Negotiating your way to optimum energy, focus & peak personal performance

How to finally get the results you've been striving for — without overwhelming your life

We know the feeling.

You're successful, with many things in life going well.

But the balance of your schedule isn't quite where you'd like it to be.

You feel you're capable of more than you're achieving right now.

If you could just take things to the next level, you'd be on fire.

And you'd be happy.

In theory, you know what you need to do.

Sharpen up your routine when it comes to how you run your health, energy, focus and performance, and life will be great.

To achieve this you’ve got big goals, a bold vision, and a pretty decent overview plan for how to make things better.

So you dive in.

All in.

More activity. Better food choices. Higher priority given to sleep, rest, recovery, taking breaks. A new outlook on balancing all your commitments. A fresh approach to managing stress, living mindfully, spending time only on things that really matter, and delegating / sharing the load wherever possible.

A whole list of changes, actions, systems, structures and routines.

But pretty soon, reality hits.

Your schedule’s already packed, meaning you begin struggling to keep consistency with your new approach.

So you pause… maybe for a day, maybe for a week… maybe longer.

And then fall back into the routine that wasn’t working in the first place.

Only now you feel frustrated, disappointed, and are doubting whether you'll ever be able to get the traction you're looking for with all these healthy habits.

Here’s what’s missing in this situation...

The Reality Check

There's s a well-known quote attributed to author Betty Friedan and popularised by Oprah Winfrey.

"You can have it all, just not all at the same time"

The truth?

Total success is within reach.

But the key is not to create massive disruption to your routine in the short term.

Success is about making sure your vision for the future high performing you is a long-term vision, with priorities broken down into a sequential plan enabling you to take consistent action, and enjoy quick and ongoing results.

So we'd modify the above quote a little to say you can have it all if you put all the pieces in place one by one rather than trying to do it all at the same time.

🧩 Step-by-Step to Sustainable Success

That overview plan you made for success? Don’t throw it away.

Break it down into it's component parts and put them into an order.

Here’s one way to break a headline plan into progressive priorities:

1. Start with Movement: what can you manage this week and next?

• A daily walk

• A short workout every two or three days

• A weekly class or group activity — something simple, something consistent that has a social element for extra fun and accountability

2. Then: Sleep

• An intentional pre-sleep routine

• A pre-planned time buffer between screens and sleep with a relaxing activity between the two

• A firm cut off time for social media, Netflix and news

• A consistent wake-up time

3. Work-Life-Family Balance

• Set boundaries around work hours

• Schedule time off with family or for yourself and make sure this goes into your calendar

• Design a clear routine to transition from work mode to personal mode in the evenings and at weekends

• Practice switching off your phone. Which means actually switching it off. Not on silent, not on do not disturb. Shut it down and see how much more relaxed you feel instantly.

4. Work Efficiency

• Batch tasks

• Focus on what really moves the needle

• Make yourself unavailable periodically and just watch how others will rise to the challenge

• Keep a list of items you want to off-load on the future and create systems to tackle this list one item per week or per month

5. Food Routine

• Hydrate consistently with stylish water bottles placed wherever you'll need them

• Take photos of all your meals and snacks across a week and then upgrade one meal at a time

• Eat more mindfully i.e. focus on your food without the distraction of work or phone

• If you find yourself eating too much or too quickly, aim to shorten the gaps between meals and snacks

🗓️ Create a Timeline You Can Actually Stick To

As we've said, you don’t need to do everything right away. Instead:

• Sketch a timeline for when to start each new habit

• Focus on daily actions that fit into your real schedule

• Make progress in phases — not sprints

• When you feel confident that you've established each phase, turn your attention to the next.

This way, you’ll have clarity on:

✅ What you’re doing each day

✅ When each habit will become routine

✅ When the full system will be up and running — almost on autopilot

DO NOT Wait for Life to “Calm Down”

If you wait for the perfect time to change your lifestyle, you’ll be waiting forever.

Instead, build a system that fits today’s reality — however messy or full it may be.

Changes that work within your busy weeks are sustainable.

And once they’re rolling, they’re easy to build on.

The aim isn’t perfection.

The aim is progress you benefit from and that you enjoy.

The greater the results and the enjoyment of the process, the more motivated you'll be to build on each stage of success and reach progressively greater heights month after month after month.

So, are you ready?

It’s time to negotiate your way to high performance - one step at a time - once and for all.