The Success Triad: How Elite Performers Master Body, Mind, and Voice

Self-Authorship Through Physiology, Mindset & Language

Photo by M Zazou from Unsplash

Personal Agency as Your Competitive Advantage

High achievers understand leverage, but many miss the most powerful lever of all - their own Agency. We’re born with the ability to influence situations and outcomes through our thoughts, words and actions - Personal Agency is naturally with us and observable from infancy.

Personal agency rests on "efficacy beliefs"—your realization that you can make things happen.

Think about your most significant achievements. They happened because of your conviction, even when evidence suggested otherwise, that your mindset and actions could create the outcome you wanted.

Real change—the kind that transforms —requires two non-negotiable elements:

1 - Taking responsibility for where you are and where you're going. No more references to conditions, difficult personalities, slights or setbacks. You are the author of what happens next.

2 - Making substantive change regardless of obstacles and critics. This means acting on your vision even when the path isn't clear, when others dissuade, and progress feels slow.

Things change when we take ownership and find a way to go ahead anyway, even though, even if, even when. There is a third element - an operating system related to how you and I show up for ourselves and in the world — at City we call it the Success Triad. The Success Triad integrates Physiology, Mindset and Language to support our aims and our Agency — it is a synthesis of how we use our body, direct our mind, and choose our words.

Building Personal Agency via Physiology, Mindset & Language

At City, we define Success quite specifically. Success is liking who we are, what we do, and how we do it. Successful people combine Personal Agency with elevated physical state, a potential-focused mindset, and with elevated language.

The Success Triad isn’t about soft skills - it’s about the hardware upon which everything else depends. Your Physiology, Mindset, Language and Stories, along with Agency, are the hardware that run your show. They are the elements that enable you to make things HAPPEN. How might we use Physical State, Mindset, and Language in ways that serve us positively? Here are three go-to’s to help you tap into the Physiology / Mindset / Language Triad:

• Stand Tall.

• Mind your Thoughts.

• Watch Your Words.

A look now at how Physical State, Mindset, and Language help us reach our aims.

Photo by Getty Images via Unsplash+

**Stand Tall: Physiology As Foundation

Your body is not separate from your success—it is one of your most primary success mechanisms. The way you stand, walk, move, breathe, and take up space directly influences your emotional state. Your emotional state drives decisions/actions, and ACTION creates your results. This isn't metaphorical—The way you stand, walk, move, breathe and take up space influences virtually everything going on with you — it’s a neurological, psychological, sociological, physiological fact.

When you stand tall, breathe, and move with intention, you literally change your brain chemistry. You reduce cortisol, increase energy and testosterone, and you access mind and emotion states that prime you for possibility-focused performance.

An example that moves Physiology from theory to an applicable tactic: Notice your posture right now. Are you rounded and collapsed over your phone? Are you head down hunched at your desk? Or are you standing or sitting with energy and presence? Your physiology now and in every moment is either empowering or undermining. Pay attention to it.

Stand Tall is about changing our energy and emotional state for the better. Stand Tall is also about tuning in to the beautiful, powerful physical you.

**Mind Your Thoughts: The Power of Focus

Your mindset and thoughts are the most powerful, consequential tools you have. Use them intentionally.

Mind Your Thoughts is about harnessing the immense power of focus and perception.

Your thoughts aren't mere chatter—they design and determine your reality. Where focus goes, energy and outcomes flow. High Achievers learn to be positive, active and strategic about where they place focus. Focusing on progress rather than problems is not about being a blind optimist. It’s about being active and smart regarding our attention and mindset.

Choose gratitude and appreciation over tiresome criticism. Why? Because when your mind is in a grateful state, you can’t be worried, fearful, or angry. Most people want to progress, achieve, and care for others, but they get stuck in a state of being fearful or angry. Let fear and anger go by defaulting to gratitude for what is good, and when you encounter a setback, ask "What can I learn?" rather than "Why did this happen to me?" Find the upside or lesson when something doesn’t work out, and avoid blowing negatives out of proportion.

Replace negative self-talk with language that you would use with a friend — this is important. Pay particular attention to actively replacing nagging internal chatter by labeling, releasing and replacing it with supportive language. Treat yourself with warmth - as a friend and person of value, not as annoyance or imposition.

Remember too — everyone has a past. You are not your past unless you live there. Tap into your good heart and potential, and instead of asking how long something will take you, ask how far you can go. Stand for something, cultivate character and positive action, and remember who you are.

**Watch Your Words: Language as Leadership

Our Words become our Actions. Our Actions become our Habits, and our Habits become our Identity. The language, stories and routines to which we subscribe telegraph who we are, what we value, and what makes us tick. Our language and stories also largely determine both how we are received in the world and the difference we make.

Do we lift people and causes up? Do we complain and criticize? Are we tired naysayers or enthusiastic builders? Mindset, Habits and Identity all begin with what we say, how we say it, and the stories we tell again and again and again. Take care to use thoughtful, assuring speech as a matter of course. Make potential-focused language your default mode of thinking and speaking.

Watch your words is about framing, perception, focus, and mindset.

Watch your words is also about the lifting power of a thoughtful remark. So many people feel alone. So many people despair for lack of an encouraging word. Expressing appreciation costs nothing, helps the giver and the receiver, and can change everything.

Leadership is the choice to positively manage ourselves as we look out and care for those around us and serve something bigger. We each lead a life and live a story, and have the ability to shape what’s now and what’s next. What to do? Stand Tall. Mind your Thoughts and Watch your Words. Show up and do what is to be done when it’s time. You are the author friends — you’re the lead, and you’ve got this. Good luck and get to it - your Story starts now.