How Adopting a "High Eyes" mindset can impact your career and life
I've started taking high performance driver education (HPDE) courses. I'm doing this for a couple of reasons: I'm a lifelong car enthusiast and I love driving. I also want to become better at it, and the best way to do that is in a closed environment, on track, with an instructor.
One of the first fundamentals they teach you in the classroom is to "use high eyes" to look farther ahead than you typically do. This is critical for a number of reasons. It's important not just to look at the entrance to the next corner, but through the *entire* corner. Using this technique, you can plan when to first apply the brakes, how you will steer the car through the entire corner, how you will exit that corner that sets you up for the next one, and what other cars are around you. This is key to understanding how to fluently navigate the entire track in a smooth way while better recognizing the potential challenges (and risks) that are in motion all around us.
There is an instant change in how you process and plan when you apply this "high eyes" approach, even on the street. You immediately change how you see what is happening. You see that the lane you're in is closed a half-mile ahead and immediately form a plan for how to modify your route to account for it, as an example, instead of just following the car directly ahead until you see the "road closed" sign, and suddenly realize you have to adjust your course.
This applies to our work and life, too. When we apply the "high eyes" approach to life—looking beyond the next hour, next meeting, next day—and focus on what our inspired goal or future is, and what we need to change or adopt in order to get there, it can transform how we approach our life and work. But life does it's absolute best to keep us focused on whatever issue/challenge/person is demanding our attention right now. (Constant, compulsive connectivity does not help this.)
Here are four ideas on how to adopt a "high eyes" practice each day:
Get clear on your plans and goals. What are you committed to changing, growing, or achieving? What's your time frame? What steps will you take to achieve it? What might be holding you back from achieving it? Make time to think through all of these factors, and write them out as part of your plan.
Start working to adopt a "high eyes" approach to your daily routine. How can you take small steps each day to move towards your future goal? How do you build time into your schedule each day/week to ensure you're staying on track?
Stay committed but flexible. If a car in front of you spins out on track and blocks your planned path of travel, you typically don't just pull off the track and call it a day; you quickly and flexibly adapt to a different course. It's important to consider how to apply the same logic to pursuing your longer-term goals/building new habits.
Consider working with a coach. A coach specializing in leadership, career transition, or life coaching can help you get clear on what you want, what it will look and feel like to achieve it, and how you create and activate a plan to achieve that desired future state.
Want to know more about coaching and how it can help you achieve and maintain that "high eyes" mindset? Please reach out--I'd be happy to discuss.
