Performance vs. Purpose

I posted recently about the dangers of performance and there is much more in this than I could even start to cover in a single post. Thus, prepare for more pain! LOL!


Performance is that dangerous slight of motive that causes us to question everything we do. It limits who we are and blinds us to reality. It props us up for failure and gives us a false identity with those around us.

However, probably the most fatal thing about a performance mentality is that it robs us of REAL purpose. I've always heard that if you don't know the purpose of a thing then you will abuse it! If you are trying to perform then you will miss the purpose of the moments that you go through. You will think that you are there to accomplish one task and become totally unaware of anything else that is going on inside of that moment.

For me, really living is in discovering REAL value in every moment of life. This means that I can't go into the moment with a preconceived value, but I must go into it alert and aware of any value that might appear. For example, instead of simply going to work to do my job, I become aware of the people around me. One day I'm working and I notice my co-worker crying. Well my performance "SELL SELL SELL" mentality (first of all never notices her, but if I do) says that I do not have time to deal with her, or "man she is terrible at this job". I become critical and condemning.

I know I have catch myself constantly getting wrapped up in my performance and forgetting what the real value of the moment is. I become a terrible leader because I am worrying about leading. I get so caught up in what I am and am not doing that I never notice other people and what I can do for them.

To me losing the performance mentality is the key to SERVANT leadership. It says, "My performance is insignificant, how can I serve you?"

The key is understanding that "performance" is not "doing". Performance is self centered and hung up on how well you can do, servant leadership is about what is it that others need done, that I can help them do. Not to make me look good, but to make them look good. What is it that they can't recognize and do for themselves, what is it they is dirty and they won't do for themselves, what is it that is uncomfortable and limiting that I can take away from them. That is true servant based leadership. It is finding a way to give up your greatness to make someone else great. It is getting your hands dirty to clean someone else's dirty feet. It is making their supply and their value a priority over your own!

It's funny, performance is the opposite of concrete action. Performance is when you are acting out a character that isn't your own. When you don't know your own character it becomes necessary to always try to be someone else's character... THAT IS THE ESSENCE OF PERFORMANCE!

Discover your purpose, discover your place, discover every moment! That's what it takes to overcome your performance mentality. Come up with concrete actions and then test their effective and affective reality. See if they are just more BS to make you look good, or if they are real effective strategies that bring the best out of others!

Do you act out of performance and puffed up knowledge... or do you act out of purpose? Performance lives for a moment, purpose lives for THE moment. Performance is temporary, purpose is eternal. Performance is dictated, purpose is innate. Performance is external, purpose is inherent.

Are you just performing or do you really have purpose?