We all have dreams of living a life filled with fulfillment, passion and purpose….oh and having lots of money in the bank. That helps too. However, so many leaders I talk to don’t have that fulfillment, passion and purpose because they are so overwhelmed and overworked. Their ambition is lost and their fire is dwindling. The hamster wheel of putting out fires just keeps going around and around. And nothing changes. I felt this overwhelm and uncertainty in myself many times. I felt the confidence drain from my body more times than I can count and it beat me down. I didn’t want to feel that way anymore so I picked up a book a few years ago called the High Performance Habits and it changed everything for me once I implemented these habits consistently into my life. As I read through the habits, I realized I was a high performer but I was not activating these habits on a daily basis. I was just hoping and wishing they would activate on their own and then everything would be alright automatically. I would think to myself, “I just have to get through this season…” and then something else would just come up. Well, it wasn’t alright and that type of thinking didn’t work. It was once I read this book and started to be super intentional about implementing the habits, that things started to shift for me.
Brendan talks about everyone wanting the same thing. They want ambition, but in order to get that, there are three things that have to happen. He says that we all want to feel a sense of aliveness. We all want to be fully engaged, fully alive, and we want that experience emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually to feel that sense of aliveness or vibrancy. The second thing we want is connection. We want to feel connected to our community, to our mind, to our sense of purpose. The third thing he states that we all want is meaningful pursuits. That sense that what we are doing gives us a sense of fulfillment, freedom to create, and make an impact (Burchard, 2017). The only way to make these feelings happen is to have a desperate need for growth. Brendan calls this need a growth imperative. The means there is no other option but to invest and be intentional to put the work in to grow – less victim thinking and more solution seeking.
The 6 habits that I learned from him became my manuscript for making growth imperative in my life. And it was freaking hard and scary but it became my gas lighter to my passion and purpose again. This week, I had to dig deep into these habits again because I found myself starting to go towards that victim corner of my mindset again where I focused on all of the things that were going wrong for me. Once again, by implementing and being more intentional in these habits even more than I had been, helped me to move out of the victim mindset. I wanted to share them with you on my blog in hopes that it will help you too. Let’s get started:
Habit 1: High Performers Seek Clarity. They are always trying to get a handle on the situations that arise. They seek to unpack the layers to get to the root of the problem. They are always trying to get clarity on, what is it we’re trying to do here? What’s the real problem we’re trying to solve? They’re trying to get clarity on the roles and responsibilities. They ask more questions in meetings. I am obsessed with clarity. I have developed so many system operating procedures and problem solving templates with the purpose of helping people find clarity when they don’t even know when to start. I teach this problem solving and clarity seeking system in my digital course called School Administrator’s Academy. I take you through step by step how to find clarity to solve a top priority, how to build relationships through team teaching, how to run meetings, how to schedule and time block for productivity and efficiency, and how to build leaders in your school. The best part about this digital course is we go through it together every step of the way for the 12 weeks and you get lifetime access. The purpose is all about finding clarity in your leadership in the digital course called School Administrator’s Academy! Doors officially open to enroll Feb. 22, 2022. Stay tuned!
In order to build momentum, you need to have clarity. You have got to know where you are going and what you want! Oprah always starts her business meeting with the question, “What is our intention for this meeting today?” Brendan asks you to think about these things: “Do you like the momentum you have so far this year? There’s a discipline of seeking clarity, asking for help, doing the research, trying to figure out who you are. What are your key skills? How do you want to serve people? What’s the mission here?” (Bouchard, 2017).
Habit 02: Generate Energy. Holy cow. I crave energy and I make sure that try to instill the habits that generate it instead of the ones that suck it out of me. I have learned from the best, that in order to generate energy we need to meditate, exercise, diet, sleep, nutrition, reading, etc. It all matters. All of it. Especially what you fuel your body and mind with. A study shows that 60% of high performers work out at least 4 times a week (Burchard, 2017). They approach their practices like an olympic athlete. The thing is….is that you have to summon these habits to generate the energy again and again. I never get up and feel like working out or eating veggies, like never. But the rush after I do it anyway, is like no other. And so, I future pace my thinking to how I feel after a workout and I start. I never regret a workout, even a bad one. But I always regret the bad choice in food or the skipped workout and that drains me. The same goes for a meeting, it is up to me to bring the emotional energy and not take from it.
Habit 03: Raise Necessity. This one means that you have a need not just a dream to succeed and you will do whatever it takes to set up the stakes so that you do succeed. Set up the stakes to motivate your necessity to succeed. Don’t avoid the stakes just because they are too high or are a risk. Use that to motivate you. High performers have a hunger and they use it to succeed no matter what. They don’t stay in the victim mindset for long. They use it to propel them forward.
Habit 04: Learn How To Become More Productive. High performers look for ways to become more productive. They do things like time blocking and taking breaks every 50 minutes or so. Burchard states that research has shown time and time again that the highest performers work hard for 50 minutes and take short breaks after that which has boosted their productivity and efficiency. High performance cars need pit stops too or they lose momentum. Same goes for humans. Take breaks or your will burn out. Go for a walk and get some fresh air every 50 minutes.
Habit 05: Learn To Develop Influence. We have to have influence if we want people to trust us enough to listen to our messaging or buy our product. As leaders, our influence and how we walk the walk make all the difference in how our community activates under our leadership. Most people don’t really know how to influence. So Brendan dug into that and came up with the idea that as high performers we teach our community how to think. Start with sharing stories with examples and insights of how they should think (Burchard, 2017). By shaping the mindset, you are influencing, so studying ways to effectively do that will definitely help. Think about ways you could influence people to think about their job, their career, their mindset, their habits, their mission, their relationships, etc. High performers think of themselves as thought shifters.
Habit 06: Role Model It. Just by you modelling your expectations, will influence your community. Learn how to shape their thoughts, challenge them, and then role model it. This will build your influence, impact, and trust. Demonstrate vulnerability and courage to take action even when it is risky or uncomfortable. Burchard states that it is important to demonstrate courage especially if you have doubt or uncertainty. Speak up in meetings for what you believe and stand for. That takes courage too, but will have huge impact. Express yourself authentically always and it will go far for you. But it takes massive courage. There is no one else on this planet like you or who can do it like you. Own that, be confident, and be proud of that. Have the courage to provide meaningful content to your community, then dig deep into campaigning your message authentically, and look for collaborations to extend your reach whenever you can.
So there you have it! Brendon Burchard’s 6 Habits of High Performers. I have implemented these habits and it has renewed and restored me in so many ways. Each day I have to tap into them to help sustain my energy and passion but they have become a part of the touch trees that I have started to grow in my life. I want to leave you with this quote from Brendan Burchard that I thought really encapsulates leaders, he stares, “A leader’s job is to help people co-create a vision, co-create a plan, co-create the journey. And when you have the people supporting something because they had the idea or they were involved in the idea or they’re involved in the journey in a meaningful way, they support it. They have skin in the game. They have passion for it. And great leaders do that. They create a process of interaction and influence in which other people are not followers but, rather, collaborators. And when leaders help people become collaborators toward a shared and mutual vision, then we all want to do it. And it’s hard to do that. It’s easy to be a figurehead; hard to be a leader. It’s easier to be a dictator; harder to be a leader. But the ones who change the world, they tend to lead in that way, where they understand the importance of people support what they create. So they’re always looking for ambassadors, always making other people champions, always encouraging and empowering people and enlisting people with the content, knowledge, relationships they need. They’re really good at empowering people to build the journey along with them and then beyond them.” (Burchard, 2022).
If you are looking for a checklist to reframe the way you show up, you can download it here! Also be sure to join our private facebook community called Principals and Leaders!
Burchard, B. (2017). High Performance Habits. N.p.: Hay House Inc.
Burchard, B., & Porterfield, A. (Actor). (2022). 6 High Performance Habits [Motion picture]. United States: On-line Marketing Made Easy Podcast.
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