Being a leader is a blessing and a curse…
When you’re a visionary, a creative, you are future-focused. You’re always looking out into the future. It’s how you literally ‘create’ the future.
But that very gift that serves us as visionaries, leaders and creatives means that we rarely pause to take a breath, or to slow down.
Driven but depressed
As high performers, we’re often driven from our pain and our struggles. It can go right back to our childhood.
So many people are chasing success, yet, if we’re not careful, we can end up successful and alone… highly accomplished but deeply frustrated… or wealthy and well-known but ever so empty on the inside.
Almost ten years ago, a clinical professor and entrepreneur, Dr. Michael Freeman, surveyed 242 entrepreneurs about their mental health. 30% of them reported having depression, 27% having anxiety problems.
The other side of high performance
My friend Mark McGuinness is an award-winning poet, author and coach to high performing creatives.
His podcast interview of me has just been released and it is one of the most interesting interviews I’ve done in years.
If you’re a high performer – or if you aspire to reach the top of your profession – you’ll find plenty to inspire you in this interview:
- How high performance can come at a big cost. It can lead to loneliness, to pressure, to disillusionment, and even burnout.
- What separates the highest performers from the rest.
- How to avoid the pitfalls of success.
- My own struggles and challenges.
- The constant sense of constant sense of guilt that leadership can bring.
- Why leaning just 4% beyond your edge is the secret number for top performers.
- Why the entrance requirement to 4PC is that you should feel a little bit in awe of us and we should feel a little bit in awe of you.
- Why I hired someone whose job is to help me do the things that I’m afraid of!
- And I answer the important question, “How many introverts does it take to change a lightbulb?!”
Finally, I leave you with a Creative Challenge – something that you can go and do within 7 days of listening to this interview that will stretch you creatively and personally, ideally both.
I love Mark’s description of my work. He says,
“Rich encourages and challenges people to be more themselves – to take their unique gift and hone it in pursuit of their unconventional ambitions…”
Here is the link to the podcast: https://lateralaction.com/articles/rich-litvin/
Enjoy!
Love. Rich