E221: High Performance Habits
E221: High Performance Habits
Something I witness often as a Healthy Habit Mentor are people trying to up-level their skills, advance their careers, and improve their lives BUT they’re wasting energy on the wrong actions and they aren’t moving forward.
What those of us who feel “STUCK” need is a reliable set of practices for awakening our greatest potential and abilities! Today I’m going to show you six powerful systems that create your high performance habits…
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Intro
[01:00] If you’re new to the show, WELCOME! My name is Valerie LaVigne and I have a 5/1 profile in Human Design. The 1 translates to “Investigator.” Meaning I DIVE DEEP into topics that light me up. One of the things that really empowers me is helping other women reach their greatest potentials, and I do this through my mentorship/coaching services, as well as through this podcast!
One of the ways that I “investigate” is through reading books – mostly non-fiction – and this helps me create the best tools, programs, episodes, and more for my audience and clients.
I just finished reading High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard and I needed to share it on the podcast with you!
I’ve done a few of these style episodes on the show featuring some other epic books like: Atomic Habits, Limitless, Grit, and The Four Tendencies.
Other Highly Rated Personal Development Books
Previous “Book Report” style episodes:
Episode 212: Tiny Actions, Remarkable Results (Atomic Habits by James Clear)
Atomic Habit Book
Episode 199: Create LIMITLESS Habits (LIMITLESS by Jim Kwik)
Limitless Book
Grit Book
Episode 174: Book Report: The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin
The Four Tendencies Book
In these episodes, my intention is to share some of the key takeaways from the book, inspire you to also purchase the book to read yourself, and also to share with you how I apply these learnings within my coaching offers.
Where I Use these Learnings
There are currently three ways to work with me:
The first is through my 1:1 Make a Habit Mentorship. This is a customized, and intimate container where we work together and dive deep into your specific habits.
The second way to work with me is in our Healthy Habit Membership. This is a virtual community where we learn, and grow together through our habits, and also features special monthly trainings.
And lastly, I host a 21 Day Healthy Habit Challenge which runs 3-4 times per year. In this challenge you get a backstage pass into the monthly coaching program as well as extra support from me for 21 days. Our next challenge is coming up, so join the waitlist today!
Let’s get back to the book!
Who Are High Performers?
[03:32] As I mentioned the book is titled: HIgh Performance Habits, and subtitled: How Extraordinary People Become That Way
Burchard shares examples and stories of “high performers” throughout the book. In his research, programs, and life experiences, he uses the book to answer questions like:
(p.11) Why do some individuals and teams succeed more quickly than others and sustain that success over the long-term?
Of those who pull it off, why are some miserable and others happy on their journey?
And What motivates people to reach for higher levels of success in the first place, and what kinds of habits, training, and support help them improve faster?
(p.17) In his words, “High performance, as I define it and as the data confirms, is not about getting ahead at all costs. It’s about forming habits that help you both excel in and enrich the full spectrum of your life.”
Burchard shares six deliberate habits that must be consciously chosen and continually revisited to strengthen our character and increase our odds of success.
To do this, it’s important to move forward with curiosity, which is how I personally try to approach any new book, learning, workshop, training etc. When we can begin with curiosity, we can develop genuine confidence, versus if we were to go into a (new) situation with certainty, we can easily get stuck in our fixed/limited attitude.
How the Book is Organized
[05:03] If you’ve listened to any of these “book report” style podcasts before, I want to remind you that this is NOT an audio reading of the book. Instead, I try to pull out some of the key points and share with you how I apply them in my work, and also how you can apply some of them today!
For the purpose of today’s episode, I want to share the six high performance habits. Overall, the book is organized into four main parts:
Part one: Introduction
Part two: Personal Habits (aka the first three high performance habits)
Part three: Social Habits (aka the last three high performance habits)
Part four: Sustaining success, otherwise known as the conclusion and a few extra notes of things to consider and look out for when taking action.
While I am going to focus on the habits themselves, I agree with something else Burchard mentions in the introduction of the book. He says to focus on implementing one of these habits at a time, and even with a focus on solely one of the habits, you will start to see how the other five habits improve and expand without any specific action to them.
This is true for all of our good, and bad habits – because as you know, not all habits are created equal! When you start to improve one area of your life, the other areas elevate in response.
My advice would be to listen to the whole episode first, and then choose which habit you want to start with – or if you’re choosing to read the book, same thing. Start with ONE thing at a time.
YouTube version of this episode is available on my channel.
Burchard Categorizes the first three habits as “Personal Habits.” They are: Seek Clarity, Generate Energy, and Raise Necessity. Let’s take a look at each of them.
HP Habit #1: Seek Clarity
[07:18] I should also mention, within each habit, are three actions or more specific smaller habits, that can help you achieve the main habit. So I guess there aren’t six, but rather 18 habits in the whole book!
The first of the three practices for “Seek Clarity”, is what Burchard calls “Envision the Future Four.” He’s referring to four categories: self, social, skills, and service.
This is all about getting crystal clear on your vision and intentions. Who do you want to be? How do you want to show up? Don’t just answer this right now as you’re listening, but daily.
Intention setting is one of my own practices I never miss, and is something I start every challenge, workshop, coaching session, and day with. I teach this in my trainings and I’ve talked about it a lot on the podcast.
Begin everything with an intention. When you figure out who you want to be, and how you want to succeed, you can then choose a Primary Field of Interest and hone in on the skills needed to be the best in this topic.
Burchard shares a weekly journaling practice to complement this habit to come back to what your intentions, vision, and actions for self, social,skills, and service you want to achieve.
(p.95) For example:
(self) Three words to describe my best self…
(social) Three words that could define how I treat other people…
(skills) The five skills I’m trying to develop most in my life are…
(service) Three simple ways I can add value to those around me this week are…
In this chapter, and throughout the book, Burchard has journaling prompts like this one, that he calls “Performance Prompts.” I found these to be really helpful and insightful, however I ended up skipping over them while I read the book and revisited them after I finished reading. Similar to the tip I gave to you, I wanted to read the whole book before answering the questions so that I could focus on one practice at a time. I found it helpful to go back to them with a whole understanding and more clarity.
Habit one, practice two: Determine the Feeling You’re After. If you’ve ever worked with me you know that we always start with FEELING. Not how you’re feeling now, or how you felt yesterday, but how do you WANT to feel?
I was so thrilled to read this chapter of the book because I know, and my clients know, how powerful this practice is. When you can choose a feeling word, you can make more intentional choices throughout the day to help you connect to that feeling. It’s one of the simplest steps with some of the greatest impact.
Habit one, practice three:: Define What’s Meaningful. While some parts of the book felt a little repetitive, I also understand that all of these habits are closely related which is another reason why focusing on one of the habits can positively impact the others.
With this practice, Burchard emphasizes alignment. (p.13) “Achievement is not your problem – alignment is.” All of us have achieved goals in the past, but were these goals meaningful to us?
Part of seeking clarity is understanding and following our passion. With passion we have motivation to execute.
Growth is another huge motivator. When we can see our growth, or how our impact grows, we are more likely to continue our efforts.
Contribution is a huge part of success for many people. All of these pieces I’m mentioning here will be different for each of us. Our passions, growth, and contribution are unique to us personally. Understand what those mean to you.
Passion + Growth + Contribution = Personal Satisfaction. This gives meaning to us and our lives. What else? Feeling like our lives make sense, which is known as “coherence”
When we have these things, and connect to these parts, we have meaning. If you’re listening to this, you are a woman making an impact – and hopefully not just any impact, but a MEANINGFUL ONE.
Define your passion, acknowledge your growth, identify your contribution, and recognize your coherence to gain clarity in your meaning.
HP Habit #2: Generate Energy
[11:52] One of the most common complaints I hear from women working with me is that they lack energy, or they’re seeking more energy. When we break down their day-to-day, there are typically some key things that I recognize where we can block energy leaks, or little changes we can make to infuse more energy into the routines.
A big part of lacking energy is a lack of mindfulness. And I love this next practice from the book, which is habit two, practice one: Release Tension, Set Intention.
Setting the day with an intention is wonderful and impactful to your life. But what if you set an intention before EVERY interaction, situation, and activity?
Getting in the habit of taking a short pause between tasks is life-changing. This is something I’ve been practicing for years! And funnily enough, I learned it from Brendon Burchard before reading this book. It’s a simple practice of closing your eyes, taking a few deep breaths, releasing tension in the body and mind, and setting an intention for how you want to show up to what’s in front of you.
Whether that’s an email, a zoom call, time with family, relaxing with a book, or starting your workday.
Habit two, practice two: Bring the Joy. This practice has a lot to do with emotional intelligence and being the agent of your own energy and wellbeing.
One of the key learnings of my life was that I am responsible for my own energy, and I am not responsible for how others receive me or my energy. That also means, my responses to other people have nothing to do with them, and everything to do with me.
Burchard says, “joy is a prerequisite to high performance.” (p.110) and it’s a huge part of what makes High Performers so successful.
You can ask yourself “What can I get excited about today?” to help you get excited about your activities. Practice anticipating positive outcomes for your day, actions, and goals.
Some practice that help achieve this joyful attitude are:
Gratitude practice (such as a journal or meditation)
Set a daily timer on your phone to remind you to “bring the joy”
Choose someone you can surprise with a thank you gift or share your appreciation for them
Habit two, practice three: Optimize Health. I am no stranger to an overwhelming schedule, an endless task list, and the go-go-go society we live in. While I enjoy a full calendar, I know that a lot of what I do is not sustainable long-term.
What I will say, is that the reason why I am able to wear a lot of the hats that I wear and not burn out every other day, is BECAUSE of the habits, routines, rituals, and systems I’ve set up in my life and business.
Health is a huge priority for me. I invest in this area of my life because I know how valuable being healthy is to everything that I do.
Women who work with me know this also, and that is one of their reasons for working with me, it’s so that they can invest in this area of health and wellness, and build those habits that can allow them to make a meaningful impact.
HP Habit #3: Raise Necessity
[15:24] This chapter is quite lengthy and is specific to Performance Necessity which has internal and external forces. These are (internal): Identity and Obsession with a Topic/Process, and (external): Social Duty, Obligation, or Purpose, and Urgency (real deadlines).
To me, this is also a little repetitive with the first habit of seeking clarity. However, I understand why it is separate because it branches off into other areas. Let’s look at the practices for this habit for deeper comprehension.
Habit three, practice one: Know Who Needs Your A Game. My biggest takeaway with this practice is that it’s important to be present. You can’t perform at your best if you’re distracted and your attention is divided. Again, you can ask yourself, “Who needs me at my A Game?” to get the clarity on where your attention needs to be at the moment.
This is about focusing on the important tasks at hand, and not getting distracted by the things that don’t matter.
Habit three, practice two: Affirm the Why. Knowing your why is similar to setting your intention and connecting to your desired feeling, so the next step is to declare it. Literally say it out loud, and often.
This is one of the things that is so powerful about working with a coach, it’s that you are physically speaking your why, and in turn affirming it. You also have the accountability from another person who can remind you of your why.
Speaking of other people, habit three, practice three: Level Up Your Squad. You’ve probably heard before that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
Take a moment to consider who those five people are. Can you think of other friends, family, or acquaintances that you could spend more time with to level up your squad?
One of the things that I did early on in my entrepreneurial journey was find mentors who had books, podcasts, courses that I could consume. I spent hours listening to everything I could; while working out, when I was driving. It was a HUGE part of my growth and success.
Okay friends, you’re halfway there! I know this is a thick book hahaha, but honestly I really enjoyed it and I do recommend it!
The next three habits are Social Habits.
HP Habit #4: Increase Productivity
[18:10] It’s a pretty shitty feeling when you’re so busy and don’t feel like you’re getting or have gotten anywhere. It’s the furthest action from meaning or purpose and really kills the joy. So it comes at no surprise that “Increasing Productivity” is a habit of High Performers.
Habit four, practice one: Increase the Outputs that Matter. Of course, there are things that must be done by us that we might not thoroughly enjoy. And if you’re always doing work that you don’t enjoy or find meaningful, then it’s likely that you will not feel balanced.
One of the easiest ways we can do this is by taking a break. When it comes to work, Burchard recommends, “If you want to feel more energized, creative, and effective at work – and still leave work with enough oomph for the “life” part – the ideal breakpoint is to stop your work and give your mind and body a break every forty-five to sixty minutes.” (p.197)
That’s including the tasks that are moving the needle forward.
Speaking of moving, habit four, practice two: Chart Your FIve Moves. You may think multitasking is helping you achieve more, when it’s actually decreasing your productivity significantly (as much as 25% each time you task switch).
By having your clear goals and intentions, you can focus on the outputs that matter and break those goals down into five moves that are going to have the most impact.
This wasn’t necessarily a new concept for me to learn, but it was a great chapter with examples and tangible practices to progress in a meaningful way.
A question you can ask to help you with this is, “If there were only five major moves to make [your] goal happen, what would they be?” (p.210)
This is something I want to bring into my own goals, as well as how I support my clients. There are always steps to take or “homework” so to speak, but I like that it’s specifically five moves. It helps keep the trajectory clear and concise.
Habit four, practice three: Get Insanely Good at Key Skills (Progressive Mastery). I mentioned before, choosing a primary field of interest. What are the key skills that you can develop to help you thrive in this field?
There’s no doubt that personal growth and development is important and a priority to High Performers, and what makes it specific to their success is that the key skills are supporting their mastery.
This obviously will be different for everyone. For myself, I am working at being a better leader, public speaker, and improving my video skills for my new Youtube channel.
What about you? What skills are you working on? Share them with me on instagram @vallavignelife
HP Habit #5: Develop Influence
[21:08] You can imagine that High Performers are also very influential. While I first you might think that having influence is not entirely in our control, “It turns out that no matter your personality, you can develop more influence in the world than you probably imagine.” (p.237)
To do this, focus on these three practices. Habit five, practice one: Teach People How to Think. Including how they think about themselves, about others, and about the world.
While the chapter goes into a lot of detail with examples and “performance prompts,” the best place to start with this practice is to ask the following questions:
How do I want (my team, audience, etc.) to think about themselves?
How do I want (my team, audience, etc.) to think about other people?
How do I want (my team, audience, etc.) to think about the world at large?
Answering these first will give you the clarity you need to move forward. In my own practice I want my clients to think of themselves as leaders. To think of themselves as worthy of achieving their goals and dreams. I want them to think of other people as supportive members of their own communities. They are people who are impacted by my clients, and also impact them. I want them to think of the world at large as an endless space of possibilities and opportunities for growth, change, love, and freedom.
Habit five, practice two: Challenge People to Grow. Okay so this is what I do in four words. Challenging people to grow means observing their character, contributions, and connections and actively challenging them to further develop these things.
A lot of people come to me with habits or routines that aren’t working, and I use the ones that ARE working to help improve the other areas. Remember, when one area of your life starts to improve, so do all the other areas.
Habit five, practice three: Role Model the Way. You might have already heard the quote “Be strong, you never know who you are inspiring.: Well HIgh Performers know that they’re inspiring people, and this goes beyond being or staying strong.
How can you start showing up with integrity, joy, authenticity, and excellence?
Let’s wrap these incredible practices up, here is our last HIgh Performance Habit.
HP Habit #6: Demonstrate Courage
[23:44] Before reading this chapter I knew I was going to love it, and I also knew that this is an area that I’ve been neglecting in my own life for some time. Well that’s true and also I have habits that support my courage, but I also know that I could be doing better in this area.
Habit six, practice one: Honour the Struggle. A huge and empowering mindset shift for when you’re feeling like the world is against you, is to recognize the lesson in the challenge. How can I grow from this situation? What have I learned from this experience? How can I move forward with more strength, and wisdom?
Life isn’t always easy and joyful, but “this too shall pass,” and when it does, are you coming out stronger, or are you letting the struggle and pain define you and be excuses as to why you aren’t growing?
Habit six, practice two: Share Your Truth and Ambitions. When it comes to working with women, this is one of the most common and heartbreaking areas in which they’re lacking – yes even women who are making an impact.
Even though it’s easier than ever for us to share our truth publicly with our audiences and communities, it’s just as easy to be ridiculed for them. Whether we’ve felt the need to hold back and stay small because of childhood, generational trauma, or not having the tools, I definitely recognized that this practice is… under practiced!
And if there is one thing that I have learned from hosting this podcast these last few years, it’s that your voice, your story, and your truth matter. People care, and people are listening, and people WANT to learn and grow from you. So share your truth and ambitions with the world.
Habit six, practice three: Find Someone to Fight For. I like the way Burchard says this so I’m going to quote the book for this one:
“We need a noble cause to rise for. High performers tend to make that cause just one person – they want to fight for that person so they can be safe, improve, or live a better quality of life. You will do more for others than for yourself. And in doing something for others, you will find your reason for courage, and your cause for focus and excellence.” (p.371)
Your Next Steps
[26:12] If you want to move the needle toward progress, start with one of these habits. Choose one to commit to for the next month at least. Track your progress in a journal, or podcast, or video – however you like to share and measure your success.
If you’re looking for more books like this one, more tools for growth, or you’re ready to deepen your transformation with healthy habits, I’d love to invite you to apply for my 1:1 Make a Habit Mentorship program, to see if working together would be the right fit.
Podcast Host
Valerie LaVigne
Valerie is the creator and founder of Valerie LaVigne Life and the Women's Empowerment Show. She helps busy and empowered women create healthy habits so that they can become the best version of themselves and transform their lives. Learn more about Valerie here!
