Limits and Unlock Success in

Yourself and Others

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What’s in it for me? A four-step plan to unlocking your
hidden potential.
What do you see when you look at the top achievers in your field or
industry? Are they lucky or uniquely gifted in ways you aren’t? Well, probably
not. What they most likely do have is a proven recipe for success. The trick is
simply choosing the right cookbook.

Luckily, you’ve already done that. In these blinks, we’ll break your
performance down into four key areas or “capacities” – spiritual, intellectual,
physical and emotional. Think of them as tools that, when used together, will
see you through any project.

This is valuable because life is full of demanding long-term projects. Whether

it’s your personal life and its many relationships or your career with its
numerous challenges and hurdles, success is the fruit of patience, diligence
and flexibility.

In these blinks, you’ll also learn

how to gain clarity on your mission in life;

why mornings are the best time to start building new routines; and
why your brain suffers when you don’t take care of your physical health.
Building capacity is the key to self-improvement and
high achievement.
Do you want to improve yourself and achieve more? Great – you’re in the
right place! Let’s kick things off with the two most important words in these
blinks: building capacity. This is about continually learning and honing new
skills that allow you to elevate yourself and grow. What it doesn’t mean is
simply doing more things – you also have to do the right things.

There are four principal areas when it comes to building capacity. The first is
spiritual capacity. This is about focusing on getting to know yourself and
clarifying your values and desires. Next up is intellectual capacity. This
includes how you think, plan and execute with maximum efficiency and
discipline. Then there’s physical capacity – your physical health and well-
being. Finally, there’s emotional capacity. That’s your ability to deal with
challenging situations and get the most out of your relationships.

One way to visualize these areas is as a ball divided into four chambers, each
of which can be filled with gas. The 2D version of this ball would look like a
pie cut into four quarters. The more air you pump into each of these
chambers, the more momentum the ball will have as it moves. But here’s the
catch: if you’re not filling each chamber with the same amount of gas, the ball
will start to wobble and go off track.

It’s the same with your capacities. All four need to be balanced. This means
developing them simultaneously with equal care and attention.

Now, building capacity isn’t something that happens overnight. It’s like
working out. Sure, you have to be motivated to book your first gym session,
but that’s just the start. If you want to build muscle and get that washboard
stomach, you need to be hitting the gym week after week and improving bit
by bit.
Building capacity is just like that – after all, achieving big goals takes time and
dedication. Most importantly, it means taking those small steps that will carry
you over the finish line every day. Sometimes, the process takes months;
other times, it’s a matter of years. Stick at it, though, and you’re sure to
realize your dreams.

So, now that you know how to build capacity in theory, let’s take a look at
what you need to do in practice.
Spiritual capacity involves figuring out what you want
and aligning your actions accordingly.
Building capacity isn’t something you can do willy-nilly. Before you start
expending your time and energy, you need to be clear about what it is you’re
trying to achieve and why. That’s exactly what “spiritual” means in this
context – it’s about figuring out who you are and what you want. Think of it
as a compass that will keep you on course and ensure you’re using your
resources to get to where you want to go.

So here’s the million-dollar question: how do you do that?

Well, if you want to define your core values, you need to ask the right
questions. This means taking time to reflect on what’s most important to
you. Ask yourself what makes you feel happy and energizes you, and also
what gets you down and saps your energy. In other words, when do you
succeed and when do you struggle?

The next step is to reach out to friends, family members and colleagues and
ask them how they see things. Here you’ll want to compare your answers
with theirs to make sure you’re seeing things clearly. Then, you’ll want to take
all those answers and look for common words. Maybe “compassion” crops
up repeatedly, or maybe “independence” is a running theme. Whittle down
that list to just four or five key concepts. These are your core values – the
principles by which you want to live.

That brings us to your core purpose. This is your mission in life. It combines
your values and gives you a clear sense of where you’re going. The author, for
example, defines his purpose as “finding a better way and sharing it,” and it’s
this that motivated him to write his book.

Take a moment to examine your values and then see if you can form a
sentence that represents your long-term direction in life. If you’re struggling
to do that, try writing your own obituary. It might sound a little macabre, but
this is a great way of getting out of your head and asking yourself how you’d
like others to see you. That will likely contain vital clues about your core
purpose.

The last step is to begin aligning your actions with your values and purpose.
This is all about putting your energy in the right place. True success is the
fruit of this alignment. Fail to do that and your success won’t be defined by
you but by others.
Build your intellectual capacity by adopting a growth
mindset, and then find mentors and routines to help
you.
If you’ve updated your computer software recently, you’ll know how much
more efficiently and smoothly applications run when you give them a bit of
TLC. The same thing happens when you work on your intellectual capacity.
The more time you put into it, the more tasks you’ll accomplish while
expending the same amount of energy.

The key to building that capacity is a growth mindset. People who adopt this
attitude reject the fixed mindset – the idea that our intellectual capacity is
fixed at a predetermined point. This is all about embracing the fact that it’s
never too late to learn new skills and that mistakes and failures are simply
part of the process.

The growth mindset is vital to your efforts to expand your intellectual

capacity, but it’s not something you can cultivate on your own. That brings us
to the second step: finding mentors who will help you keep learning and
growing.

The world’s high-flyers and top performers all have one thing in common:
they surround themselves with coaches and mentors who challenge them to
keep improving. These people are so important because they don’t tell you
what you want to hear – they tell you what you need to hear. They pull you
up on avoidable mistakes and point out how you can achieve more.

That’s vital because we’re all short-sighted when it comes to understanding

ourselves. Sometimes, you need an objective outsider to tell it like it is.

Finally, you’ll need to use routines to set yourself up for success. Routines are
important because they help you make a habit of being productive. That’s
crucial when it comes to achieving long-term goals like learning a language or
writing a book.

The best time for this is the morning. It’s as simple as waking up 15 minutes
earlier than usual and using this extra time for quiet, focused work. Once this
habit has been consolidated, you can start adding extra minutes to your
routine. What, for example, would happen if you got up a full hour before
your family and used the time to meditate, work out and jot down ideas for
your book?

These are small tweaks to your daily schedule but, cumulatively, they can add
up to life-altering changes.
Build your physical capacity by eating well, managing
your stress, getting enough sleep and embracing
competition.
Physical capacity is about more than just being able to run a marathon. When
your body is in poor shape, your brain also suffers: you’re more easily
distracted, less resilient and more likely to be knocked back by stress and
setbacks. That means it’s time to start looking after your health.

Let’s start with what you eat. The key point here is to make sure you’re
getting a balanced and nutritious diet. Highly processed junk food is
everywhere today and, in many countries, people are more likely to die as a
result of obesity than they are from starvation. But with so many different
kinds of diets out there, it’s often hard to choose what’s right for you. Is
paleo better than keto, for example? Or is low-carb preferable to slow-carb?

Well, let’s make things easier with a tip from author and journalist Michael
Pollan. His rule of thumb is simple: don’t eat anything your great-
grandmother wouldn’t have recognized as food.

Next up: managing stress. Stress isn’t necessarily a bad thing – in fact, it was
stress that ensured our ancient ancestors were alert and attentive enough to
spot dangers. Unfortunately, our brains respond to our frenetic, digitalized
world in much the same way as they would to snakes and tigers. This means
that many of us are regularly experiencing more stress than we can cope
with.

According to Dr. Heidi Hanna, the most effective way to reduce stress is to
take regular short breaks throughout the day. These allow you to take a deep
breath, relax or even meditate. Getting enough sleep is also essential to your
performance levels and well-being, so make sure you’re spending a good 6-8
hours in the Land of Nod each night.
And here’s one last tip: embrace competition. This has become something of
a dirty word, but it’s important to remember that competition shouldn’t be
about crushing your opponents and winning at all costs. What it really means
is going the extra mile and challenging yourself to become better. Whether
it’s intellectual or physical competition, it will push you to build your
capacity.
Build your emotional capacity by stepping outside
your comfort zone and seeking elevating relationships.
Finally, we come to emotional capacity – the tool you’ll use to navigate your
relationships both with yourself and others. This has two sides: dealing with
people around you and dealing with unintended consequences. Think of
driving a car: to do this well, you have to keep an eye on other road users
while also anticipating their sudden swerves and stops.

Building emotional capacity begins by leaving your comfort zone. It’s all too
easy to get stuck in a particular mindset, hemmed in by limiting beliefs or the
low expectations of others. Overcoming these boundaries is only possible
when you set yourself new challenges or allow someone else to push you. If
you’ve ever had a colleague or friend tell you something you didn’t want to
hear, you’ll know all about this. Sure, it’s uncomfortable at first, but it
ultimately motivates you to make improvements.

Stepping out of your comfort zone also builds your resilience. This is a vital
skill. Every day, we face new challenges and situations which can throw us off
course. The more resilient you are, the more likely you are to clear those
hurdles.

So how do you do it? Well, it’s as simple as trying new things. You can cook
an unfamiliar dish or travel somewhere new, for example. You can also try
doing something you usually shy away from, like cold-calling a potential client
or giving a colleague some honest negative feedback.

This isn’t something you can do on your own: to maximize your emotional
capacity, you need to surround yourself with the right people. As the author
and entrepreneur Jim Rohn once put it, you’re the average of the five people
you spend the most time with. That’s why it’s so important to seek out
people who share your values, energize you and inspire you to be your best
self.

The flipside of that is avoiding people who undermine you. These are energy
vampires – so-called “friends” or family members who sap your strength and
undermine your effort to improve yourself. Disengage from these individuals
and you won’t just feel better – you’ll also have more time for relationships
that truly elevate you.
Final summary
The key message in these blinks:

The key to boosting your performance and achieving more is working on

four core areas of your life. These are your spiritual, intellectual, physical and
emotional “capacities.” How do you do that? Well, the best place to start is
clarifying what you actually want in life. Once you’re clear about your goal,
you can start honing the skills and abilities you’ll need to reach it

Actionable advice:

Protect your mornings by keeping them tech-free.

The time between waking up and beginning your routine is crucial – it’s
literally what sets you up for the day ahead. Unfortunately, our digital devices
and gadgets mean we often fail to make the most of this time. Rather than
working on our own projects, we waste these precious minutes answering
emails or browsing Facebook. But there’s a simple fix: commit to keeping the
first hour of each day tech-free. Whether you put your phone in a drawer or
use an app to restrict usage is up to you. Either way, you’ll be amazed at how
much you can get done when you’re not distracted!

One last thing: The author helped us create this book-in-blinks. What’s more,
he’s offering the Blinkist community a discount on the book itself. Just head
to geni.us/ELEVATE and enter the discount code 10BLINKIST to get yours.

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What to read next: Daring Greatly, by Brené Brown

In an act of real generosity and vulnerability, Robert Glazer has shared his
recipe for integrating spiritual, intellectual, physical, and emotional growth to
build your capacity. Acts of vulnerability are at the heart of many great
things.

Take it from author Brené Brown. She’s researched just how crucial
embracing vulnerability is for living a fulfilled and successful life. If you’d like
to learn more about her work and how you can embrace vulnerability in your
life, check out our blinks to Daring Greatly.
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