How to Improve Your Performance with Melanie Larkins

Whether it’s your health, lifestyle, or business, there’s always room for improvement. But how do you set goals and measure that improvement in a sustainable and meaningful way? Today’s guest, an expert in helping people perform better, has those answers!

About Melanie Larkins

Melanie Larkins brings wisdom from 30 years in athletics (as a player, referee, and coach), over 25 years as a practitioner in yoga, meditation, and martial arts, and 10 years as a yoga and meditation teacher.

As a high-performance coach, Melanie integrates elements of meditation, yoga, martial arts, body conditioning, and music to help her clients harness the power of the mind to unlock the true potential of their bodies and reach peak performance. She guides elite athletes from being distracted and anxious high-achievers to becoming laser-focused champions.

Improvement Can Happen Anywhere

Improving performance can happen in any part of your life. Whether it’s running faster, sleeping better, winning that big contract, bettering your work-life balance, or just about anything else, there are steps you can take towards improvement. Melanie explains how she helps her clients identify key performance indicators so that they can make a plan and keep track of their improvements.

Getting More Done by Doing Less

Melanie shares some tips for those of us who are addicted to overworking. Of course, there’s important work to do to meet our goals. Yet, too often we work merely for the sake of staying busy. Melanie suggests that we overcome this through judicious use of timers and scheduling. This will help you set clear boundaries to maintain a healthier work-life balance.

We also discuss strategies for checking in with your emotions. When you can objectively observe your emotional and mental state, you can better know if it's time to take a break or not. Being devoted to a non-work-related activity is another useful tool that we talk about.

Simplicity is the Key

Many times, we get in our own way to achieving goals by overcomplicating things. Melanie discusses what we can do to keep things simple in order to perform at a high level. This involves improving focus, setting boundaries, and prioritizing. When you’re only focusing on what’s really necessary, you’ll be more efficient and find yourself with more freedom to do what you truly love.

What area of your life could you work to improve? Leave a comment on the episode page!

Got a question you’d love to hear me answer on the show? Leave me a voice message here!

In This Episode

How Melanie became a high-performance coach [5:00]
How to determine your key performance indicators (KPIs) [9:00]
The importance of allowing yourself to enjoy free time [17:00]
Tips for avoiding overwork [20:55]
Deciding how many KPIs are enough [25:54]
Improving your performance by keeping things simple [33:08]
Techniques for improving your performance right away [39:00]

Quotes

“There’s always some sort of way to measure even things that are subjective. There’s still something.” [12:51]

“You have to have some quiet. You have to have some time outside of that thing to give you new ideas. That’s how innovation usually happens.” [19:19]

“The more you can get simplified, the more efficient you can actually be.” [35:17]

Review Fed and Fearless on Apple Podcasts! Send a screenshot of your review to hello@lauraschoenfeldrd.com or send me a DM on Instagram and I’ll send you my Overcoming Undereating eBook. If you post your favorite episode in your Insta stories and tag me @LauraShoenfeldRD, I’ll also send you my 14-Day Calorie Challenge Recipe Guide!

lystn