What better time is there than right now, to take a step back and reflect, plan and focus to ensure we are giving the best of ourselves for maximum impact and return.
I really value the work of Brendon Burchard – you may know him from his best-selling book High Performing Habits. If not check him out: https://brendon.com/ I love his podcasts – great for my drive/walk to work.
So, let me introduce you to Brendon - He is the world’s leading high performance coach, a 3-time New York Times bestselling author, and one of the most-watched, quoted, and followed personal development trainers in history. SUCCESS Magazine and O, The Oprah Magazine, have both named him one of the most influential leaders in personal growth and achievement. Forbes named him the world’s leading high performance coach and Larry King named him the world’s top motivational trainer.
Brendon’s personal development trainings have more than 300 million views. Over 2,000,000 students have completed his online courses and video series. He’s created 20 blockbuster online courses in personal and professional development – so it’s fair to say he knows his stuff.
With the right daily mindset, focus and habits, you can shape an extraordinary quality of life and contribute at world-class levels ways beyond anyone’s expectations. - Brendon Burchard
Even a fraction of that sounds good doesn’t it?
He defines high performance as “reaching and sustaining long term success, whilst also maintaining well-being and positive relationships” – no workaholics here please!
The last part is important. You do not have to compromise your health or relationships in order to succeed at high levels. Brendon conducted extensive research with some of the world most high performers across all industries, sectors and geographies and found consistent patterns that he has built his world-class coaching business on.
He found that people who succeed beyond standard measures consistently over the long term share the following:
High performers are more successful than their peers, yet they are less stressed.
High performers love challenges and are more confident that they will achieve their goals despite adversity.
High performers are healthier than their peers.
High performers are happy.
High performers are admired.
High performers get better grades and reach higher positions of success.
High performers work passionately regardless of traditional rewards.
High performers are assertive (for the right reasons).
High performers see and serve beyond their strengths.
High performers are uniquely productive—they’ve mastered prolific quality output.
High performers are adaptive servant leaders.
I’m aware that reading a list like this can make a high performer sound like an infallible wonder-worker. But that’s not it at all. The list above is a good general description of high performers, but of course, there is plenty of room for individual differences and variability. Some high performers, for example, may not be as healthy as others even though they generate more productive output. Some may be happy and healthy but are not as admired. In other words, these descriptions are not 100% accurate for 100 % of individuals. But the odds are that over time.
What he has shown is the high performers are not born but made. High performance isn’t a natural strength; it’s the result of a specific set of deliberate habits. You can learn these habits and reach high performance in nearly anything you choose. And it’s been measured and proven.
What his research showed is that certain habits give a competitive advantage, turning an average performer into a high performer. High performers have simply mastered—either on purpose or innately - six habits that matter most in reaching and sustaining long-term success.
He calls these six habits the HP6. They have to do with clarity, energy, necessity, productivity, influence, and courage. They reflect what high performers actually do continually—from goal to goal, project to project, team to team, and person to person. Each of the habits is learnable, improvable, and deployable across all contexts of life.
Seek clarity: know who you are, how you want to interact with others, what you want to achieve. Be intentional about your thoughts and actions.
Generate energy: build up significant reserves of energy so that you can maintain effort and focus for sustained periods of time. Care for your mental and physical well-being, and bring positive emotions to your work.
Raise necessity: tap into the reasons why you absolutely must perform well, both internal (identity, values, standards of excellence) and external (obligations, dependents, public commitments, deadlines).
Increase productivity: focus on the highest leverage actions within what Brendon calls your “prolific quality output” (PQO), the area where you can drive the greatest impact. Forget about all other distractions.
Develop influence: connect with others to influence them to support your efforts and projects. Build trust with others to enable strong collaboration towards joint goals.
Demonstrate courage: advocate for your ideas, take bold actions, stand up for yourself and for others.
No matter how small you start, start something that matters. - Brendon Burchard
I have personally used Brendan's research, inisght, practical techniques a lot in the past decade and they really do make such a difference. So over the next few blogs i'll be sharing a little more into each of the HP6.
Until next time...
