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Several studies have shown that multitasking itself is a distraction. It is incompatible with the peak-concentration states that are associated with high performance and quality work.13 When people multitask, they cannot focus fully on the task at hand because their brain is still processing their last unfinished task.14
These facts should get you seriously disciplined about setting challenging goals and keeping your energy and focus on track.
The other distinction generally missed about work-life balance is that it’s not so much about evenly distributed hours as about feelings.
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The good news is that if burnout is often just a feeling of fatigue, there’s also a simpler fix. If we can just give you a short mental and physical refresh/reset every hour, then you can dramatically improve how you feel, and you’ll sense a significant improvement in your work-life balance.
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By slowing down or taking a break once in a while, you work faster, leaving more time for other areas of life.
No matter where I’m sitting—on a plane, in a café, at work, in a meeting, on the couch—I get up every fifty minutes. I do a short two-minute physical routine of calisthenics, Qigong, and yoga paired with deep breathing.
High performers have mastered the art of prolific quality output (PQO).
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Part of your job is to figure out what “relevant PQO” means to you.
“If you’re honest with yourself, you want to create things that matter. You want to know that a good day’s work produces something worthwhile, something that will be part of your important contributions to others and the world, something that shows you care about your craft.”
I know my PQO, and that gives me what Wayne would have called the power of intention.
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To become a high performer requires thinking more before acting.
And that’s the magic of knowing your Five Moves. By knowing the first major activity, then the second, then the third, then the fourth, then the fifth, you have a map, a plan, a clear path forward. You don’t get distracted.
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So test yourself. If I showed up at your house, could you open your calendar and show me the blocks of time on your calendar that you saved and structured specifically to complete a major activity leading to a specific big goal?
Know your five moves. Work them hard and always be thinking about the next steps that will help you produce something that’s significant, something that you’re proud of, something that makes you extraordinary.
To become more productive, become more competent. You have to master the primary skills needed to win in your primary fields of interest.
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General skills
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specific skills
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progressive mastery involves getting a coach, challenging yourself beyond your comfort zones, developing mental representations of what success should be, tracking your progress, and fixing your weaknesses. The difference is that progressive mastery places a high emphasis on emotion, socialization, and teaching.
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But what if? What if you brought a more thoughtful structure to your next efforts in developing skill? What if you could become world-class in your primary field of interest? What if you could create more prolific quality output because you honed your skills? What if you powered through your five moves faster because you were competent and capable? What if, today, right here, you decided to seek that next level of momentum and mastery in your life?
Determine what outputs really matter to you at this stage in your life, chart your five moves to accomplish your big dreams, and go make it happen while getting insanely good at what you do. From there, the world is yours.
We are the sum of the influence and impact that we have, in our lives, on others.” —Carl Sagan
let’s define “having influence” as the ability to shape other people’s beliefs and behaviors as you desire.
If someone does say yes to helping you, they tend to like you even more after they’ve done something for you.8 People don’t grudgingly help you. If they didn’t want to, they’d probably say no. It’s counterintuitive, but if getting people to like you more is the goal, then just ask them to do you a favor.
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Finally, when you do ask for what you want in life, don’t just ask once and quit. Research shows that influencers understand the power of repetition, so they try multiple times to get their ideas in front of those they hope to influence.9 The more you ask and share your ideas, the more people become familiar and comfortable with your requests, and the more they start to like the idea.
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Asking isn’t just about making requests to get what you want. If you seek greater influence with other people, learn to ask them a tremendous number of questions that elicit w...
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Remember, people support what they create. When people get to contribute ideas, they have mental skin in the game. They want to back the ideas they helped shape....
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master the habits on energy and productivity. People who score high in those categories tend to have more influence. It makes sense, right? If you’re more energized and on the path toward accomplishing your goals, you’re probably more willing to help others.
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Since so many people feel ostracized, unappreciated, or undervalued, when you show up and give genuine praise, respect, and appreciation, you stand out. Be grateful for people. Just by offering gratitude, you can more than double the likelihood that those receiving your appreciation will help you again in the future.
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Typically, those who positively influence people the most have something in common. They exert an effect on us, deliberately or not, by executing one or more of three influence actions. First, they shape how we think.
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Second, they challenge us in some way.
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Third, they serve as role models. Their character, how they interact with us and others, or how they met the challenges of life inspires us.
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No doubt, you’ve said one of these things to someone recently. You were trying to elicit an idea or guide their thinking. In doing so, you were gaining influence even though you probably didn’t know it. My goal is simply to have you start doing this more deliberately. When it becomes a habit, you’ll notice how good at it you’ve become and how much your influence with others has grown.
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When people complain, be they children or our peers at work, we have an extraordinary opportunity to direct their thinking.
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What if you asked her what she thought of herself while doing the work, and helped her reframe her identity? What if you brought in how to think of her teachers and peers? What do you think might happen if you spoke with her about how the world perceives people who follow through?
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“The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.” —Kobe Bryant
High performers challenge the people around them to rise to higher levels of performance themselves.
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I’ll bet someone influential in your life once told you, “You could do better,” or “You’re a better person than that,” or “I expected more from you.” These were standard setting statements that challenged your character.
For leaders, I suggest the direct approach of asking people to think of how they can challenge themselves in future scenarios. Ask, “What kind of person do you want to be remembered as? What would life look like if you gave your all?
The second area where you can challenge others concerns their connections with others—their relationships. You set expectations, ask questions, give examples, or directly ask them to improve how they treat and add value to other people.
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challenging you to connect with others better is clearly in an effort to help bring a sense of cohesion and solidarity to those you live or work with. High performers want to help you experience greater unity with others because they know that will increase your results.
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The third area where you can challenge others is in their contributions. You push them to add more value or to be more generous.
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they challenge you to contribute more looking ahead—to create or innovate so that you make the future better.
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high performers is that they think about it much more often and specifically in relation to how they are seeking to influence others.
I asked him to imagine that she was going through the model and had to give him advice on how to think and what challenges he should take on. How, in his best estimation, did she want him to think about his role, team, and company? How would she like to challenge his character, connections, and contributions? Going through the model from her perspective was difficult for him,
“You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.” —Zig Ziglar
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To assess courage in our research, we ask participants to indicate how strongly they agree or disagree with statements such as these:
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We also have respondents score themselves on less upbeat statements: I don’t feel that I have the courage to express who I really am. Even if I knew it was the right thing to do, I wouldn’t help someone if it meant I would be judged, ridiculed, or threatened. I rarely act outside my comfort zone.
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Ultimately, what we can agree on is that for someone to demonstrate courage, these things are likely present: risk, fear, and a good reason to act.
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Psychological courage
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