Fitness Tips

Focus on Performance Not Perfection

Fitness tips with Leanne Spencer | www.bodyshotperformance.com

I’d like to tell you a little story. Some years ago, I went to a show on London’s South Bank called Circa. It’s an acrobatic show and these athletes were doing the most extraordinary things.

Balancing on one arm, doing jumps on stilts. I mean, incredible stuff. Sitting there in the audience close to the front row, I had a really clear view of the action. What stood out for me was that despite these people doing the most extraordinary things, their bodies varied quite a bit. Some were tall, some were short, some are incredibly cut. There was lots of muscular definition and others less so, but they were all incredibly strong. All of them were able to do all the stunts and all the tricks. Literally carrying the bodyweight of another, perhaps larger athlete on their shoulders whilst they were standing on one leg.

Performance Over Perfection

What stood out for me was what these guys valued was performance over perfection. None of them were striving to get cut abdominals or bulging quadricep muscles. They were only focused on whether they could perform those stunts safely and with some degree of longevity, twice a day, 10 times a week. I wonder how much we, as agile business athletes, value performance over perfection? Are we chasing this notion of perfection and that we need to do everything, we need to appear a certain way, we need to perform a certain way? Or are we just focused on doing what we can achieve, for example, on delivering something that is good enough? On making ourselves happy and not worrying so much about external validation.

Seeking Internal Validation, Not External

If we were able to make that mind shift into really focusing on performance, not perfection life could be significantly better for ourselves. I invite you to look at that in your own life. If you like, take the Circa analogy, are you looking for a chiselled appearance or are you just focusing on where that body can take you? The journey it can take you on. The experiences you can have with it, the connection you can form. Or are you focused on maybe the aesthetics? You can apply that to any aspect of life, to physical training, to your work, to the connection you have in your social environments, to the hobbies that you do. You can apply it to absolutely everything.

High-Achieving People and Burnout

One thing I do know about high-achieving people, we do tend to get very caught up in this notion of perfectionism. And I think it can be a bit of a hiding to nothing and take you down that route to burnout. One of the commonalities of people who have burnout is that they very often described themselves as perfectionists. Let’s call ourselves performance-ists, if you like, I’m focused on what we can do with our minds and our bodies and not so much what they look like.

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Mondays 10, 17, 24 & 31 January: Words Aloud: A

Reading Group with a Difference

11am-12.30pm. No Homework! Weekly discussions exploring stories and poems for sheer enjoyment, looking at how writers achieve their effects, led by author Lynn Knight. No pens, no paper, no prep, no pressure. FREE, but numbers are limited. To book a place or find out more contact lkreadingrlf@gmail.com Brought to you by the Royal Literary Fund

Anerley Town Hall, 123a Anerley Road, Anerley, SE20 8AJ.

Monday 10 January: Dulwich WI Monthly Meeting

7.30pm-9.30pm. We meet on the second Monday of each month at Fifty Seven, 57 North Cross Road, East Dulwich, SE22. https://dulwichwi.com

Mondays 10 January- Monday 7 February: Life Drawing Course

7.30pm-9.30pm. 5 weeks. Suitable for beginners and intermediate adults. Upstairs at EDT, 1 Lordship Lane, East Dulwich SE22. Full details

www.theartsfactory.london.

Tuesdays 11, 18 & 25 January: Tuesday Evening Life Drawing Zoom & Drop-in Session

7pm–8.30pm. This is an online drawing & painting session conducted via Zoom and in studio. Long pose life painting and drawing. A single pose held for three hours with 5-minute model breaks every 25 minutes. This class will be run by Freya Tate, a wonderful artist with a sharp eye and a playful line. The session will be life model focused but Freya will introduce chaotic elements to challenge you and move your drawing on to higher levels. The Dulwich Art Group & School.

www.dulwichartgroup.co.uk.

Tuesday 4 January: Honor Oak WI

We meet on the first Tuesday of each month, currently via Zoom, at 7:30pm. twitter.com/honoroakwi www.facebook.com/groups/honoroakwi/

Honoroak_WI Email: honoroakwi@gmail.com

Tuesdays 11, 18 & 25 January: Social runs with DPR

7.30pm-8.30pm. Trevor Bailey Clubhouse, Dulwich Common, Dulwich, London, UK map directions. Join Dulwich Park Runners at their club runs at 7.30pm on Tuesday evenings. All standards welcome. See the website for more information or email:

enquiries@dulwichparkrunners.com www.dulwichparkrunners.co.uk

Wednesday 12 January: Nutrition to Support Menopause

7pm - 8pm. Making the right food and lifestyle choices can support you through the menopause. Find out which foods can help with hormone balance and bone health, and which foods could make symptoms worse. This fact-filled talk explains how the right food and lifestyle choices can support you through the menopause, and minimise menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes, night sweats, anxiety and joint pain. Bell House, 27 College Road, London, SE21 7BG.

https://www.bellhouse.co.uk.

To get your listing here contact: angela@semagazines.co.uk

Thursday 13 January: Dido Elizabeth Belle and the Beginnings of Abolition

8pm - 9pm. The Arts Society Dulwich lecture at JAGS Sixth Form Centre off Green Dale, East Dulwich, SE22 8TX. Guests welcome, £10 at the door, no booking required. We will look at Dido's image and a variety of paintings by artists including Reynolds and Turner in the context of abolition, changing attitudes towards the slave trade and the first stirrings of anti-slavery in Britain. Speaker: Lesley Primo.

https://www.theartssocietydulwich.org.uk.

Monday 17 January: Entrepreneurs Circle Local Meeting: Dulwich

6pm-8pm (registration from 5.30pm). A new type of Business Growth Meeting (with some networking) that's guaranteed to help your business grow. Our meetings always have a featured content session where we share a practical marketing tactic or strategy that you can use in your business to get more customers and make more sales! It's a DOUBLE WHAMMY! You'll get more customers IN the meetings through networking and referrals PLUS you'll also leave with actionable ideas to market your business once you get home too. Whether you're an existing EC member or this is your very first meeting, if you're a business owner from the Dulwich area, we'd love to have you join us at our September Meeting. IMPORTANT: this event is exclusively for Members of Entrepreneurs Circle so you'll either need to sign up (for free) at the event, or at the link below: https://eclocal.co.uk/Dulwich/join/ Join your fellow Dulwich business owners for our Entrepreneurs Circle Local Meeting at The Clock House (Upstairs) 198a Peckham Rye, East Dulwich, London SE22 9QA.

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