Peak performers differ from workaholics in several important ways but, basically, it all boils down to the idea of balance. As the biblical poet expressed, there is a time and a season for every purpose…even sailing and dreaming.

As a group, peak performers are fascinating to study. What does Winston Churchill have in common with Muhammed Ali? Or Eleanor Roosevelt with Saul Bellow? Or Albert Einstein with Nadia Comaneci?

In studying peak performers in health care, education, athletics, business, and creative arts, we have identified many common characteristics. Here are nine that contrast peak performers with workaholics.
Peak performers derive their motivation from commitment and a very personal mission and set of goals. Workaholics, on the other hand, are motivated primarily by fear of failure.

The career trajectory of the workaholic is a classic: early in their careers, they tend to be seen as up-and-coming, as people who will make a contribution; and, in fact, they often do. Early on, they rise quickly in the organization or the profession but end up managing details—becoming attached to a multitude of status-related symbols, events, and circumstances, rather than to creative work. They are often powerfully motivated by an addiction to busy-ness and often see any time spent away from work as wasted time.

The peak performers, on the other hand, derive their motivation from a very personal and passionate commitment. While they, too, may work very long hours, they often experience their work as replenishing and nourishing, rather than debilitating and toxic.
Peak performers understand the need for systematic relaxation and reflection. They tend to look upon vacations and breaks in the action as a source of much creative effort. As a group, they tend to get away from their office work far more than the workaholics.
Peak performers are frequently deeply committed to some physical activity. Often the optimal performers play tennis or golf, jog or lift weights, hike or garden—they have some powerful attachment to physical expression, and innate understanding of the mind-body connection. They realize that for the mind to perform optimally, the body must be conditioned to perform optimally.
Peak performers develop and nurture strong family and friendship networks, unlike the workaholics who tend to devastate family and friendship networks by going through a series of relationships that are de-emphasized and often deteriorating. Knowing the importance of supportive family and friendship networks, peak performers build quality personal relationships. Workaholics, married to work more than to anyone else, destroy friendships and devastate their personal lives.
Peak performers practice mental rehearsal. They rehearse, in their mind’s eye, any incident or event that is important to them. Mental rehearsal is a core capability of peak performers—one that the Soviets and East Germans have developed extensively in their athletic programs. Business executives can benefit by rehearsing specific events in the mind’s eye, including all those possible outcomes and possible surprises that can materialize. This mental practice can build familiarity and boost confidence and self-esteem.
Peak performers challenge popular notions and their own limiting beliefs. They are quite fond of "turning the world on its head." They derive enjoyment from challenging popular notions about what’s healthy and what isn’t, what’s appropriate and what isn’t, what’s real and what isn’t, trusting their own personal cues instead of prevailing opinions. They put all the data "in the hopper" and derive their own unique solutions and perspectives.
Peak performers determine the capabilities or "core competencies" necessary for excellence and success in their field. Top athletes, executives, and artists determine what capabilities lead to success in their field—whether it be memory, a specific skill, interpersonal relations, manual dexterity, or any of a number of others. They identify the peak performers in their field and examine their success while developing their own unique styles.
Peak performers have a keen sense of the use of time. Basically, they divide all of their activities and tasks into three separate categories—A, B, and C. In Category C are interesting possibilities that don’t fit the game plan or specific goals of the peak performer; in Category B are important activities, given the goals and game plan of the peak performer, that can be delegated to others; and in Category A are activities that only the peak performer can do, that are in sync with the game plan and that can’t be delegated.

The optimal performers tend to reject—although with some interest—Category C, delegate Category B, and spend as much time as possible in Category A. This requires the peak performer to hire and train a team of high-quality people. It may also mean defining important tasks and eliminating or delegating what is not important, either in the short term or long term.
Peak performers know how to commit. At the end of one of our interviews, a prominent corporate executive shared with me a quote, which he readily admitted had been his primary credo for a number of years:

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, a chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideals and splendid plans. The moment one definitely commits one’s self, then providence moves, too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would otherwise never occur. A whole stream of events issues from the decision making in one’s favor, all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamt could have come his way.

Personally, I like one of Goethe’s couplets: "Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."

Certainly, peak performers are dreamers and bold doers, as illustrated in a marvelous little book called Conceptual Blockbusting by J. L. Adams.

Mr. Adams characterizes peak performers as people who:
Take risks—not foolish risks, not uninformed risks, but risks in the direction of higher levels of performance and productivity. They are not paralyzed by perfectionism; rather they tend to displace indecision and fear of failure by assessing "the worst thing that could possibly happen."
Tolerate chaos and ambiguity. Optimal performers recognize that it is often in the midst of chaos and ambiguity that new syntheses occur, new ideas, new possibilities, a new generation of a solution.

I am reminded of a distinction that my friend John Enright made between sailboat people and motorboat people. Motorboat people start their engines and, in the most linear fashion possible, make a beeline for their target. Their tolerance for chaos and ambiguity or even awareness of it, may not be that great. Sailboat people are sensitive to changing conditions and adapt to them. In a world of change, some sailboat capability is quite important.

What Darwin meant by "survival of the fit," is what the mathematicians mean by "best possible fit"—that which fits best in a context. The dinosaurs may have been the fittest, but they eventually didn’t fit; hence, they perished. One of the characteristics of the most fit individuals, the peak performers, is a high tolerance for chaos and ambiguity.
Generate rather than judge ideas. As a group, peak performers generate many different and seemingly discontinuous and unconnected ideas. They realize that creative synthesis often occurs when seemingly unrelated notions connect. They rarely ever judge a set of ideas as inappropriate or ridiculous at first glance.
Relax, incubate, and "sleep on it." This allows the unconscious to function during the incubation process. What the peak performer knows, that perhaps the workaholic doesn’t, is that it is precisely during these relaxation periods that some of our greatest insights and most useful information emerge. Peak performers know when to relax and reflect, to back off, to take a vacation, to spend fifteen minutes or a half hour behind closed doors, reflecting on the events of the day or meditating on a topic. They are sensitive to the kinds of images and insights that emerge as they drift off into sleep or wake up in the morning.
Combat insufficient challenge as well as excessive zeal. Peak performers know that insufficient challenge will never provide strong motivation and commitment to high level performance. They also know that excessive zeal—going off half-cocked with high levels of energy but low levels of information and expertise—is also counterproductive. They tend to have high levels of motivation, appropriate challenge, and an informed and educated approach to the issues in which they are engaged.
Relate their imagination to reality. Aware of the power of the imagination, they use the imagination as an inner laboratory to explore new possibilities, new issues, and new solutions. They not only form vividly complete images but also manipulate them, as creativity requires.

Through imagination, we go beyond physical reality and become free of self-imposed constraints.
 

Charles Garfield holds a Ph.D. in mathematics and a Ph.D. in psychology and has served as a clinical professor of psychology at UC’s San Francisco School of Medicine. He is founder and president of the Peak Performance Institute and author of six books, including Peak Performers, New Heroes of American Business and Peak Performance: Mental Training Techniques of the World’s Greatest Athletes.