High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way

by Brendon Burchard

they see their lives and blessings as a gift.

There’s perhaps no better way to increase ongoing happiness than to start a gratitude practice.24 Gratitude is the golden frame through which we see the meaning of life.

found that just reacting well to life still amounted to a limited life. If you don’t put intention and set up reminders to generate joy in your life, then you’re not experiencing the full range of life’s zest.

If you won’t bring more mindfulness and joy into your life for the sheer personal improvement, then do it for those around you who might otherwise be harmed by unchecked emotional contagion.

What you see in the world is dependent upon your state of mind and physical energy. Thus, things appear their worst when you are feeling your worst. And the best when you’re at the best. We want you at your best.

Exercise improves learning. Exercise also decreases stress, which is a killer of mental performance.28 Stress actually lowers BDNF and overall cognitive function, and exercise is your best bet for throwing off much of that stress.

Don’t let your ego get in the way—just because you can’t keep up doesn’t mean you can’t show up. Get on a regular workout routine and make it social.

If you don’t have a reason to be, man, you’re done. But the deal is, you choose the reason.

necessity demands that you take action. When you feel necessity, you don’t sit around wishing or hoping. You get things done.

“I feel a deep emotional drive and commitment to succeeding, and it consistently forces me to work hard, stay disciplined, and push myself.”

Have you ever noticed that you feel guilty when you’re not living your values or being the best version of yourself?

“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.” —Vince Lombardi It goes without saying that high performers hold themselves to a high standard.

Satisfaction is not the cause of great performance; it’s the result.

When we do what aligns with our future identity, we are more driven and likely to do a great job.

In one review of 138 studies spanning more than 19,000 participants, researchers found that monitoring progress is just as important to goal attainment as setting a clear goal in the first place.5 If you’re not going to monitor your progress, you may as well not set a goal or expect to live up to your own standards.

One meta-analysis found that self-monitoring was among the most effective means for improving weight loss results.

become comfortable with taking a hard, unflinching look at their own performance.

high intrinsic motivation—they do things because those things are interesting, enjoyable, and personally satisfying.10 High performers don’t need a reward or prod from others to do something, because they find it inherently rewarding.

It is reckless to try something that has never been done, to move against convention, to begin before all conditions are good and preparations are perfected. But the bold know that to win, one must first begin.

“Duty makes us do things well, but love makes us do them beautifully.” —Phillips Brooks

A tremendous amount of research shows that people tend to maintain motivation, give more effort, and achieve higher performance when they are held accountable for their outcomes, are evaluated more often, and have the opportunity to demonstrate their expertise or gain respect from those they serve.

learned that when you have the opportunity to serve, you don’t complain about the effort involved.

Bottom line: We change and improve over time only when we must. When the internal and external forces on us are strong enough, we make it happen. We climb. And when it gets most difficult, we remember our cause.

don’t deal well with discouragement. Novices stop at obstacles because they don’t have much of their identity in the fight.

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.

Research has consistently shown that people can rise above their cultural programming and influence if they have the right beliefs and strategy.

Scientific research consistently shows that certain people maintain their strength even when the environment or culture around them is less than ideal.36 The difference is how they think. This means that with or without social support, you can use your thoughts to improve your mind, mood, memory, reactions, happiness, and performance.

Learning to live with people who are different from you and who challenge you is just part of becoming a mature and resilient adult. “Cutting people out” of your life just because they’re not a bright and shiny ray of light all day every day will only result in you, alone on an island, talking to coconuts.

you have to be deliberate about raising your level of necessity. You must consistently think it through: “Have I associated the important activities of my day with my identity and my sense of obligation? Why is chasing this dream so important to me? Why must I do this? When must I do it? How can I get around more amazing people who up my game and help me serve at the next level?” These questions, frequently revisited, can be the prompts for an entirely new level of commitment and drive.

One of the worst feelings in the world is to be incredibly busy but feel that you’re not making any progress. You’re fighting the good fight, but your approach is wrecking your health or compromising your well-being.

being effective isn’t enough because achievement can be hollow if it gets out of sync with who you are, what you really want to be doing, what you’re actually capable of.

Our research found that if you feel you are more productive, you are statistically more likely to feel happier, more successful, and more confident.

When people multitask, they cannot focus fully on the task at hand because their brain is still processing their last unfinished task.

you won’t focus as attentively on balancing your life as on achieving any other project, then you’ve settled the matter.

If you aren’t consistently measuring the major arenas of your life, then you couldn’t possibly know what the balance you seek is or is not.

You’ll always feel out of balance if you’re doing work that you don’t find engaging and meaningful.

Working straight through the day with no breaks makes people unhappy and less productive.

Real work is producing quality output that matters.

One of the great realizations of life can come from discovering that the outputs you are being compensated for are not exciting or fulfilling. When that realization comes, it’s time to honor that truth and make a change.

Why don’t more people focus on producing prolific quality output, especially given that they still have the 40 percent allocation for dealing with the inevitable obligations of work? The most common excuses (Is delusions a better word?) are procrastination and perfectionism.

researchers have found that procrastination is really a motivational problem.33 It’s an issue that arises because you’re not working on things that intrinsically matter to you. In rare cases, it can be about anxiety or fear of failure, but far more often it stems from working on things that don’t excite you, engage you, or matter to you. That’s why finding a PQO you can get behind is so important. If you love what you’re creating or contributing in the world, you’ll experience less procrastination.

Perfectionism, though, is just a delay logic fancied up to look respectable. The reason people don’t finish more things isn’t perfectionism; it’s that they rarely even begin or they get tangled up in doubt or distraction. If someone were a true perfectionist, they would at least have completed and released their work, since the very act of “perfecting” something comes only after it is completed, released, and then improved on.

Having a plan and working through it step-by-step is more important than you think. A plan focuses scattered thinking. And finishing each vital task on your list fires off dopamine in the brain, making you feel both rewarded and more motivated to continue. A plan not only increases your likelihood of completing an activity but also increases your joy during the project, and your available cognitive resources for the next goal.

Know the big five moves that will take you to your goal, break those moves down into tasks and deadlines, then put them in a calendar.

Find the successful people you want to emulate in some way, and discover their five moves.

real confidence just means you believe in your ability to figure things out.

Mastery of key skills has long been associated with better productivity and performance at both macro and individual levels.

Everything is trainable. No matter what skill you want to learn, with enough training and practice and intention, you can become more proficient at it.

Whenever you want to master a skill, you have two choices: You can hope to develop that skill with some practice and repetition, or you can ensure that you become world-class in that skill through progressive mastery.

Like deliberate practice, 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.