A motorboat begins to move across the surface of a lake on water smooth as glass. From rest it accelerates and within a few seconds achieves its maximum speed, holding there steadily, engines humming at full power, as the boat moves toward its destination efficiently and powerfully.

On water this smooth the boat and its engines do exactly what they're made to do, propel themselves through space, at their maximum capability, in the straightest line toward their destination. The boat riders rest peacefully as progress is gained in a way that feels effortless to them.

Then, everything changes. Out of nowhere a wind picks up and the surface of the lake begins standing up in waves that flow evenly at first, then start stacking and sloshing unpredictably.

The boat captain feels the hull surge and lunge, pulling side-to-side, and fears the combination of engine power and unpredictable surface water will cause them to capsize. In these conditions, disaster could come quickly. Progress will be compromised.

To maintain safety and the highest chances of reaching their destination, the captain reduces engine power and slows their speed. Navigating each wave with turns left and right again, keeping the boat balanced and moving forward.

Progress is slower and riders feel the difference as the boat chugs, carves and bounces forward while drawing a longer, more serpentine path from its position to its destination.

High-achievers are like the boat. Highly capable, finely trained and tuned, and able to accomplish great speed and progress when operating with smooth mental conditions.

But just like most boats travel through wavy conditions, most high-achievers press forward toward their goals with turbulent mindstates.

Our hopes are smooth. Real life is wavy.

For boat captains, the hope of glassy smooth water causes them to predict they will arrive at their destinations earlier than they will. Have you ever heard the phrase "island time" referring to a lack of clarity about when things begin and start? Maybe this is why.

For high-achievers, the hope of their strongest mindstates causes them to predict they will achieve their goals earlier than they will. Maybe we should coin the term "achievers time" to refer to the impact real life has on the timing of when things actually finish and launch.

In working with thousands of high-achievers in the Dory community, from corporate executives to business owners, startup founders, authors, speakers, endurance athletes, artists, explorers, and scientists we've identified nine types of waves, or speedbumps, that consistently slow them down.

One of the key findings of our research into the impacts of pressure on high-achievers is that every one of these speedbumps is caused by fluctuations in mindstate strength that are entirely preventable with the right system and tools.

You cannot improve what you don't measure. Self-care is no different.

Measuring the strength of your mindstate and using a scientifically proven system to support and regulate it over time is the best way to remove these speedbumps and unlock your full capacity to travel at your top speed toward your goals.

Working with an optimized mindstate doesn't make you smarter, or wiser. Instead it allows you to use your intelligence and wisdom to more quickly and effectively move toward your goals. Just like a boat's powerful engines are more effective at making progress when the boat travels on smooth water.

Here at Dory, we support half-burned out high-achievers. These are highly capable leaders who are currently operating at a level lower than their full potential. They know what they're capable of, and they're watching themselves consistently not delivering that high level of quality and results in their work and leadership.

They're not burned out, because burnout is much more obvious. Burnout feels like standing still.

Instead, half-burned out high-achievers are trudging forward, way more slowly than they could be moving, and it's frustrating the heck out of them. They're experiencing large fluctuations in their mindstate strength over days and weeks.

Reducing fluctuations in mindstate strength has been proven to move leaders and teams toward their goals in less time and with less effort. The same way that a boat may capsize when pushing higher speeds through turbulent water, high-achievers risk burning out when trying to move fast with struggling mindstates.

These are the most common speedbumps we see high-achievers struggling to navigate when they could instead be moving more quickly and more smoothly toward their goals.

And that's why removing these speedbumps by using a mindstate optimization framework like the Dory Protocol always causes high-achievers to reach their goals faster. We actually guarantee it with our memberships, we're that confident.

Watch out, we're seeing some waves ahead. Here they come...

Bump 1. Stirring up trouble to generate artificial motivation in times when things aren't exciting enough.

Motivation falls when levels of energy, positivity, and calm are depleted.

High-achievers with reduced mindstate strength struggle to get motivated to do the hard things that need to be done to move themselves toward their goals, so they often fall into the trap of stirring up trouble to create urgent fires that demand their attention.

Common examples include firing an underperforming team member instead of coaching them up. Demanding results from a department that have been hard to achieve in the past. Or reigniting a former argument that could have remained untouched.

This speedbump creates instant motivation. But it also comes with the cost of unnecessary work that slows real meaningful progress.

Bump 2. Avoiding big opportunities because the extra pressure will push you over the edge.

When levels of calm and energy fall, it's hard to be brave enough to want to take on your biggest opportunities even when the iron is hot and it's time to strike.

If you've avoided chasing an opportunity in the last year, not because it wasn't the best path forward, but instead because you were scared of the risk, complexity, or uncertainty that it would bring, your progress is being slowed by this speedbump.

Common examples include not bidding on a great request for proposal, avoiding an influential speaking position or recognition, or not connecting with a big prospect to ask for their business.

This speedbump feels safer in moments when your mindstate craves calm and peace. But it comes with the cost of missing lots of home runs because you never swung the bat.

Bump 3. Moving back-and-forth between periods of high motivation and super low motivation.

Consistent motivation is a tool that the most effective high-achievers use to always keep moving forward toward their goals.

It's easy to be motivated when you're just starting out or when everything is going your way. But if you can only find motivation in the good times, you'll only be motivated a small percentage of the time. Leaving the majority of days and weeks to slog slowly instead of surging through the mundane and miserable.

Common examples include shifting your focus to less important work when you just want to feel like you're winning again, or only taking time for yourself when work isn't driving your excitement.

This speedbump feels like going with the flow which can seem clever. But it comes with the cost of working on the wrong things that don't really matter which means your limited time and energy are being burned on things that won't move you toward your goals.

Bump 4. Not working on the things you deeply know are most important to move you forward right now.

Focus is the key to applying your energy and intelligence to your most important work. Prioritizing work is a skill, but focusing yourself on doing the most important work and sticking with it through completion is a component of your mindstate strength.

If you're finding yourself bouncing back and forth between tasks, not because of changes in priority, but instead because you're struggling to stay on task, then your progress is being slowed by this speedbump. Doing complex work requires deep focus on the context of the task at hand. Switching tasks often because of a lack of focus wastes the time it takes to get back into flow with every change.

Common examples include parking your work on a critical sales contract to go work on basic bookkeeping, pausing a product design decision to dream about a new product you might design in the future, or spending time buying new domain names for initiatives you'll probably never do.

This speedbump might feel like multi-tasking or win-bagging but it's really pseudo-productivity for the sake of discomfort avoidance that comes with the cost of making every important project take longer due to the wasted switching costs.

Bump 5. Emotionally overreacting to tough situations and having to do damage control afterwards because of what you said or did when you were elevated.

Our most important relationships often pay the price first when our emotional control falls as our mindstate weakens from constant pressure over time. Falling emotional control leads to emotional decision making that isn't grounded in solid logic or reasoning, and at its worse, temper fueled personal interactions.

Common examples include blowing up during a conversation with a team member who isn't performing at their best right now, scolding customers for mistakes that you would normally accept and move through, or cutting an important program or initiative simply because it's a bit behind schedule or needs extra support.

This speedbump feels great in the moment because you're being flooded with dopamine from anger and everything in your mind is screaming that you're just protecting yourself and giving others what they deserve.

But it comes with the cost of damaged personal relationships, and wasted time that's required to repair your relationships and the projects that were affected when you later walk back your emotion-fueled decisions.

Bump 6. Over-committing to intentionally generate motivation from the extreme pressure to deliver.

Pressure can bring out the best in us, especially for us high-achievers. But too much pressure is always too much and causes us to do lower quality work than normal.

When our mindstate strength is falling from too much pressure we lose motivation due to weaker resources of energy, focus, and positivity. Being a high-achiever who thrives on task completion and deadlines, it's easy to chase the false idols of more tasks and more deadlines to satisfy our psychological needs.

We know that achievement will make us feel great, but our current tasks are bogging down and feeling difficult. So we commit to more to secure that extra boost of motivation we need to keep pushing ourselves. Or we wait until last minute to drive motivation from a crisis rather than a smoothly executed project.

Common examples involve starting or buying or a new business or business initiative, committing to a large personal challenge like a marathon or bike race, or joining a new industry association or advisory board.

This speedbump can feel like setting the bar high or putting your talent to the test but it comes with the cost of even more of the thing that's getting you into trouble in the first place, pressure.

And taking on too much pressure means we're at much higher risk of making mistakes with our current obligations and wasting time to fix new problems we're about to accidentally create.

Bump 7. Struggling to come up with efficient and creative solutions to big problems like you used to.

When calm, positivity, and energy fall creativity is often the first thing to go with them. Research shows that when we're in an activated fear state our minds fall back to binary-style thinking where we choose to proceed or stop, but forget that many other smarter options exist in between.

This can become a downward spiral where our weakened mindstate prevents us from seeing elegant and efficient solutions to our biggest problems so we feel the pressure of our poor choices, which then further weakens the strength of our mindstates. And around and around the problem goes. Worse every time.

Common examples include doing the same thing you did before just because it's familiar even though it doesn't fit the context of the current challenge, choosing to stop or continue an initiative instead of realizing that it's best to adjust the goal or the resources assigned to it, or delegating a critical decision to avoid being associated with its consequences even when you know you're the best person to solve the problem.

This speedbump can feel frustrating because you know you're capable of so much more and it can feel confusing because you wonder why you're not able to come up with smart ideas anymore. It comes with the extreme cost of missing the easiest paths forward, not just the obvious ones.

Bump 8. Blindly chasing excitement with your driving intensity today and paying the price with exhaustion and ineffectiveness tomorrow.

High-achievers are extremely susceptible to this one. When emotional control is low it's easy to get so excited that you make terrible decisions about priority and time, chasing the shiny new opportunity and truly believing deep down that it's the solution to all your problems. Only to eventually realize it's a part of the answer but not the silver bullet you hoped it might be.

By the time that realization hits you, you're off track, neglecting your most important priorities, and completely exhausted. You must now bring your weakened mindstate back to your most important tasks and try to pick up the pieces and move forward.

Instead, with stronger emotional control you can avoid being sidetracked completely.

Common examples include deciding to rebrand a company or project that's already good enough, focusing too much attention on a promising new hire, partner, or customer, or going down too deep of a rabbit hole with a new technology tool.

This speedbump feels great at first because your mind is flooded with dopamine from the hope and excitement, and then later it feels awful as the wind comes out of the sails and reality and exhaustion set in. It comes with the extreme cost of mental and physical fatigue that makes it harder for you to make good decisions about your most important project and priorities.

Bump 9. Under-preparing as an emotional coping strategy to hedge against the risk of failure.

This one cuts deep for high-achievers. The allegation that subconsciously we may be under-preparing or under-resources ourselves or our teams so that failure can later be blamed on something other than our decision making and leadership.

This one sounds a bit like procrastination but it's not. It's a fundamental lack of effort applied when it's needed most, in the early stages of planning and execution. When the correct amount of effort applied at that early stage would have highly increased our chances of a successful outcome.

Although success can never be guaranteed.

Therein lies the crux. If success isn't guaranteed, someone will always be blamed for failure. So maybe under-preparing is a psychologically safer path. Although it's the wrong path if we want to achieve our goals.

Common examples include not holding planning meetings when they're needed most, choosing people for a project who can easily be blamed for its blunders, or not writing and practicing your speech until the night before the big event.

This speedbump feels safe because it shifts blame from ourselves to others but it comes with the huge cost of not putting our best odds forward when things really matter, which means we end up failing more than needed, and we move more slowly toward our goals.

For high-achievers, taking action to smooth the waters and stop the speedbumps by tracking, supporting and regulating our mindstates is a winning move.

Your competitors are probably trying to drive faster over the bumps. That's a losing strategy. There's a good chance their boat capsizes and sinks before they ever have a chance to beat you.

But if you're making the same mistakes and bouncing over the same speedbumps, you're playing their same hand and it's anybody's game to win or lose.

If you want to drastically and unfairly increase your chances of winning by achieving your goals faster, learn to measure and understand your mindstate using the Dory Protocol.

You'll feel yourself accelerating as you remove each of your most limiting speedbumps and the waters on which you travel settle down, and your biggest and most rewarding goals come into sight just ahead.

If this resonates, the Dory community is here for you. Learn more about our memberships, tools, and research to take your next step forward.