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June 6 - November 19, 2020
Clarity research tells us that successful people know the answers to certain fundamental questions: Who am I? (What do I value? What are my strengths and weaknesses?) What are my goals? What’s my plan?
need to have unambiguous and challenging goals.
having specific and difficult goals increases performance, whether those goals are created by you or assigned to you. Clear “stretch” goals energize us and lead to greater enjoyment, productivity, profitability, and satisfaction in our work.
give yourself deadlines for your goals, or you won’t follow through.
highest performers had a great ability to focus on the future and divine how they would achieve excellence.
describe with great clarity how they wanted to feel in upcoming endeavors, and they knew specifically what conditions could destroy their enthusiasm, sense of satisfaction, and growth.
“If you could describe your ideal self in the future, the person you are trying to become, how would you describe that self?”
high performers imagine a positive version of themselves in the future, and then they actively engage in trying to be that.
Be more intentional about who you want to become. Have vision beyond your current circumstances. Imagine your best future self, and start acting like that person today.
They’re consistently wondering, “How do I want those I love and serve to remember me?”
When you are constantly juggling and feel depleted, you don’t think about the future.
high performers are very clear about the skill sets they need to develop now to win in the future.
executives who score higher on the HPI tend to have more blocks of time already scheduled for learning than do their peers with lower scores.
high performers approach their learning not as generalists but as specialists.
Look to the future. Identify key skills. Obsessively develop those skills.
“If you leave your growth to randomness, you’ll always live in the land of mediocrity.”
No matter your current level of performance, clarifying your PFI and the skills you need to master for your next level of success must be a priority.
high performers care deeply about the difference they are going to make for others and in the future in general, so they cater today’s activities to delivering those contributions with heart and elegance.
vital that leaders continually engage their people in conversations about tomorrow.
how to add value, inspire those around them, and make a difference.
described as a search for relevance, differentiation, and excellence.
No goals, no growth. No clarity, no change.
ask yourself frequently, “What is the primary feeling I want to bring to this situation, and what is the primary feeling I want to get from this situation?”
The word feeling here is used to refer to a mental portrayal of an emotion.
Think of an emotion as mostly a reaction, and feeling
is an interpr...
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Before entering any performance situation, high performers contemplate how they want to feel regardless of what emotions might come up, and they envision how they want to feel leaving the situation regardless of what emotions might come up.
My automatic emotions don’t have to be in charge. My feelings are my own.
But if we seek to experience life and all its emotions and yet choose to feel centered, happy, strong, and loving right through the ups and downs, then we’ve accomplished something powerful.
focus on these things more consistently than you ever have before. That’s what moves the needle. With greater focus will come greater clarity, and with greater clarity will come more consistent action and, ultimately, high performance.
researchers found that monitoring progress is just as important to goal attainment as setting a clear goal in the first place.
You need some sort of practice for checking in on whether you are living up to your own personal standards. This can be as easy as journaling every night and considering this line of questioning: “Did I perform with excellence today? Did I live up to my values and expectations for giving my best and doing a good job?”
High performers are happier than their peers, perceive that they have less stress than their peers, and feel that they’re making a greater difference and are being well rewarded for those efforts. They feel this way because they feel that they’re on the right path. And they feel that they’re on the right path because they frequently check in with themselves.
“I’m someone who gets things done and does them with excellence,” or “I’m a successful person who cares about the details and how things turn out,”
Over-concern with making mistakes increases anxiety and decreases performance.
The goal for all underperformers must be to set new standards, self-monitor more frequently, and learn to become comfortable with taking a hard, unflinching look at their own performance.
Sometimes the fastest way to get back in the game is to expect something from yourself again.
high performers are deeply curious people.
People who become world-class at anything focus longer and harder on their craft.11
the bold know that to win, one must first begin. They also deeply understand that a degree of risk is inevitable and necessary should there be any real reward. Yes, any plunge into the unknown is reckless—but that’s where the treasure lies.
The moment you know that something has transcended being a passion and has become an obsession is when that something gets tied to your identity. It changes from a desire to feel a particular state of emotion—passion—to a quest to be a particular kind of person. It becomes part of you, something you value more deeply than other things. It becomes necessary for you.
“Duty makes us do things well, but love makes us do them beautifully.” —Phillips Brooks
The duties that drive performance can be explained best by the truth that we will often do more for others than for ourselves.
add to that accountability—when people know that you are responsible for helping them—necessity becomes stronger yet.
the external demands we feel to meet our obligations in life can feel bad in the short term but lead to strong performance outcomes later.
Because high performers understand the need to meet their obligations, they rarely complain about the tasks and duties they must perform to succeed. They recognize that fulfilling their role and serving the needs of others is part of the process. It’s a positive thing tomorrow even if it’s a pain now. It’s these findings that have inspired me to view my obligations in life differently. I’ve learned to adjust my attitude to things I have to do, to complain less and realize that most of what I “have” to do is in truth a blessing.
I can fall out of high performance by meeting other people’s demands that aren’t real demands. I’m a people pleaser. I’m a sucker for distraction. Habits such as clarifying real deadlines are what make me, and every high performer I know, so effective.
High performers are more focused on doing what really matters when it matters.
High performers are driven to get things done because they recognize that their timeliness affects other people. The reality is that when you choose to care for others and make a big difference in the world, the number of deadlines coming at you will increase.
Identity. Obsession. Duty. Deadlines. As you can imagine, any one of these forces can make us bring up our game. But when internal and external demands mix, you get more necessity, and an even stronger wind at your back.
