‘In The Zone’ is a segment of my podcast where I talk with people who work within their zone of genius.
Mark Shimmin is a running coach from San Diego and a graduate of the Super High Performance program. Six months on from completing my program Mark shares how he coaches from his zone of genius and how his life has changed.
Mark has an amazing story. He talks about his lifelong challenge with suicidal thoughts, reconnecting with himself, his family, and how he leads – using running as a way to serve his community.
This is what Mark had to say…
When we first started working together in February of 2020 I was going through heartache and grief. Everything seemed to be going all over the place for me and I felt lost – I came across you and we had a conversation that really opened up the wheels for me.
One of the challenges I faced for many years was suicidal thoughts. I even had a suicidal attempt back in elementary school and that really shifted me, but talking meant we were able to flesh that out. I feel like a weight was lifted off my shoulders, but that was only one aspect of my life.
Running was the thing I could always count on.
Running was a coping mechanism for my mental health and the challenges of thinking am I worth it, can I say I love you to my mom and dad, can I show up for people in an authentic way?
Cathartic, healing conversations led to me talking about my experience growing up with health issues, with the suicidal thoughts – I noticed a big shift in the way I look at business, how I look at my own training, how I interact with people, and it’s brought a lot more clarity to how I operate.
The shift I had in terms of looking at performance, is that performance isn’t just a number, it isn’t just a placement, it’s how you show up each day for yourself.
If you have clients or people you’re working for, how do you show up for them? Am I showing up authentically as myself versus needing to do the thing to cross the mark or check the box? If I break the five-minute mile but I’m not taking care of other things in my life I don’t feel complete.
Performance is looking at not just one aspect of my life, but myself from a holistic view.
Once I was out of the program I recognized I need to take care of myself first before I take care of anything else business-wise, client wise, or even my relationships or friendships.
I make myself a top priority.
It’s a lot easier to do the things that light me up like the running coaching. I want to go explore, I want to impact others, and yes, there will be challenges, there will be struggles, but on the other side of the challenges and struggles, there’s a beautiful life waiting ahead for me.
Connect with Mark at markthecoach.net and to listen to the full Podcast on iTunes click here
If you want to unlock your emotional and energetic intelligence The 6 Keys To Next Level Performance & Happiness is for you, or if you want to do a deeper dive into becoming a super high performer head to simonlovell.com and check out the Super High Performance Formula for entrepreneurs, leaders and CEO’s.
