Written by a human, for humans, always.
Many people are working hard...
Really hard.
But the very harsh truth of the matter...
Is that they are not working at their full potential.
Not even close...
When you understand what it actually means to reach our productivity potential as humans.
Now...
This does not mean that they are not working hard...
Actually...
In many cases, they are working past their physical limits...
Which becomes a part of the reason why many people fail to reach their full potential.
If reaching our full potential simply meant working hard...
We would not end up with statistics like...
98% of people end up on their deathbed regretting their lives.
That is not the story of someone who has reached their potential.
So the real question becomes...
How does one reach their productivity potential?
Let's start with reaching our productivity potential in a moment.
What is required there?
The first thing in a singular moment that you need...
Is to reach a Flow State.
This is where we feel our best, operate our best...
And...
Reach our highest level of productivity.
How much higher?
If you take the "average" person who is not in a Flow State and compare them to the person in Flow...
The Person in Flow will be 5 times more productive.
So...
If you are not reaching a Flow State...
Then you are already only operating at a maximum of 20% of your productivity potential.
This becomes the initial problem.
How often are you in a Flow State?
Can you consistently get there?
Are you there once a week?
Once a day?
Multiple times a day?
If you are not finding a Flow State multiple times a day...
Because Flow States have a bio-energy (Mg-ATP) time limit of between 50 minutes and 90 minutes...
(Anyone who claims to "always" be in Flow is actually describing a completely different psychophysiological state of being, usually bliss, which does not require the bio-energy that Flow States necessitate)...
Then this means that you are not reaching your full potential.
But it is not just as easy as "get into Flow".
Why?
Because to get into Flow States consistently...
You also need to recover.
There is what is called the "Flow Cycle," which is four steps.
Struggle...
Release...
Flow...
Recover.
You have to go through this process "each" time you want to go into Flow States.
How many times are you recovering in a day?
This is another reason why so few people are working at their Full Potential.
If you fail to recover...
You end up, over time, blocking yourself out of Flow States.
Continue to fail to recover...
And you can begin to, literally, cause your body to break down.
This can continue to deteriorate until you begin to go into Burnout...
Where our Productivity Potential actually becomes significantly worse.
Compared to the "average" person...
The person in Burnout is 4 times "less" productive.
(Note - the "average" person's productivity likely deteriorated between the Flow productivity studies and the Burnout productivity studies, so the gap is likely "larger" than what we are about to discuss, but we will pretend they are equal for the sake of simplicity).
What this means is that the person in Burnout...
Is operating at only 5% of their Productivity Potential...
Which is impacting over 80% of the workforce today, and is projected to continue to get worse because most leaders fail to understand what Burnout actually is or what is required to overcome it...
Hint...
Even giving people a 3-week uninterrupted vacation will not do it.
But we are still just getting started at explaining why most people are nowhere near their full potential.
How?
Remember how I said that Flow States have a bio-energy (Mg-ATP) time limit?
The reason for that is...
Flow States burn through our bio-energy (Mg-ATP) "faster" than we can produce it.
But this is where it becomes a problem...
Most people's bio-energy production...
Is damaged.
Due to many different health factors, such as lack of nutrients, compromised gut microbiota, lack of sunlight, damaged mitochondria, excess oxidative stress damage, and more...
Most people either are not able to make enough bio-energy (Mg-ATP) to keep up with the regular demands of their lives...
Let alone what is required for multiple Flow States...
But for the few people who "can" find Flow States...
It usually is cut short because they simply do not have enough bio-energy to maintain it.
What this means...
Is you're not reaching your potential.
But if you thought we would be done after that...
You're wrong again!
What else is standing in the way of reaching our Full Potential?
Direction.
You can think of Flow States like a fire hose...
The water coming out of the fire hose is really powerful...
But if your goal is to put out a giant fire and you aim the hose in the wrong direction...
The fire is not going to get put out.
It does not matter how powerful the Flow State is...
If you are headed in the wrong direction.
This is a gigantic problem for most people...
Because they are not really utilizing their abilities in the direction of where their potential exists.
You cannot reach your potential if you are not moving toward your potential.
When you combine this with the Burnout Problem...
You also have challenges such as making mistakes, missing red flags, the inability to access higher brain-functioning, and more...
Which can actually put you into Negative Productivity.
This is another part of the reason why "working harder" usually fails.
Working harder usually leads to Burnout...
Which makes Negative Productivity vastly more likely to occur...
Meaning you are not actually hitting 5% of your Productivity Potential...
You are going into Negative Productivity.
Many people experience Negative Productivity as "Stagnation"...
But in nature, there is no such thing as stagnation...
There is Growth and Decay...
And the feeling of stagnation means that you're in Decay without realizing it...
But the consequences will be felt down the line...
Often when it becomes too late.
We can keep going from here though...
Because in order to reach your full potential...
You need to be working in your areas of strengths...
But...
Many people either are not operating in the areas of their strengths...
Or worse...
Are not aware of what their areas of strengths are.
Another strike against working at our full potential.
Still...
If we are living the majority of our lives in states of fear, dis-stress, anger, or with a nervous system dysregulation...
In all of these cases as well, we will become unable to reach our potential.
They all block us from accessing the areas of our brain that are necessary to reach our potential.
What else can get in our way?
Sickness.
If we are constantly sick, our bodies are going to be utilizing energy to attempt to fix those challenges we are facing...
Energy that cannot be utilized toward reaching our full potential.
Can you see why you're not working at your full potential?
It is not as simple as working hard.
Yes, you do need to work hard to reach your potential...
But there are a significant number of other components that are essential to reaching our potential...
And this is not an exhaustive list!
It also is only tackling the question of individual productivity...
But when we begin to consider group dynamics, we can create exponential results...
Both in a positive and negative direction.
Now, there are two possible takeaways from all of this.
One is to feel dismayed about how hard it might feel to reach our potential...
But...
That feeling simply ends up being another barrier to our potential.
On the other hand...
We can come to realize...
That if we are operating at so little of our potential currently...
What is possible when we actually begin to get closer to it?
That question...
Should excite you.
Are You Ready to Go Beyond Leadership?
Tired of Broken Algorithms and AI Slop?
Excited to Dive Deeper into Psychophysiological Mastery?
Want to Change The World?