TRP 286: Optimal Performance for High Achievers with Luci Gabel

[00:00:10] You're listening to The Rainmaking Podcast, hosted by high stakes headhunter, author, and professional speaker, Scott Love You're listening to The Rainmaking Podcast, and my name is Scott Love. You're a high achiever. I get that. You're dealing with high level, sophisticated clients. You've got to perform at a high level all the time, and you don't want to burn out, and you don't want to run out of energy.

[00:00:37] Well, our topic title today is Optimal Performance for High Achievers, and we're talking with executive coach and author Lucy Gabel. Now, Lucy has two decades of experience at the intersection of leadership, physiology, and business. She helps organizations and individuals perform at their highest level by aligning strategy, communication, and human performance.

[00:01:01] Also, Lucy's book is called Eat to Lead, because the right food will help you have long-lasting energy, make better decisions, stay focused, sustain good moods, get more sleep, avoid illness, and perform at your very best. Make sure you connect with Lucy. I put all of her information on the show notes. So no matter where you listen to this podcast, go to the show notes, and you'll be able to connect with her directly. I put her LinkedIn information, her website info, and also the link for her book.

[00:01:30] As always, this podcast is sponsored by SharePoint Legal Insights, formerly known as Leopard Solutions, turning legal intelligence into opportunity, and also by The Rainmaking Magazine. For the intellectually driven and results-focused professional who wants to grow their book of business, visit therainmakingmagazine.com to chart your course to greater rainmaking success. I hope you get some great ideas from my conversation with Lucy today. Thanks for listening.

[00:02:00] Hey, this is Scott Love with The Rainmaking Podcast. Our guest today is Lucy Gable, and we're talking about optimal performance for high achievers. Lucy, thank you for joining me on the show. Thanks so much for having me. Absolutely right. And the people listening to this, these are people that are high achievers. They're rainmakers for big professional services firms. They've got a lot going on. Every minute counts. Every email has to be perfect. They can't let their guard down for a minute because that's what their clients expect.

[00:02:27] So where do we start? First, maybe with the definition when we talk about optimal performance, how would you define that from the work that you've done, Lucy? It's such a great question. It means different things to different people, right, Scott?

[00:02:40] Yeah. Optimal performance really means for me and my crowd, it means energy. It means where do you get your energy from so that you can perform optimally, whether you're writing that memo or email or standing in front of people, having a conversation, making a difficult decision or having a difficult conversation. You want optimal performance in all of them.

[00:03:02] That's great. And where do you think we should start? When you work with people on how to maximize that, what are some of the main focus areas that you work on in helping people to manage their energy? I work with people on in two areas. One is through neuroscience and the other one is through health science. So it's our mental and physical together. We can't separate them. They come together and they work together.

[00:03:28] So optimal performance comes from energy, like I was saying, and we get our energy. Let's talk about the health side first. We know this. We get our energy from food. That's the foundation of energy. We get our energy from sleep, rest, other times of rest, like in between meetings and movement, how we move our body and whether or not we do. That's energy building.

[00:03:51] The other side, the other way we build our energy is through our mindset, which equals motivation. It also comes through our communication, how we communicate with others and ourselves. And it comes from our vision. What do we see in the future? What are we being pulled towards? Six pillars. That's interesting. So where do you think most people, what are the pitfalls if they're learning to manage their energy? What are the main stumbling blocks in those pillars do you think they need to watch out for the most?

[00:04:19] I think that most people don't think about their energy or managing it. It's off the radar. So we do have to start to observe what's happening with our energy throughout the day. What's sucking our energy? What pushes our energy up several notches? And we need to pull those strings. You know, how do I amp this up? How do I bring this down? And once you start to recognize what's going on day to day,

[00:04:47] then you can start really optimizing your performance energy. So what are some indications when you say we need to be aware? What are some indications as we see them that might be the canary in the mind, so to speak? A lot of times you just feel like you don't want to do something or it's a grind. There's a lot of that, right? And people feel like the only way to do it is go through it.

[00:05:09] Get into the grind. Get dirty and muddy, you know, and be miserable. I think there are a lot of people out there just dealing with being miserable, not realizing that we can make a huge shift in that with these six different areas. You know, whether it's how you're thinking, what you're eating and when, whether or not you're getting enough rest, whether or not you're taking care of your physical body and your mental side as well. And I'm all about high leverage shifts.

[00:05:38] So, you know, people might be listening right now and thinking, yeah, great. That's far beyond me right now. I'm too busy. Right? That's too many things. But you can do one thing today and take that on for a week, let's say, and just see what happens. Just one small thing and see how your energy shifts. Pay attention to that.

[00:05:59] Simplest thing like drinking more water throughout the day. The brain is 80% water. The more hydrated it is, the better we think. Super easy, right? It's a high leverage shift. And the same thing with your mindset, let's just say. What are you thinking when you're writing this memo? Actually, what's bringing you down about it? And what is another way to think about it? Because when we come across from a high energy place, everyone else feels that.

[00:06:26] Right. So can we go through those six pillars again? I wanted to kind of see if I can get some sort of structure that can be a tangible resource that can help all of us really grow in our energy management.

[00:06:36] Yeah. You can think of it as a wheel as well. You know, these six folks of the wheel and it would be the first side is the physical side. So it's nutrition, movement and rest slash sleep. Three things. The other three things are mindset, communication and vision. These are all the way we think about things. And here's a fun game. I don't know if you want to play it. Maybe people listening will play it later.

[00:07:05] But you can pick any one of these from either side. One from the physical side and one from the mental side and see how they go together. Any one of those two from each side. Just see how it goes. Like, how does mindset affect nutrition? Let's just pick two random ones, right? Right. One from the brain side, one from the physical side. Can you think of some examples of how mindset might go with nutrition?

[00:07:30] Oh, yeah. When you're hungry, you get really angry or, you know, hangry, right? Betty White. Yeah. Hangry. That's an easy one. Yeah, exactly. It'll make you happy, you know? Yeah. I never really thought of it like that. And let me kind of recap. How does vision? Go ahead. Let me kind of go over this again. So the physical side, we've got nutrition, movement and rest. On the mindset side, we've got, what is it? Communication, vision. What was the other one? Or is it actually the mindset? Is that what you called it?

[00:07:58] That is mindset. Mindset, communication and vision. Those are the things we have to have in order to have highest level energy throughout the day. So these, oh, that's interesting. So you could pair one of these with the other. We could say, how does mindset affect rest? How does your communication affect your movement? Things like that. And when you say vision, what does that mean exactly? How would you define that?

[00:08:27] Vision oversees everything. It's not just your vision for your business. Where do you want to go in a year, in five years? It's not that boring. It's your vision for yourself. Who are you in the future? What are you enjoying? What is your experience in life?

[00:08:41] Your vision for your business is also exciting. It's, you know, why are you doing this business? Or why are you in this work? What's, it's your big why, actually, Simon Sinek, big why. But it's not just pulling it out to help you to get up in the morning.

[00:08:58] It's literally something that you want to be able to think about that makes you happy, that pulls you forward, helps you to make your best decisions. We all know about this. You know, you've got this big vision in the future. We have to align our decisions with it so that we actually go there, right?

[00:09:14] So if we're thinking about vision and how it relates to how we take care of ourselves, who are you seeing yourself as in the future? You standing tall as an older gentleman or female in front of people and talking coherently and smartly with high energy, still motivating people, still making smart decisions, still, you know, running around with your grandkids, picking up boxes when you need to, you know, because we can be that.

[00:09:44] We can be a person. We can be all of those things. It's just a matter of the small, high leverage shifts that we make throughout the day and taking a look at our energy. Where is it? How do we amp it up? This is interesting. This is really deep, too. This is very personal, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, it is very personal. So, wow, the vision. I've never thought of it like that before. And so when you talk about communication, how would you define that? What does that mean, Lucy?

[00:10:11] How do we communicate to ourselves and to others? So as a leader, let's just step one step back. It's about how we look on the outside, but that's all about how we take care of ourselves on the inside. And that's essentially what we're talking about when we talk about these pillars. How are we communicating to ourselves first? What are you saying when you're writing this memo, for example, that's bringing you down or making you fly with it?

[00:10:37] And it's a no brainer and you just send it right out. Right. So that's self-communication. And then the other piece is how is it coming out to them? And I know that a lot of my clients that are leaders, you know, we're all doing this. We kind of just naturally speak whatever comes to our mind. We just say it right without planning and even visioning. How do we want this to come out? How do we want people to see us when we're saying this, you know?

[00:11:06] So there's communication and that's just a very small piece of becoming your highest level self, essentially. And so you talked about how did you say it? High leverage shifts. Is that correct? High leverage shifts. Yeah. How do people get to the point where they know what those high leverage shifts are and how to make those? What have you seen in your experience? It's really about pulling it way back, you know?

[00:11:31] So these six different areas, everyone probably that's listening today probably has goals in all of these areas. And they're maybe not doing it because it feels like it's a big job or it's too much. So dialing it back to the minimal viable thing you can do to move in the direction of being your most optimal self in any one of these areas. Just dial it way back.

[00:12:00] And we kind of know what those high leverage shifts are. You know, someone might say, get more sleep. I need to get more sleep so I can be more functional, more optimal during the day. And that, we all know, requires a lot of things. Okay. How about not all the things? Bring it way back in what's one thing you can do that can really help you to get some sleep. And that is definitely personal for everybody, right? It could be get the kids to bed earlier every night. That's one, right?

[00:12:29] Or it could be turn off the TV an hour before bed. Super easy, but makes a huge difference. You know, high leverage shift. That's great. So tell me about somebody that you've worked with. You don't have to mention their name, of course, but what were the challenges they were facing in their life? How did you coach them on some of these aspects? What were some of the changes that they made and how did it make a difference for them? Someone I've coached recently on these aspects.

[00:12:59] That is a large question because there's a lot there. Let's narrow it down. Let's make it high leverage. So I have to be kind of broad brushstroke here. Right. Simply because it's going to be the quickest way to the answer.

[00:13:17] Speaking with someone who wants to move forward in their career and has a lot of patterns, habits that they have in life that they may or may not know is holding them back from that next level of performance, optimal performance. You know, so when we work together privately, we're going to talk about who, first of all, do they see themselves in their ideal future?

[00:13:47] And then I'll obviously be able to provide them with some feedback in terms of what are they doing now that it's not in line with that. But you can do that for yourself, of course. What are you doing now that's not in line with who you see yourself? And by the way, let's go here. Let's take it here. I think that the audience will have a fun time with this.

[00:14:06] One of the first things I do with people in either meetings with groups or individuals is have them sit back and close their eyes, take a few deep breaths, you know, kind of get relaxed because that's when our creativity comes in. And then really go there. Don't, no holds bars. Don't hold back. Go into, oh my gosh, this would be so amazing if my future looked like this.

[00:14:36] If I was like this. Allow yourself to go there. How many of us have not allowed ourselves to go there for so long because we were told that's too much, that's too high level, that's too head in the clouds, you know, you're just being silly. However, when we allow ourselves to go to these places in our mind, that's when we actually allow it to possibly happen for real.

[00:15:05] If we're not allowing ourselves to think of these things, we'll never get to that place. We only have the opportunity when we let ourselves really dream. And you'll be amazed with so many of my clients. They are so surprised at how much comes at them in life when they allow their brain to open up to those possibilities. Just dream. Don't hold back. Do you think it helps for people to journal some of these things? Yes, it helps if you like it.

[00:15:34] I don't really journal anymore because I have so many books in my bookshelves that I journaled for years. And what are you going to do? Look at all of it, right? So I don't. Some people love it and write things down and then you could just put it away or throw it out. I take a walk every morning and envision my day. Also envision, okay, what from my day do I want to come out later from this? What great possibilities and opportunities could come out of this? No holds barred.

[00:16:03] And it's fun. First of all, it's fun. Second of all, it gets your brain going in a very positive direction in the morning. And then something about neuroscience is when we think about things happening or things coming into our life, we put it in the subconscious that now the brain is looking for it. Right. Even when we're not. So we're more likely to see those things happening. So what are common themes that you've seen from people that do these exercises that follow those six pillars?

[00:16:33] What's kind of the common theme that you've seen from people that actually do this? Like which one of those do you think makes the biggest difference? Which one of those gives the highest leverage impact for them? What are some of the commonalities among people that you've observed in these changes? Well, they all work together. They absolutely all work together. Because when we're trying to up-level our performance in all areas,

[00:16:59] we have to have the energy from the physical side that upholds us throughout the day that also takes care of the mental side. And we also have to have the mental wherewithal to continue making the changes. One has to want to make changes in order to change at all. We can't just allow life to maybe change us. Maybe it will, maybe it won't.

[00:17:27] We have to grab life by the reins and decide what changes do we want to make. So these are six areas that I think are high leverage focus points for us to get to the next level and then the next after that and the next after that. And as you see, half of it is maintaining physical body, which also interacts with brain.

[00:17:53] So a lot of people talk about the mental side of becoming a different person or up-leveling our performance. And I'm one of the few that talk about physical as well. And so when you say physical, is that like physical fitness? Is that what you're talking about with the movement part of it? It could be fitness. I mean, movement in itself is something that stimulates the circulation, the blood and the oxygen, which goes to the brain, which goes to the heart, which goes to the skin.

[00:18:22] So just moving. Yes, I used to be in the health and fitness realm. I owned a number of health club spas. I also ran a consulting business that had all to do with weight loss. And I had personal trainers and nutritionists working for me. I came up through STEM, was in the pre-med program first before anything else. So that, of course, is a reason for my background in this.

[00:18:51] But I want to say that we have found out that the smallest viable things you can do are things like taking a walk for 10 minutes. You don't have to be a bodybuilder or a superstar fitness person to have good health. And I think that's a big point I want to get across to everybody.

[00:19:16] You know, that walk during the day, morning walk or afternoon or evening even, it's going to bring your blood pressure down. It's also going to calm your nervous system and it's going to help you to get out of fight, flight, freeze, which so many of us get into while we're working. So you don't have to be a bodybuilder. That's great. So, Lucy, let me ask you to summarize if people want to implement their knowledge of these six pillars in their lives.

[00:19:43] If you could give them three action steps or a few of those, what should they take in terms of implementing these ideas to really get to that point where they're making improvements? Where should they start? I would say start with one. Once again, high leverage, small. What one area do you feel is going to bring you a relatively bigger gain than the others?

[00:20:08] Sometimes I have people make a circle with these six spokes and write on each spoke, each one of the pillars, and then rank yourself from one to ten. Just do it without thinking, where do I feel I am here? And then whatever is the lowest one, pick and go somewhere with it. Take it for a week, two weeks, focus on it, and pick one high leverage shift with that. That's a great idea. Do you think they should do that like every month, every quarter? What do you think about that? I think a monthly basis is great.

[00:20:37] And have it somewhere, your day planner, you know, somewhere on your desk where you can remember what you're working on. Because it really does, it can just skip our brain when we're getting back into life as usual. Yeah, right, right. I like that idea a lot. Well, Lucy, I want to thank you for being on our show today, sharing these ideas that I think will make a difference for people in improving their ability to be, to manage that energy. And tell us about your work.

[00:21:05] What is it that you do that you have that you'd like our listeners to know about? Thanks so much, Scott. I have a program that involves these six pillars. And that's what I work with people in person on or in groups. And something will be coming down the pipe online very soon as well. So people can head over to my website, lucygable.com, and they can sign up to get the information on an email or they can fill out the assessment about leadership just to see how they're doing on that. That's great.

[00:21:35] And we're going to put that information on the show notes. Everybody listening, go to the show notes. You'll be able to get that directly. We'll also put Lucy's LinkedIn profile there. And I'm a fan of your content that I see on LinkedIn. And tell us also about your podcast, Lucy. Oh, thanks so much. It's called Leadership, Life, Health, and Happiness. So I do speak a lot about these different pillars. I don't say I'm speaking about this pillar today, but I speak about these things that fit into the pillars.

[00:22:01] And I also have guests as well that fit into exactly what we're talking about. That's great. Well, thank you so much, Lucy. I really appreciate you being here. And I hope that everybody follows you and connects with you and even checks out your podcast. Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you so much, Scott. Thank you for listening to The Rainmaking Podcast.

[00:22:22] For more information about our recruiting services for international law firms, visit our website at attorneysearchgroup.com. To inquire about having Scott speak at your next convention, conference, sales meeting, or executive retreat, visit therainmakingpodcast.com.