High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way

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.

When you learn the difference between busywork and your life’s work, that’s the first step on the path of purpose.

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” —Howard Thurman

Seek clarity. Generate energy. Raise necessity. Increase productivity. Develop Influence. Demonstrate Courage. These are the six habits that you need to adopt if you are to reach high performance in any situation.

Unhappiness is not knowing what we want and killing ourselves to get it.” —Don Herold

Just because people want to put things on your plate because you’re good doesn’t mean you should let them.

I don’t have time for X.” In this excuse, “X” generally refers to working out, healthy eating/ shopping, or meditation. But I learned that none of these things necessarily cost you time. In fact, they often buy back time by making you more energized and productive. If you’re sharper, more on the ball, and better able to output things that matter, because you took the time to work out and eat healthier, then the workout or healthy diet wasn’t a deficit.

Gratitude is the golden frame through which we see the meaning of life.

Slow down, be more strategic, and say no more often.

There are two types of people. One walks into the room and announces, ‘Here I am!’ The other walks in and says, ‘Oh, there you are!

Just as athletes never quit training, high performers never stop consciously conditioning and strengthening their habits. Real success—holistic, long-term success—doesn’t come from doing what’s natural, certain, convenient, or automatic. Often, the journey to greatness begins the moment our preferences for comfort and certainty are overruled by a greater purpose that requires challenge and contribution. The skills and strengths you have now are probably insufficient to get you to the next level of success, so it’s absurd to think you won’t have to work on your weaknesses, develop new strengths, try new habits, stretch beyond what you think your limits or gifts are. That’s why I’m not here to sell you the easy solution of just focusing on what is already easy for you. Just so we’re clear: There’s a lot of work ahead.

Excellence comes from an internal standard that asks, “How can I deliver beyond what’s expected?

What we do with what we have tends to be far more important than what we have in the first place.

The only difference lies in whether someone decides it is necessary to get better. No necessity, no consistent action.

The world belongs to the energetic.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

High performers are clear on their intentions for themselves, their social world, their skills, and their service to others. I call these areas self, social, skills, and service, or the Future Four.

Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.” —James Allen

The person who is certain is most closed to learning, most vulnerable to dogma, and most likely to be blindsided and overtaken by innovators.

Decide what you want. Determine the Five Major Moves that will help you leap toward that goal. Do deep work on each of the major five moves—at least 60 percent of your workweek going to these efforts—until they are complete. Designate all else as distraction, tasks to delegate, or things to do in blocks of time you’ve allocated in the remaining 40 percent of your time.

To succeed, always remember that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

You probably already know you need to eat healthier, and so I say to you, begin.

It turns out, too, that marriage is good for your energy, just as it’s good for your longevity.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” —Aristotle

What is apparent across all high performers is that they anticipate positive social interactions and they strive consciously and consistently to create them.

certainty is the fool’s dream and, thus, the charlatan’s selling point.

When you knock on the door of opportunity, do not be surprised that it is Work who answers.

awaken and reemerge into the world with a youthful spirit.

Look to the future. Identify key skills. Obsessively develop those skills.

High performers are happy. We all want to be happy. But many people are unhappy achievers.