High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way

by Brendon Burchard

In the game of life, you get to choose your identity—who you will aspire to be and how you’ll show up. That choice of identity will dramatically affect how well you perform. Consider the difference between these identities: Dabblers have a passing interest in the game of life. They look at many things and try many things. But they never really jump into anything with full engagement or commitment. Novices have interest, too, but at least they are intent on developing some expertise in an area. They jump in deeper than dabblers, but their issue is, they don’t deal well with discouragement. Novices stop at obstacles because they don’t have much of their identity in the fight. Amateurs have more than interest. They have passion. They’ve jumped in deep, and they truly engage a subject and want to get better. They get through more obstacles than novices do, but they tend to remain at an unskilled level unless they get fast and positive feedback or recognition. In other words, they need a lot of external validation to continue. Players have passion but also greater commitment and skill. With great focus, they teach themselves to master one area of the game. They excel and find themselves happy as long as they get their turn and get compensation. If the game changes or the rules change, though, they’re quickly embittered. Players desperately need the rules and routines. They don’t like disruption or negative feedback. They need a high degree of fairness if they are going to parti...