In Pursuit Of: Harnessing Your Full Capacity

Three years ago, I decided to start sending an email newsletter every Friday to the 50 employees who worked at my company, Acceleration Partners. Many founders send out weekly wrap-ups, but I wanted this message to go beyond the typical business-related content. Instead, I wanted to provide inspiration around the concept of improvement and growth, with the goal of encouraging our employees to want to achieve more in all areas of their lives, and challenge their self-limiting beliefs in order to realize their true potential. As such, I decided to name the email Friday Inspiration.

To be clear, I thought my Friday emails would be skimmed, at best; maybe even ignored. But to my surprise, employees started telling me they looked forward to the messages each week and sometimes even shared them with friends and family. The weekly emails were also having a noticeable impact within our company, as people started taking action and applying the different concepts in their work and life. We renamed it to Friday Forward, opened up the ability to sign up for the emails to anyone outside our company, and today over 40,000 people receive it each week.

What I learned from my Friday Forward experiment and the overall experience of building Acceleration Partners is that the ability to outperform and exceed expectations is directly related to the ability to build a bigger capacity for growth and achievement in yourself and others. Unlocking this potentialin business and in lifehas become an ongoing quest for me.

Its the driving factor behind my leadership approach to building a world-class company, pushing myself and others outside of their comfort zone, and even writing my second book, Elevate (out September 2019).

In my own journey, and in speaking with hundreds of others who have made meaningful and sustained changes in their lives, Ive come to realize that there are four essential elements involved in capacity-building: Spiritual, Intellectual, Emotional, and Physical. Becoming an Outperformer means working to grow your capacity in each of these areas.

Spiritual Capacity

Developing our spiritual capacity is about taking the standards we live by and aligning them with our daily actions. This requires us to first determine our core beliefs and values, which can be difficult for many as it involves deep introspection and self-assessment. If we dont clearly understand what drives usour North Starits very hard to set a direction. Discovering my core values and my core purpose and using that awareness to make decisions about my priorities and goals took my life to a different level. To make this process a bit easier, I created a tool called the Whole Life Dashboard that helps you determine whats truly important to you and how to live in a way that celebrates it. We will all face great challenges in our lives. Its only when we truly know who we are and develop strong self-awareness that we can withstand the trials and tribulations and come out on the other side more centered and successful.

Intellectual Capacity

Intellectual capacity is about how we improve our ability to think, learn, plan, and execute with discipline. Developing our intellectual capacity often involves setting and achieving goals, developing good routines and habits, and learning continuously.

The greater your intellectual capacity, the more you will achieve with the same expenditure of energy or effort. For example, a daily morning routine is one of the main characteristics that many Outperformers have in common. They use the first 30-60 minutes of the day to get in the right mindset and think about their goals for the daynot to check their social channels and their email. In my experience, I've seen that people who do this accomplish so much more within the same 24 hours.

Physical Capacity

Physical capacity is our ability to improve our health, wellbeing, and physical performance. While our brain helps drive and guide us through life, its our body that is asked to do the heavy lifting day in and day out. Thats why its so important to maintain our health and wellness, challenge ourselves, manage our stress, and get the proper amount of sleep. When your body is tired and sluggish or your brain is fatigued, you simply get far less output.

Emotional Capacity

Emotional capacity relates to how we react to challenging situations and people, as well as the quality of our relationships, which can either bring us energy or deplete it. The process of improving emotional capacity is difficult for most as it requires learning to manage your feelings and accepting a certain amount of uncertainty and unpredictability from both individuals and circumstances.

For example, if two people have an interaction with another person that is very negative early in the day, the person with a high degree of emotional capacity can shrug it off, move past it, and continue with their day and their priorities. The person without this capacity is rattled and lets this interaction consume and ruin their entire day.

One of the most important outcomes of building your Spiritual, Intellectual, Physical, and Emotional Capacity is the exponential impact it has on others, including friends, family, and those around you. It has the effect of lifting while you climb. As you build your own capacity and achieve more, you both inspire and develop the ability to help others to do the same.

Robert Glazer is the founder and CEO of global performance marketing agency Acceleration Partners. He recently authored the international bestselling book Performance Partnerships and is a sought-after speaker by companies and organizations around the world. You can reach Bob at robertglazer.com or read his inspirational Friday Forward posts each week at www.fridayfwd.com.