Dr Nicholas Romanov- Part 1- Are you great or just good?

An infographic caught my eye today detailing the opposing habits and tendencies of successful and unsuccessful people.

The list compiled for unsuccessful people includes a sense of entitlement, a tendency to hold grudges, blame others for their failures, take all the credit for their achievements, to talk about other people and thinking they know it all. Looking at the list it was clear that when you feel at odds with your environment and progress; these may be the habits that we have fallen into?

When I recently had the opportunity to spend time with Dr Nicholas Romanov, Creator of the Pose Method and Dmitry Butkov, Head Coach of Russia Triathlon we stumbled upon the subject of what separates the great from the good. It was clear in this discussion that there where two key personality traits that ensured that you never slip into the habits of unsuccessful people listed above. It was also these two key traits that are seen in abundance in great athletes.

I first became aware of these traits as indicators for success when reading, Coaching for Performance, by Sir John Whitmore. Indeed it was partly the knowledge gained from this book that encouraged me to distance Tribal from simply dishing out 12 or 16-week training programs as the solution to a triathletes performance enhancement. Instead it is Tribal’s mission to empower you to become the expert whilst developing these two key traits.

The performance side of triathlon is really only relevant after you have established a winning mindset, rock solid health and a productive technique.

Trait 1- Responsibility
“The state or fact of being responsible, answerable, or accountable for something within one’s power, control, or management.”

To establish a goal, is in itself a form of responsibility. As a goals level of achievement increases, as does the level of responsibility needed to attain it.

To take responsibility for yourself is to become accountable for your actions, this accountability will lead to you making greater choices and accelerate your learning, an absolute must to realise performance improvement.

The fears and barriers that you inevitably feel when striving for performance enhancement in any walk of life are lessened once you truly take responsibility for yourself.

Trait 2- Perception
“The act or faculty of perceiving, by means of the senses or of the mind; cognition; understanding.”

In fact in the book mentioned earlier this trait is termed ‘awareness’. It was only upon talking to Dr Romanov that I have changed this trait to perception. You see awareness is to know but not necessarily understand. Where as, perception is to feel and understand as well as know.

So perception is a progression in understanding from contemplation, to awareness and finally to perceive. So awareness of something being wrong doesn’t help you change it as you don’t understand why it is wrong. Perception allows you to connect, understand and if necessary, make changes to produce a better outcome.

Our own survival through evolution can be largely attributed to our ability to perceive and predict. We can conceptualise well in advance and make predictions of an outcome based on our previous experiences. To harness your power of perception is an incredible tool of development.

Here’s a quote from Sir john Whitmore’s book that really sums up our approach at Tribal-
“Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them learn rather than teaching them”

Enjoy the video………………

Paul Roberts
paul@go-tribal.co.uk