One of my biggest Aha moments in 2019 was when I read this equation :

“Performance = Potential – Interference” (ref “The Inner Game” by Tim  Gallwey)

It is presented in such a simple way and yet gave me so much clarity.   

The power of interferences is what is stopping us from reaching our full potential. Yes of course, how did I even miss that ?!

Interferences are of many sorts. For instance, one of them is to undermine ourselves by listening to different voices in our head that will tell us many stories :  we are not good enough, we are so silly, we are so stupid, we will never make it etc…

These interferences can in some cases be so strong that they can surpass our potential, attack our performance and this is when the vicious negative circle starts and we make up further stories : “This voice might be right, look I can’t do anything !”

I strongly believe that what we give power to, has power over us. In other words, if we give too much power to this undermining voice instead of our positive believing inner voice , then it will lead us to failure.

We have to unravel those voices, and focus on how much we can actually do.

Tim Gallwey illustrates this well inside his book when he talks about tennis players hitting the ball during a game and he asks them what they were thinking about when they performed a perfect shot. Their answer was unanimous : nothing, their mind was at a peace. This is when we are at our best, when we unleash our talent and potential.

“Always remember that you can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe in, you will achieve.” Asra Abdulaziz