Performance Thoughts
From thirty years in elite sport.
A system for how you perform.
Evidence-based planning tools and articles for anyone serious about how they perform.
Built by Lee Drew MSc
Guidance, built in.
The way elite sport does it.
It is the part you are usually left to find for yourself, and the reason Performance Thoughts exists.
The traits that drive elite-sport success — values that hold under pressure, an environment that stretches you, the discipline of applying what you learn — drive performance in any field where the results matter. An executive weighing a career move is working the same problem as a player preparing for a final: holding standards and direction when the pressure is real.
Inside a high performance environment, guidance is built in: someone watches how you work, tells you what to focus on, and holds the standard with you. Outside one, you are left to apply what you read on your own, and progress is frustrating when you cannot see which part is missing.
Performance Thoughts builds that guidance in. Five conditions, seven principles, one critical path — the methodology, translated into planning tools and articles you can apply without anyone standing beside you.
Built on
The Principles behind Performance Thoughts
Six commitments that run through every tool, every article, and every page on this site.
Start from who you are
Goals not rooted in personal values do not sustain under pressure. The right starting point is always who you are — not what you want to achieve.
Behaviour changes performance
Intentions do not change performance until they change behaviour. Every tool here is built to change what you do.
Apply what the research supports
The methodology draws on research from performance psychology, motivation, and behavioural change.
Operate on the process
Fixating on outcomes you cannot control leads to inconsistency. Building the right daily process produces better outcomes and better pressure performance.
Performance is universal
The same principles drive performance across business, leadership, creative work, and any field where consistent results matter.
Accumulate good decisions
High performance is the consistent application of high standards, attention to detail, and purpose. Small good decisions, accumulated over time, produce the outcome.
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The 7-Action PDF. Free.
Seven actions drawn from performance psychology research, each one explained, each with a practical exercise.
About Lee
I’m a high performance coach with over 30 years in performance sport — as a professional competitor, a national coach, a commentator, and as the former head of officiating for the global game. I hold an MSc in High Performance Coaching.
The methodology behind Performance Thoughts draws on that experience — on research in performance psychology and behavioural change, and on the practical understanding that comes from operating inside high performance environments. The thread that runs through all of it has been the same question: what helps someone develop, consistently, in a way that is true to them?
The content is built to help people progress: to set goals that hold, to build confidence that the path they are on is the right one, to get through the frustrations and challenges that are a normal part of development, and to give them the tools and information to stay well-rounded while they continue to improve.
I also work with organisations directly, through performance talks and team coaching built around the team in the room.
Plan with purpose.
Perform without limits.
Planning tools and research articles, built as one system and designed to fit the individual.