Latest / Mental Per4mance Daily with Adam Rutz / Stop Performing For Approval
Transcript
- Adam Rutz: Stop performing for approval because the moment your performance becomes about proving something to everybody else, your attention leaves the things you actually need to do. You see this in sports all the time. An athlete starts thinking about the crowd or the coach, the scouts, what people are gonna say after the game, how they're going to look if they fail. And suddenly they're not really competing anymore. They're performing for judgment. Which is super dangerous because elite performance requires your attention to be on the task in front of you, the present moment, not the opinion surrounding it. You can't be fully locked into execution while constantly wondering what everybody else thinks about your execution. And look, I'm not saying this like I've got this all figured out. I still have days where I catch myself looking around at other people in my industry and feeling like I need to prove something. Like I'm competing with them instead of just focusing on what I'm trying to build and how I want to perform. And I think that's normal when you're competitive. You want to be respected. You want people to notice what you're doing. You want to know you measure up. But you have to catch yourself when that starts controlling your attention. Because the second your focus shifts from playing your game to impressing everybody watching, you've given them too much power. Wanting respect isn't a bad thing. Wanting to make people proud isn't bad either. But when approval becomes the reason you perform, your confidence starts depending on other people. If they praise you, you feel great. If they criticize you, now you're questioning yourself. Question your self-worth. That's an unstable way to compete. So here's what I want you to think about today. Who are you trying to prove yourself to? And what would change if you stopped competing for their approval and started competing against your own standard? Prepare because that's who you are. Compete because you love competing. Execute because you committed to doing the job the right way. Let everybody else have their opinions. Your responsibility is the next rep, the next decision, the next opportunity. Play your game, run your race, live by your standard. Because you don't need to look elite for everybody else. You need to do what elite performers do. Execute today. Mindset, process, discipline, execution. That's mental performance daily.