Improve your performance

This podcast focuses on personal accountability, self-improvement, and achieving meaningful goals through intentional performance management. The speaker challenges listeners to reflect on three key questions:

1. What separates your performance from the average person?
2. How are you measuring your progress?
3. How do you hold yourself accountable when you fall short of expectations?

The central message is that success is not determined by activity alone but by measurable results. Just as organizations use performance appraisals, standards, and metrics to evaluate effectiveness, individuals should create their own systems for measuring growth and achievement.

The Importance of Personal Standards

A major theme is the distinction between goals and personal standards.

• Goals define what you want to achieve.
• Personal standards define the behaviors, habits, and disciplines required to achieve those goals consistently.

The speaker emphasizes that goals are temporary targets, while standards create lasting behaviors and shape identity. Personal standards influence daily decisions, create consistency, prevent performance decline, and help individuals operate from discipline rather than motivation.

Four Elements for Performing at Maximum Capacity

1. Establish a Standard

Success begins with creating your own benchmark rather than comparing yourself to others. Like businesses that establish policies and performance expectations, individuals need systems, routines, and disciplines that align with their desired outcomes.

The speaker uses the example of an athlete training for a four-and-a-half-minute mile. The goal alone is not enough; success requires a structured regimen of preparation, discipline, and consistent effort.

2. Invest in Yourself

The speaker argues that progress requires investment in three areas:

• Education: Continuously seek knowledge and wisdom that support your goals.
• Preparation: Apply what you learn and develop skills before opportunities arise.
• Passion: Stay engaged, overcome fear and distractions, and maintain enthusiasm for your vision.

A key lesson is that preparation should happen before opportunity appears.

3. Hustle with Purpose

Success requires action, persistence, and initiative. The speaker encourages listeners to stop procrastinating, create opportunities, build relationships, and make their goals visible to others.

A personal story illustrates this point: despite not having immediate opportunities to speak publicly, the speaker remained active, prepared, and visible. When an opportunity finally came, he was ready because he had consistently invested in his craft.

The lesson is simple: stay prepared even when nothing seems to be happening.

4. Conduct Personal Performance Appraisals

Just as organizations evaluate employee performance, individuals should regularly assess their own progress.

This includes:

• Measuring accomplishments and setbacks.
• Comparing results against established standards.
• Making adjustments where necessary.
• Holding oneself accountable for commitments and goals.

Regular self-evaluation ensures that actions remain aligned with long-term objectives.

Key Takeaways

• Productivity is measured by results, not activity.
• Personal standards are more important than temporary motivation.
• Consistent behaviors create lasting success.
• Investment in education, preparation, and passion leads to growth.
• Opportunities favor those who remain prepared.
• Self-accountability and regular performance reviews are essential for achieving goals.
• Success is not determined by external circumstances but by one’s readiness to execute when opportunities arise.

Overall Message

The podcast encourages listeners to stop merely staying busy and start intentionally managing their lives like high-performing organizations manage performance. By establishing personal standards, investing in growth, hustling with persistence, and regularly evaluating progress, individuals can create a disciplined framework that moves them toward their dreams and desired outcomes. The speaker concludes by encouraging listeners to consistently assess their goals throughout the year and commit to the habits and standards that produce lasting success.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome to the Forge by Design Podcast. This is your host, Daniel Badigel. In this episode, we'll be talking under the title Improve Your Performance. Throughout this podcast, I want you to make an intrinsic note and make an intrinsic examination on these three yet serious fundamental questions. Number one, what separates your performance from the average individual? Two, how are you measuring your own personal gains? And three, how are you holding yourself accountable when you do not meet your desired expectations? The renowned author and motivational speaker Brian Tracy once said that the true measure of the value of any business leader and manager is performance. So when we examine the multidimensional and multifaceted activities within any organization, job performance stands at the epicenter of a company's interest. And it doesn't matter if you're a for-profit or nonprofit, it's all about job performance. You and I have heard that saying that activity does not equal productivity. And if you don't know where you're going, you will never get there. Yet we've all experienced work environments where millions of things are happening all at once. People moving in every direction, machine operating at maximum capacity, phones constantly ringing, paperwork and transactions piling up, online and offline checks being conducted, and departments carrying out procedures and processes all day long. However, at the end of the day, at the end of the week or the month, many people still have no idea whether they are truly productive or whether they met their own key performance indicators. In today's world, a company is not measured by its activity level, right? We're all for profit, but by its productivity goals and end results. Productivity can only be measured through planned, expected, and anticipated outcomes. If measurable outcomes are never established, then there is no way to determine whether an organization is meeting performance expectations. Businesses and corporations align performance expectations with their company vision, with their mission statement, and organizational goals. Their quality policies and objectives become professional channels through which they communicate performance expectations. So they know exactly what their KPIs are, what their goals and expectations are, and they work diligently with every activity in order to meet those corporate goals. But today in this podcast, I do I don't want to focus on company goals and expectations, what their standards are, what their values are, how are they going to achieve a specific goal. I want to talk to you about what are your personal standards on how you will achieve your own goals in life. You know, as we know, a personal standard is a self-imposed level of behavior, discipline, quality, or performance that you consistently expect, not of others, but of yourself, regardless of external supervision, pressure, or recognition. You know, when you start writing down what your intended outcomes are, having a particular project plan, a particular set of rules and regulations and activities that you are going to do in order to achieve those goals is part of the plan. But having a personal standard of attitude is what's going to get you to that end goal. This means that you have developed via these standards an internal and personal benchmark that governs how you think, that governs what you tolerate, that governs how you act with yourself, how you treat yourself, and how you act before others, and what you repeatedly practice. What are your daily habits in which you're going to hold yourself accountable to whether you have supervision or not, whether you have external pressure or not? What are these habits that are going to keep you aligned in order for you to achieve that desired outcome? A goal tells you what you want, but a personal standard determines who you must consistently become to achieve it. You know, Jimmy Johnson once said that the difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra. What he meant was that you have to push yourself with these personal standards every day. Push yourself, motivate yourself, develop the right mindset and attitude in order to remain focused on that desired outcome. And I think we all agree that at the end of the day, it's all about focus, it's all about discipline, and it's all about not losing sight of that desired goal. So I don't want to focus on how businesses establish audits and evaluate performance. Instead, I want to address how you as an individual establish your own personal appraisal. Your dreams and aspirations require you to differentiate yourself from the crowd. You have to be different. You must establish spiritual, personal, and professional metrics to monitor your progress and develop the discipline to hold yourself accountable when you fail to meet your own expectations. So every time you have a goal and you say, you know what, I could have done better in this area, in that area, I could have gotten up a little early or maybe stayed up a little late in order to work on being better and having continuous process improvement in your own life. You know, just as companies conduct performance appraisals to collect data and evaluate employee performance, you must evaluate whether you are being effective in your own personal life. Your life goes beyond just a job title. It goes beyond a job summary. It goes beyond corporate duties and responsibilities and beyond a company rating scale. Your life goes beyond a paycheck. So this season, you owe it to yourself to step off the hamster wheel and begin making forward progress. The renowned motivational speaker and speak um and author Zig Ziggler, and one of one of these favorite quotes of mine once said, You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. Today I want to share with you four essential elements that will help you perform at your maximum capacity. How to improve your performance. You know, the first advice or element is to establish a standard for your life. Let me say that again. You have to establish a personal standard for your life. Notice that I set your own standard. This means that you're not comparing yourself to others or competing with the Joneses. When you use other people's benchmark for your life, you will constantly operate under stress and worry. Instead, you must create a regimen that keeps you aligned with your expected outcomes. So stop comparing yourself and adopting and subscribing to other people's standards. Develop your own standard, work at your own pace, develop your own learning curve, and you will make improvements on a daily basis. Businesses establish standards all the time. They may create leadership teams focused on increasing profit margins, champion projects that eliminate non-value added activities, invest in research and development, acquire new customers, branch into new technologies, or improve shareholder value. Businesses, when we look at businesses, businesses uphold themselves to rules, procedures, processes, and elite performance standards in order to achieve desired outcomes. So let me ask you today: what methods, what models, what systems have you developed for your own life that will keep you aligned and on track to meet those goals? And when I mean goals, they can be financial goals, relational goals, academic goals. You make the list. What are these goals that you want to achieve this year for your life? If you want momentum and progress, you must develop a standard. Imagine a track athlete whose goal is to run a four-minute mile. Let's say that. That goal becomes the expected outcome. That athlete wants to run a four-minute mile. The athlete cannot achieve it with a couch potato lifestyle. Instead, they must follow a disciplined training schedule, maintain a healthy diet, adhere to a strict agenda, and commit to a rigorous running plan in order to build the speed and endurance necessary in order to achieve running a four-minute mile. In the same way, you need a regimen, a set of rules, a standard, procedures, discipline that keep you focused on your desired destination. Can you imagine a year going by and you have not reached maybe a small goal? Those short-term goals, can you imagine that? So that means that you did not have the discipline or the standards or the regimen in order to achieve that. But if you're able to make those small gains, those small gains they compound and it allows you to achieve that greater goal. So the first one was that you have to develop a standard. The second element or advice is investment. I always say you must invest to progress. Let me give you three examples of investment. First, invest time to educate yourself. You can have all the money in the world, but if you don't know how to invest and manage it, manage that money, you can still end up broke. Education goes far beyond academic degrees or university knowledge. You must seek relevant information that aligns with your goals and advance your vision. Ask yourself questions. Search for wisdom. Pursue knowledge that propels you forward. Second, you must invest in preparation. Do not simply gather information, but apply it. Many people spend years collecting knowledge but never use it. Preparation means applying what you have learned to your current situation. Prepare yourself to succeed even before opportunities arise. I always say that preparation opens great doors, but if when those doors do open, it's the preparation, is the bridge that gives you that opportunity and makes you successful in that role, in that position, in that opportunity. It is far better to be prepared without an opportunity than to have an opportunity and not be prepared for it. Let me say that again because I want you to note it down. It is far better to be prepared without an opportunity than to have an opportunity and not be prepared for it. Third, invest in nourishing your passion. As I like to say, put your money where your mouth is. Let others know that you're still engaged, that you're still pursuing your goals, that you're still active, that you're still hungry for growth. And I think that's one of Les Brown's greatest uh quotes and sayings you've got to be hungry. Stay passionate about what matters most in your own life. Overcome the fear of failure. Master distractions. Believe in yourself, and remember that the best is yet to come. Passion keeps your vision alive. Fourth but not least, let me let me give you a personal one. That you have to have earmuffs. You have to have earmuffs on all the negative comments and of all other people's negative expectations of your outcome. So as you invest, go ahead and invest on this personal spiritual earmuffs that will cancel out every voice of negativism in your life, of pessimism. Simply because others did not achieve the goals doesn't mean that you're not going to achieve your goal. So invest on these uh spiritual and personal earmuffs and focus constantly on your goals. The third element or advice required to perform at your maximum capacity is hustle. Did I say that right? The come you must hustle. That's not a very elegant word. That's not a very um maybe a college word, but it's a word that means that you have to hustle, that you have to move forward. You must move with intentionality and persistence. Do not procrastinate. Organize the meeting, make the phone call, knock on as many doors as possible. Let people know that you can be an asset to their business, to their ministry, to their company, to their organization, to their lives. You know, you have to hustle, you have to make the effort of getting out of the couch potato mentality and get up and start making these calls. And it's a call to action for your life. The worst they can say is no. But once you get that yes, it will change your life, your ministry, and your business around. I remember an important event that took place out of state where an organization was searching for a guest speaker many years ago. And truthfully, I don't know if I was their first option. Perhaps everyone else they contacted was unavailable. Maybe I was the very last name on the list. Maybe I was not even on the list. But eventually, somehow, they called me because throughout the years I kept letting people know that I had a dream, that my dream still had a pulse. They saw that I continued producing, preparing, remaining active, running, uh writing books, making posts on my social media accounts, that I was still pursuing that personal goal and outcome for my life. When they called and asked if I was available to speak that weekend, you know, I jokingly responded, let me check my agenda. And truth be told, I had absolutely nothing planned, but I was ready to execute my gift. That weekend became a great success because I had remained prepared and consistent even when nothing appeared to be happening. So that's my advice to you. Keep preparing, keep posting, keep letting everybody know that your dream still has a pulse, that you're still investing in yourself, you're buying the equipment, you bought the truck, you bought the tools, you bought the locale, you got the software, the hardware, whatever it is that you need in your life in order to achieve that dream and aspiration. Continue to communicate to everyone that you are on a mission, that you are hustling, and that you're making every effort in order to make it happen. My advice to you is simple. Stay prepared even when you do not see anything on the horizon. Because I assure you that your persistence is going to pay off by receiving the call, by receiving the contract, by receiving and being uh rewarded that job offer, that promotion, that position, that better quality of life. The fourth and final advice or element that I want to provide with to you in this podcast is to conduct your own personal performance appraisal. Periodically evaluate your performance and productivity according to the standards you've established. Measure your gains and your losses. Make the necessary adjustments that align your actions, resources, and attitudes toward your goals. Hold yourself accountable for the things you said you would do. Review your accomplishments because success depends on measurable outcomes. And notice that I say hold yourself accountable. One of the things that I have to say that I'm proud of myself is that I hold myself accountable. I say, did it, did I make every effort to write the book? Did I make every effort to buy the needed tools and equipment that I needed in order to bring this dream to fruition? Did I get up early? Did I stay up late? Did I make the call? Did I research that material, that topic? All those things that are necessary because it's not about external pressure, it's about whether I made the effort to make those things come to pass. So as I close, I want to remind you that your emotional, financial, and personal compensation will always reflect the level of dedication you invest into your life's work. So evaluate your emotions today. Evaluate your financial commitment toward that goal. Evaluate your dedication, whether you have invested in your life's work or not. Stop blaming others because you did not achieve that goal. Stop blaming others because you don't work out. Stop blaming others because you don't eat healthy. Stop blaming others because XYZ. You have to evaluate yourself and look at your standards and your habits whether or not you are investing in your life. Everything depends on whether you have established a standard, invested in your growth, hustled with persistence, and prepare yourself for the opportunity. It's not about what is happening around you, it's about whether you are prepared to execute your gift when the opportunity arises. Finally, make it a habit throughout the years to assess whether you are meeting the goals and expectations you establish at the beginning of the year. I'm not talking about a temporary New Year's resolution. I'm talking about a life-changing discipline that will propel you toward your dreams and expected outcomes. I'm talking about whether you have developed a standard in your life in order to improve your performance. Ralph Martin said, don't lower your expectations to meet your performance. Raise your level of performance to meet your expectations. May West said it best when they said it was said, an ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises. Winston Churchill said, success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts. It is the courage to continue that counts. Theodore Roosevelt said, believe you can and you are halfway there. And the great Steve Jobs also said the only way to do great work is to love what you do. They were all talking about personal standards. They were all talking about holding yourself accountable. They were all talking about loving your job, loving what you do, loving your vision, your own personal mission in life, because it will reap great rewards. So today, hustle, today, make that call. Today, dust off all those things that were preventing you from seeing clearly your dream and aspiration coming to pass. Today I want to encourage you. I want to motivate you today to get up, to evaluate your standards. I want you today to evaluate the habits that govern your life. I want to for you today to evaluate the circle of friends that you have and the people that surround you. Because not everybody wants you to become successful. Today you owe it to yourself to evaluate how you think. Today is the good day to evaluate what things are you tolerating in your life that are the roadblocks that are impeding you or preventing you from achieving that life's outcome. Today I declare that you're going to have the best work, that you're going to have the best outcome, that finances are going to be knocking at your door, and that you're going to be not only just motivated, motivated is one thing, that you're going to have a personal standard in order to improve your performance. And this is the year that you're going to achieve greater things, and you're going to be astounded and astonished about the level of capacity and work that you were able to put into your weekly agenda because you've developed a standard in order to improve your performance. This has been Daniel Badijo. I will see you on the next episode.