxiety disorders.

    Below I listed the key benefits of running:

    • Clear Mind – Sometimes we feel overwhelmed due to overthinking, stress, anxiety or any other reason that would take your mind to dark places, running might help to clear your mind and organize your thoughts.
    • Mental Resilience – Running is always a challenge and requires from you mental strenght to not give up, you will always finde new challenges or barriers and while overcoming them you’ll increase your mental resilience to face challenges in a better way.
    • Better Response to Stressful Situations – While reducing stress with each run, your stress threshold will increase and your body would be charged with good hormones, leading to better ways of dealing with difficult situations that before would lead to easily reach that limit.
    • Improve Sleep – Running will produce hormones that will encourage your body to deep sleeping, leading for better rest and performance. Also based on your training plan sleep will fit better in your schedule / routine, having specific hours to sleep will support your circadian cycle.
    • Focus & Commitment – If you set a new challenge or a sign-up for a race you’ll build focus and commitment since you are setting new goals for yourself, this will raise your standards and step by step you’ll transform yourlsef in a new person.
    • Nutrition – While focusing on running eventually you’ll also focus on your nutrition, both goes together and choices will lead to better results while training and in your routine.
    • Running Community – Running will improve your social network, where new friends are easily made since both have something in common, all places are opportunities to make new friends such as running clubs, teams or competitions.
    • Contact with Nature – It will improve life satisfaction, recharge your energy and increasing relaxation, it can also benefit decreasing feeling of loneliness and isolation.
    • Know new places – When going to races / competitions you’ll have the opportunity to run in new places, the same can be applied while traveling, even if its a longer walk or just go for a run you’ll be able to experience a new place and know its history.

    Always remember to do a medical checkup before starting any activity and if everything is ok to start just focusing on enjoying the training, don’t be concerned about time or pace, all of us have a lot of responsibilities so running is meant to make ourselves better.

    References:

    https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/how-running-affects-mental-health

    https://www.runnersworld.com/health-injuries/a60636199/benefits-of-running-for-mental-health

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165032723002239

    https://elizaczyzewska.pl/en/how-contact-with-nature-affects-our-health/

  • Constancy

    Much is said about having discipline through a routine and how strong we must be overcoming signs of tiredness, weakness and laziness. But we forget that we are not machines but organisms sensitive to the environment in which we live and even exposed to feelings that we often have no control over. Therefore, the application of discipline can often become a challenge or even a limiting factor for our development, This is because atypical events happen and these can be represented by new paths and opportunities that will be supressed and ignored by the rules and norms imposed by the discipline. Other atypical events may change the ideal conditions imposed by the discipline and thus nullify any type of progress or execution.

    Constancy assumes a different role to discipline, where the main references are execution, repetition and duration, and not as the discipline which is based on rules and conditions for its execution. A great example of this are people who want the perfect scenario to start an activity or even set times to wake up and start a new life, but often this plan does not last for long as external factors will eventually interfere with the routine and require a break of these rules, thus making the scenario imperfect to the desired ideal. Independently, constancy must act irregularly but repeatedly, considering the long-term result, whatever it may be.

    Consider time and repetition, within our cyclical time space, every day we have 24 hours to be used and 365 days a year to dedicate ourselves to whatever the activity may be. We already know what our distractions are in the modern world, avoiding them and making good choices we can use our precious time for activities that can contribute positively to our lives and those around us. Every day, the little that can be executed will become a lot in terms of the final result, whoever wants perfect conditions to take initiatives or whoever does not continue with their skills and obtaining knowledge will never get anywhere and will be destined to stagnation, constancy can currently be considered one of the main and differentiating traits of a successful individual.

  • Future Professional

    I define the professional of the future as someone who wants to carry out activities and skills in both traditional work environment and someone who works in recent environments that we have not yet been able to categorize.

    Nowadays, after recent drastic changes in ways of working and communication, we realize that there are new trends and practices that often bring problems or challenges never seen before. Factors such as the abundance of information, cultural clashes, time zone differences, the need and speed for changes, meeting new generations and their new habits, all of these end up redefining the routine and success of the professional of the future.

    We can consider the main elements that should be part of the Professional of the future as:

    Adaptability, the environment in which we find ourselves is constantly changing and full of real-time information, which can redefine contexts and values, that were previously intangible and today can take on new meanings.

    Focus, consuming information superficially and not dedicating yourself to an activity are habits that will lead to personal and social self-destruction. An individual needs to focus in order to have a clear understanding of the environment in which they are located, and from this, live according to personal and professional objectives and achievements in order to positively contribute to the environment in which they live.

    Multiculturalism, essential knowledge for us to exercise effective forms of communication and which adapt to the culture we are exposed to. In addition to knowing different existing cultures, we must be attentive to the results of the meeting of cultures, new habits and trends are generated by the diversity of groups, and we must always be attentive and open to adapting our forms of interaction. Learning and putting into practice multiple languages becomes a differentiator for anyone who wants to get along well with everyone.

    Common Sense, with the speed of interactions, we assume that the same should be applied in decision processes, interpretations and forms of communication. But we forget that before that, it is necessary to understand the context, look around in search of new information and even remember our current values, and only then can we reach a common sense between all parties.

    Empathy, at a time when everyone posts about themselves and becomes the center of attention, we cannot forget that we must also put ourselves in other people’s shoes and respect them in their own individuality, as well as being open to hearing new opinions and interpretations .

    Positioning, understanding the best way and when to position yourself in relation to any situation is a very important trait not only today but also for the future.

    The requirement of the Professional of the Future will not only be didactics or technical knowledge or their mastery of a skill, but also how they situate themselves as an individual and how they interpret and relate to society on a global level.

  • What’s the secret to Professional Success?

    At least once people have asked themselves what would be the right path or receipt for their professional success. In any career we often see great people who are able to accomplish their deliverables and provide good services but even though are stuck on the same situation over the years.

    The key to success in any given situation is not only reaching the final goal, but how you are able to reach it and who you are bringing together with you.

    We can translate this into, how you are able to manage expectations, communicate, treat other people and also on elevating their potential and knowledge through this journey. This is all about soft skills, is the way we accomplish things, our actions can make the difference in our surroundings not only to the people but also potentializing and adding more value to our deliverables or services. It’s simple, imagine buying the same popcorn from one who yells at you and the other who treats you the best way possible, for you the product will be different due to the experiences.

    A good professional must accomplish his/her main job accountabilities, but should keep in mind that to reach success he/she must have core values on every action taken, such as innovation, good communication, sense of respect and empathy, loyalty, commitment, punctuality, trust, transparency, dedication, concentration and many others. Must have a clear and realistic view to see rooms of opportunity at every level of his/her job and do their best to make it better.

    Are we great and complete professionals? Are we able to be the most complete, the best of the best? The answer is no, every moment the world is changing and what is new becomes old in a matter of seconds, the only thing we are able to do is to try to be better every single day, but how? There is no answer, some find wisdom through Books, others through Youtube or Podcasts, the way to grow depends uniquely where you are standing and where you want to be, what stands on the middle is up to you and your choices.