I’ve been listening to podcasts a lot more in the last year or two and one of my favourites is High Performance with Jake Humphrey and Damian Hughes.

I usually listen to an episode every time I go for a walk. Yes, you read that right, I do walk from time to time and listen to a podcast to stop me from breaking into a run!

They have a great range of guests they have and learning about their experiences. The beauty of it is that quite often, the most inspiring stories come from people you least expect.

One of the things I love is they start each episode asking the same question to the guest and finish with some quick-fire questions.

While I was walking back from seeing a client this morning, I started thinking about what my answers would be to these questions and here they are!

Let’s start with the first question.

What’s your definition of high performance?

Getting up every morning, doing your best in everything you do and working towards something bigger for yourself.

Now onto the quick-fire questions.

What are the 3 non-negotiable behaviours you and everyone around you must buy into?

1. Ambition – aim high, go after something that’s greater than your current ability level and find your way to do it!
2. Determination – focus on your goal like nothing else matters and never give up!
3. Kindness – when you’re kind to others and help them on their journey, it helps you on your journey too.

What’s your biggest strength and your greatest weakness?

My biggest strength is adaptability. I know that you’re not always going to feel like you’re firing on all cylinders for every session. When that happens, I know you’ll likely struggle with your regular workout and I’ll either suggest something different or ask what you feel will benefit you the most. Often at the drop of a hat.

I want you to finish each session feeling better than you did when you started. Sometimes you might have had a rubbish night’s sleep, your back feels sore or you feel stressed. In these situations, it’s better to do something different that will still feel good and keep moving you forwards than persevering with something that might make you feel worse.

My greatest weakness these last few years has been doubting myself, wondering what to call myself. I don’t really see myself as a typical Personal Trainer and have spent too much time and energy thinking about what to call myself rather than define myself by how I help people. Thankfully, it’s not as bad as it was and I feel like I’m coming out the other side of the hole I’d dug for myself!

What advice would you give to a teenage Steve just starting out?

Keep doing what you’re doing, have fun and ask more questions. That way you’ll get a deeper understanding about things, learn more and help make better decisions. Especially to you Mum. You’ll get to know your Dad more as a person and do the same with your Mum as you get much of your character from her.

What’s your one golden rule to leading a high performance life?

Trust the process. Training for a marathon teaches you everything about following a plan and sticking to it. You don’t run a marathon after one day’s training. It’s about a journey of around 12-16 weeks, practicing, learning every time, embracing the challenge, enjoy getting out of your comfort zone, discovering what you can do that you couldn’t do before and the sense of accomplishment you get as you cross the finish line.

That’s how I see my Personal Training program to be like.

I’ve really enjoyed writing this post! I’m not sure I would’ve been able to answer a lot of the questions a year ago.

Over to you now! I’d love to know what your answers would be to these questions.

Either answer in the comments, email me them here or why not create your own post and tag me in it?

Anything IS possible!