​A wellbeing-led approach to sustainable performance

Jan Carpenter is co-author of Winning Mindset: Elite Strategies for Peak Performance

​

In his chapter, Empowered Action Changes Things, Jan Carpenter explores why motivation and effort alone are often not enough to create lasting change — and how wellbeing sits at the root of meaningful action and sustainable performance.

Drawing on lived experience, neuroscience, and coaching practice, the chapter reframes peak performance not as pressure or perfection, but as the ability to bring your full energy, clarity, and strengths to a moment — without being held back by unresolved stress or emotional interference.

At the heart of the chapter is a simple but powerful idea:

Potential – Interference = Performance

​

Jan explains how stress, trauma, and poor wellbeing habits can quietly create “interference” in the nervous system, draining energy, clouding thinking, affecting health, and limiting our capacity to act — even when motivation is high. This interference often develops over time, particularly during periods of prolonged or “ambient” stress, such as those experienced during the pandemic.

​

To address this, the chapter introduces the LEAF model — Let-go, Empower, Act, Flourish — a practical, wellbeing-centred framework designed to restore internal capacity and support action that genuinely changes things.

• Let-go focuses on reducing internal interference by addressing unresolved emotional stress, including trauma that may be encoded in the nervous system.

• Empower helps individuals reconnect with purpose, values, and emotionally meaningful goals, creating the internal conditions for confidence and direction.

• Action emphasises “little and often” wellbeing habits — supporting sleep, mood, breathing, movement, and recovery — to shift the body from survival into growth.

• Flourish brings these elements together, supporting balanced wellbeing across health, emotions, thinking, relationships, communication, engagement, and flow.

 

The chapter introduces Havening Techniques®, a neuroscience-informed psychosensory approach, as a practical tool for reducing stress, calming the threat response, and restoring a sense of safety in the mind and body. Through explanation, guided self-practice, and real client case studies, Jan illustrates how reducing internal interference can lead to improvements not only in wellbeing, but also in confidence, relationships, health, and performance under pressure.

Rather than promoting relentless striving, Empowered Action Changes Things offers a compassionate and grounded message:

 

When wellbeing is supported and interference is reduced, action becomes clearer, easier, and more sustainable — and performance follows naturally.

 

The chapter invites readers to reflect, experiment, and take ownership of their wellbeing as the foundation for meaningful action, resilience, and flourishing — in everyday life, work, and moments that matter most.