High Performance Reset 2:The Thermostat of "Normal" – How to Stop Boiling Your Own Soul
The Thermostat of "Normal" – How to Stop Boiling Your Own Soul
By Jason Shelfer: Host of The Living Lucky® Podcast
Have you ever walked into a house set to a brisk 62°F and thought, "Who lives here? An ice cube?" Then, after thirty minutes, you’re looking for a blanket, and after an hour, you don't even notice the cold anymore. Your body adjusted. Your "Normal" shifted.
Your life has an internal thermostat. And for most high-performers, we have unconsciously set ours to "Extreme Pressure."
Through twenty years of investing in the highest levels of personal development—learning from masters like Tony Robbins and Ed Mylett—Jana and I have observed a recurring pattern in elite circles: The more capable you are, the more "Tolerable Pain" you are willing to manage.
See how this sits with you. You are actually too good at managing stress. Because you identify as a "warrior" or a "fixer," you have slowly adjusted your internal baseline to a level of fatigue and mental noise that would hospitalize a farm horse in Georgia.
You’ve become a master at ignoring the check-engine lights of your soul:
You live with a "tolerable" amount of physical tension or back pain.
You manage a "gradually increasing" level of low-grade anxiety as if it’s just part of the job description.
You’ve forgotten what a genuine, deep, belly-laugh feels like because you’re always "operating at max capacity."
You think you are Willpower Personified, but really, you’re just a frog in a pot of water that has started to bubble. You aren't winning; you’re just getting used to the heat.
Why is your engine seizing? If you keep your motor red-lined at 8,000 RPMs for a decade, it doesn’t matter how "high-performance" the oil is—the engine will eventually seize.
In our Living Lucky® framework, we talk about Believing in your Circumstances. Part of that belief is a radical acknowledgment of the physical and spiritual reality of your body. You cannot "hustle" your way out of a burnt-out nervous system. Tony Robbins told me,, "Complexity is the enemy of execution," and nothing is more complex than a mind that has forgotten how to find its "Off" switch.
Jana and I are right there in the trenches with you. We have to catch ourselves when our own thermostats start creeping back into the "Danger Zone." To start your own recalibration, we invite you to try these two tools today:
The 60-Second Void: Three times today, sit in total silence for 60 seconds. No phone. No goals. No "checking in." Just breathing. Notice how uncomfortable that silence feels. That internal "itch" to get back to work? That’s your thermostat trying to kick the heat back up to what it thinks is "Normal." Don't let it.
The "Amazing" Benchmark: Dig back into your memory. Identify one specific time in your life when you felt truly vibrant, relaxed, and spiritually connected. That—not the current state of exhaustion—is your actual "Normal." Write down the difference between that feeling and how you feel right now.
Until then, consider: When did you decide that "Exhausted" was a prerequisite for "Successful"?
The miracle of the Quantum Leap only matters if you are healthy enough to enjoy the view once you land.
Start Living Lucky® by turning down the heat today.
