So far in this little blog series looking in detail at that 6 key habits that science undertaken by Brendan Burchard has shown can drastically improve your life – any aspect of it - by driving you to high performance.
Now let’s pull those together – and that, it’s called Commitment. You cannot transform without deep commitment to do so. There must be a soul-deep commitment and passion to continue on, to push, to drive.
So, let’s look at some things that can help us stay committed as we follow our high performance path.
1) Know your why and visit it often. Keep the light at the end of the tunnel ever-present. No matter how challenging things get, if you can stay focussed on that light you will maintain the momentum to keep driving toward you goal. This is personal development 101 – revisit your goals every day. I have a post-it on my mirror, so I see and repeat them every day. If you’re not keeping that goal front-of-mind then you can easily be distracted by the drudgery or mania of every day life.
2) Get Training – having the know-how of what to do, to really change, you need to keep learning! An always learning mindset – what new competencies can you add to your toolkit in any area of life.
Don’t wait or hope to learn (that’s what under-performers do) – Get proactive, get engaged and build your own curriculum for life. Whatever it is you want to learn has already been done and someone has already shown others how to do it - technical, business, personal, relationships, physical – you name it, what you want to learn is available – if you can articulate it, you can find it.
Personally, I’m always learning - I listen to podcasts on my morning walk, have online courses galore on the go, I love going to mind-challenging conferences and events. I love my brain to be challenged and stretched – some of you know I’ve complete a degree in Quantum Physics and its impact on the future of medicine. Nothing to do with work, but my passion… Get a life development plan in place – for any work aspects talk to your line manager – sell them your commitment and secure their support of you.
“If you leave your growth to randomness, you’ll always be locked in the land of mediocrity.” - Brendan Burchard
3) Consistency is key– your actions need to match your intentions – every single time. It’s hard the first few times as it’s not natural but if you keep going – like creating a path through a field – it’s get more well-worn each time, until eventually you can’t remember that path/ habit not being there.
I do with this gratitude, 5 years ago I started a 30-day commitment to actively document my gratitude at the start and end of every day. It was hard to do and annoying to remember, but now my day feels odd if I don’t do that practice, and the benefits I’ve received are boundless. I’ll share the structure I use, in case anyone wants to give it a try.
4) Surround yourself with strivers – you need to create a community around you that are striving for the same things and this will support you to stay committed. Find and associate yourself with people who are actively interested in personal development, professional development, wellbeing, at being good humans. At online, become part of a mastermind groups, volunteer at a non-profit– it really doesn’t matter.
People who are remarkable in their own way inspire us to be of service to others and lift us up. (there are 3 types of people in our lives – those who lift you up, those that bore you and those that put you down); So architect your community so you’re around strivers – their ambition pulls you up, their discipline inspires you, their willingness to go through challenge with respect helps you honour the struggle and stay committed.
5) Make it bigger than you – the basic tenants of humanity are a sense of belonging, and a need to contribute and be a part of something bigger than ourselves. Find yours, hone in on it, - what’s the bigger picture? What’s the bigger result that you are contributing too? Even at work, every role is contributing to the bigger picture – to ensuring your company continues to exist to provide benefits for its consumers and the wider community. That’s a really honourable inspiring reason to be the best you can be at your role every day.
6) Get a coach – it lifts your game higher and faster. Left to our own devices we do as good as we can, but often we don’t know where our limits are, until someone shakes us and lifts us up there. A Coach can help you with insights, strategies and tools – help you focus and progress faster and faster.
Coaches can give you perspective - being in the midst of your life, often make it so hard to see the options and evaluate them. Coaching comes in all forms – that wise friend, a like-minded colleague – informal or formal, free or paid-for. If you’re ready to shift up a gear…
Life always has its challenging periods – and when those surface we need to be leaning in and embracing the new, not feeling pressure and falling back to the known. Each and everyone of us has a part of play in how we adopt the habits across all areas of our lives and remain committed to our inspiring goals.
I leave you with one of my favourite quotes from Brendan Burchard about finding the commitment within you to focus on your goals.
“Amplifying what is within you will accelerate your life faster that fixing what you think limits you.” -Brendan Burchard
Until next time
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