As I walked into my room, what was about to happen would change my life......forever! I went directly to "mini bar", opened door, got on my hands and knees, and ate everything there.

Oh, I started out with good intentions. I had only consumed 1000 calories so far during day. My body weight was around 198, so I could have almost 2000 calories daily and not gain weight. I had plenty of calories to spare.

I started out with M&M’s. One bag, 240 calories, no problem. Next I happened to see a bag of chocolate chip cookies, two for 270 calories, again, no problem. Next I saw Orio cookies, then a bag of Barbecue potato chips. Next a Mars Bar, then another bag of M&M’s, this time with nuts, then something I would never ordinarily eat, marsh mellows and Rice Crispies, combined into some type of a one serving square.

It went on and on. I ate over 4000 calories that night. It’s ok, though, I thought. I’ll just write them down on my calorie chart, I’m accountable after all. Then I’ll just pick up my workouts and burn an additional two hundred calories per work out next week. That along with a decrease in my intake ought to get me right back where I should be.

That type of thinking was absolutely correct. I would increase my expenditure, decrease my intake, and I would be back down in weight next week except for one thing...

...I would always be playing catch up. I would always have that extra five to ten pounds that I know I can lose and will someday.

It was that mini bar experience that made me realize that I had a problem...

The problem was HUMAN NATURE!

There is a well known principle in law of human behavior which states following:

"All human performance is either avoidance of Pain or seeking of Comfort!"

This is referred to as human performance law. I like to use analogy of principle of gravity. It doesn’t matter if you understand principle of gravity. It doesn’t matter if you believe in principle. The principle will apply it’s effect in your life regardless of your attitude or understanding of it.

The same is true with human nature. All human beings are driven by avoidance of anything that they perceive as uncomfortable, or painful, and driven to anything that they perceive as pleasure or comfort.

Many times, this is a second income producer. This person has a spouse who brings in a great income. They have school children who come home from school at 3:00 pm. They are not going to be out doing presentations, sales calls, etc. after 3:00 pm. They are not going to work evenings or weekends. These people basically want something to do, a place to go, and people to complain with.

Now let’s look at someone with a very high level of commitment to results that they get in their business. The profile of this person might look like this- a single income producer who has a very high overhead. This person has two children going to college. They suffer from what’s called mal-tuition! This person has a mortgage payment, health insurance payments, and car payments. They must make several thousand dollars a month just to pay their bills. They see a totally different world than low committed person. They will come in early, work late, work weekends, and do whatever it takes to be as successful as they can.

Now, if you are like me and I know I am, we will have a tendency to compare two and to judge that high commitment is good and low commitment is bad. Having a low or high commitment level in a persons’ health, business or personal life is not good or bad. Each person has their own unique set of circumstances and motivational levels that determine what they commit to.

Here is my definition of elite performance. See if you can agree. I would call you an elite performer if met this criteria: Regardless of how high or how low your commitment level is, if you do what you said you would do, and if you achieve reasonable results for your efforts, then I would call you an elite performer!

Let’s apply above definition. Under those criteria, can a low committed person be considered to be an elite performer? The answer is yes! However, we need to give up a traditional American management myth of evaluation by ranking. Ranking is not relevant. Ranking doesn’t tell you entire story. All ranking shows is that one person did more than another. Ranking doesn’t take into account motivational levels, commitment levels or personal circumstances.

Several years ago I was keynote speaker for RE/MAX Real Estate of Canada, number one real estate company in country. Prior to my presentation, they honored top sales person in entire company who had 16 million in sales when average production was 1 million.

That is not why I would have brought that person on stage. I would have recognized and honored that person not because they did more than anyone else. I would have honored that person if their goal was 16 million and they did 16 million. Likewise, I would have also brought up to stage part time housewife, single parent with two school age children, who had a goal of 3 million and did 3 million. I would have honored her with same level of recognition as 16 million producer because I’m not comparing individuals, but rather honoring a code. The code is I do what I said I would do!

Now, here is a statistic related to that. Only 2% of population is actually making a plan and then having it turn out way that they planned. Their circumstances, priorities, interruptions, and distractions, basically, realities of their lives, pull most of population away.

What about top 2%. They have circumstances and distractions as well. They also have focus. They handle all of their priorities, interruptions, etc. and still do what they said they would do.

What’s different about this 2%? I wanted elite performance. I wanted life of my dreams. I wanted to be in love, to be healthy and to be wealthy. I wanted to be a 2% person. Before I made a commitment to be in that top 2%, I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t just chasing some type of a pipe dream.

I asked myself this question. Is there anything different about that 2% that I can’t control? Are they more intelligent? Are they more motivated? Do they work harder? Are they more educated? Are they more talented?

The answer is a resounding NO! Calvin Coolage is famous for saying that education alone is not difference. The world is full of educated derelicts! Talent isn’t difference. There are many very talented people who are very unsuccessful.

Then what is difference?

The behavioral researchers all agree that only difference, major difference of elite performers and everyone else is one word, ATTITUDE

I didn’t believe this when I first heard it. I kept thinking, don’t give me this Polly Anna positive thinking stuff. You’re telling me that only difference between elite performers and everyone else is way that they think! I didn’t buy it!