January is almost over. Have you made progress toward your goals? Or are you like most people, who have forgotten about their good intentions or let life “get in the way” of their resolutions? If you want to achieve more success both personally and professionally this year, you need to focus on six key areas of high performance.
To succeed in any area of your life, you need the same six characteristics or skills possessed by high performers in every industry around the world. I learned about these pillars of high performance when I attended Brendon Burchard’s High Performance Academy. I then began to apply them in my life.
What is High Performance?
The term “high performance” might be new to you. You may be more familiar with “peak performance.”
High performance means excelling and succeeding above standard norms consistently over the long-term. It’s is the feeling of full engagement, joy, and confidence that comes from living from and into your full potential. High performance in your life is the result of heightened and sustained levels of clarity, energy, courage, productivity, and influence.
I think of high performance as reaching a peak and then staying there or continuing upward to the next peak, but never sliding back down the hill. Peak performance, on the other hand, is a bit like climbing to the top of the mountain only to find yourself traveling quickly down the other side. Then you have to climb back up again.
Since I began focusing on high performance skills and characteristics, I find it easier to achieve my daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly goals. Why? Because I have heightened levels of clarity, energy, courage, productivity, and influence. By strengthening these five areas, and staying focused on my purpose and presence, I now set goals easily, remain focused on my priorities, do what is necessary, take courageous action, bring positivity and energy to everything I do, and inspire myself and others along the way.
In fact, I found these pillars of high performance—these character traits and skill sets—so powerful, I became a Certified High Performance Coach. Now I teach others how to become high performers as well.
Here’s a brief description of six elements of high-performance and one action step you can take to level up in that area. Doing so will help you achieve your goals this year.
1. Psychology
How you think and what you believe have an enormous impact on the outcomes you achieve in every area of your life. That’s why it’s enormously important to gain clarity what goes on in our mind and heart and to make conscious choices about this going forward. To do this requires clarity.
Without clarity, you may not even have a clear thought about what you want to achieve this year or in your lifetime. You move through your days, relationships, and work bleary eyed. You have no idea where you are headed or how to get there. So how can you even set goals?
Clarity helps you understand what stops you from achieving your goals—such as limiting beliefs, fears, and negative thoughts.
Clarity makes it easy to know what you want and need to accomplish, stay motivated, and take the necessary steps to achieve your goals. It keeps you aware of your challenges so you can move through them.
When you possess clarity, you know how to succeed and can choose to do so.
Action Step: Ask yourself what you want this year. You probably know what you don’t want. When you know what you do want, you can determine what you need to do to create that in your life.
2. Physiology
Without a strong mind and body, you can’t fulfill your purpose or potential. Why? You’ll lack the stamina, focus, and passion necessary to achieve your goals.
Do you wake up tired, get sleepy every afternoon, or feel lethargic and have a difficult time concentrating? Then you need to increase your energy.
Commit to heightened and sustained energy levels this year, and you’ll find it easier to take significant strides toward success this year.
Action Step: Take a break every hour and move your body and breathe deeply. Get your blood flowing and oxygenate your brain. Do this when you feel tired or unmotivated. Generate energy. Don’t wait for it to flow miraculously through into your experience.
3. Productivity
We are a distracted society. Most of us act as if we have ADHD. If you want to produce more work, though, you must learn to focus.
To become more productive, you don’t need to manage your time; you need to manage your attention.
When you help yourself focus on the task at hand, you’ll find yourself more productive than you thought possible (personally and professionally).
Action Step: Identify the one thing that distracts you most. Is it your phone, email, Facebook, your children? Find a way to limit that distraction—even just for 15 minutes. Turn off your phone, email, or the Internet. Ask your significant other to take care of the kids, or allow them to watch an educational video. In that time, take on a task. Focus only on that task and on nothing else. If your mind wanders, bring it back to the task at hand.
4. Persuasion
To create personal and professional success, you need persuasive abilities. First, you need influence with yourself. Only then can you make the necessary, but sometimes difficult, changes that help you succeed. When you inspire yourself or commit to change, you’ll find it easier to inspire others to listen to your advice and take action on your counsel.
In fact, you influence people in many ways every day probably without realizing it. Your smile can influence someone to smile back or to feel happy or accepted. Your suggestion can influence them to make a purchase. Your anger can cause someone to stop a particular behavior.
But can you persuade yourself and others consciously? The efforts you make to develop more influence pay off for you and others.
Action Step: Consciously set out to inspire someone today. Influence them toward a positive action, feeling, or belief.
5. Purpose
The best way to achieve your goals is to tie them to a strong sense of purpose. However, for you to do that, you must know why you want to achieve those goals. If your “why” or reason isn’t strong enough, if it doesn’t resonate with you emotionally, you won’t accomplish your goals.
When you know your passion and purpose, you can align everything you do, but, in particular, your goals, with this purpose. This inspires you to keep taking inspired action toward your goals and ensure your success.
Action Step:Define your “why” for a particular goal. What makes it important to you? Does it help you fulfill your purpose—is it on purpose for you?
6. Presence
You can look at presence in two ways. First, how present are you in any given moment or situation? Second, what type of presence do you bring to any moment or situation?
In the first case, you evaluate if you live your life in a distracted manner. It’s difficult, for example, to have a good relationship with someone if you aren’t present when you speak to them—if you are, instead, focused on reading email on your phone. In the second case, you evaluate your what you bring to the moment regarding emotional, mental, and physical vibrancy. When you show up at a party, are you perceived as passionate, witty, and energetic, or are you withdrawn, negative, and tired?
People remember you both by how present you are with them and your presence. And both make a difference in your ability to succeed.
Action Step: Pay attention to the amount of presence you bring to your next interaction with someone important to you. Try to level up both in how present you are with them and the amount of emotional, mental, physical presence you bring to the relationship.
How do these six areas of high performance help you achieve success in your life?
If you want to develop high-performance skills and characteristics and Achieve More Inspired Results in all areas of your life, let’s get together and discuss how Certified High Performance Coaching might help you fulfill your potential and live your life with more clarity, courage, energy, productivity, and influence—and success. To set up a 1-hour FREE High Performance Coaching session, click here. Then download the free session application, and submit it. I’ll contact you to schedule your session time. (Find out how to receive a FREE ticket to Brendon Burchard’s next High Performance Academy – valued at $997.)
