Are you standing on the right shoulders?

In 1675, the scientist, Sir Isaac Newton wrote a letter to his friend, detailing his successes. In one humble statement, he suggested that the reason for hi ssuccess was due to his willingness to tap into others’ wisdom.

“If I have seen further than most,” he wrote, “it is because I have been standing on the shoulders of giants.”

When I meet many of our High Performance guests, I am often reminded of this powerful kernel of truth.

We can all learn from the giants that surround us.

The brilliant thing is, we have been doing for most of our lives. When we learned maths at school, we didn’t start from scratch. We were using the techniques which had been developed as far back as Archimedes through to Sir Isaac Newton himself and more recent figures, such as Alan Turing.

The same principle applies in the world outside of education and it is important to pay close attention to who we choose to listen to.

When starting a new challenge, go and find someone that recently achieved a similar task and ask them for real and specific advice on how they did it. Those two words – real and specific - are crucial here. You are seeking access to the wisdom, the techniques and the skills that have worked in a similar situation which you’re approaching.

You control your perspective and starting position more than you think. Before you begin your own high performance journey, find someone a step or two ahead of you and see whether they will allow you stand upon their shoulders.