The Best Book I Read in August
What’s going on everyone! Its that time of the month again where I get to share with you the best book I read, and summarize some of the things I learned to help you decide if you’d get value out of this book.
This months winner is…..
High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard
Brenden Burchard is a high-performance coach and author; he has coached thousands of people over the years and has come up with what he believes are the six essential habits that every high performer must master.
But what does it mean to be high performance? Brendon defines it as “succeeding beyond standard norms, consistently over the long term”, but he says that its not about getting ahead at all costs. “Its about forming habits that help you excel in and enrich the full spectrum of your life.” Basically what he’s saying is that these six habits will help you not only be a high performer in your work, but also live a happier and more fulfilling life!
So what are these six habits? Brendon breaks them down into 3 personal habits, and 3 social habits, that, when all done together will create amazing results for your over the long term, but that’s the key, the LONG term. You likely won’t see amazing result in a week from performing these habits, but if you stick with them for a whole year? You won’t even recognize yourself.
Personal Habits
The first personal habit is to Seek Clarity. If you want to become a high performer you will have to become clear on your values, strengths, weaknesses, goals, and have a plan to achieve your dreams. Simple enough right? Just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it’s easy or intuitive. You may have a fuzzy view of those things, but people that achieve high levels of success and happiness are absolutely clear on them. Spend some time reflecting on who you are, who you want to be, where you are going, and how you are going to get there. In this chapter Brendon also goes incredibly deep into how you change your mindset so that you control your feelings instead of allowing your emotions control you, as well as help you to define what is meaningful in your life.
The second habit is to Generate Energy. This habit is all about how you can maximize your energy though the day and making sure you don’t waste energy. One of my biggest takeaways was when he talked about “releasing tension, set intention”. He describes how, as people, we have dozens of transitions every day, and if we aren’t careful, we will allow our tension and negative emotions follow us through the transitions, draining us of energy. Brendon then gives actionable steps so that between major transitions in your day, you can reset and refocus, and go into each new part of your day with a upbeat attitude ready to tackle whatever it is that has to get done.
The third habit is to Raise Necessity. This habit is all about making high performance, success, and happiness a necessity in your life. People are extremely resilient and powerful when they are working towards something they need, they will do whatever it takes to reach their goal if it is a necessity. He breaks it down into four forces: identity, obsession, social duty, and urgency. My favorite of these was social duty. It’s all about shifting your mindset to one where you realize that people out there depend on you. When others are depending on you to do the best you can, and it really matters, you will force your self to accomplish the mission no matter what. And the thing is, you may not even know the people that need you! It may be someone that you meet 10 years from now, and you are able to change their life because you started your journey to becoming high performance now!
Social Habits
The fourth habit is to Increase Productivity. This habit is all about identifying what outputs in your life matter most and focusing on them. Too many people spend too much time working on things that have no outputs. Think about email or texting, sure it can feel good to respond quickly, or go keep your inbox at zero, but you are wasting time that you could be spent on studying for an exam, or working on a project that could get you promoted. The other big part of this habit is identifying the three skills that you need to develop in order to be doing the kind of work you want to do in the future. The key here is that you have to figure out what the most important skills are. If you are trying to play college sports then maybe those things are getting stronger, getting quicker, and learning the nuances of your position. He also lays out a ten step framework to help you actually develop those skills to a high degree, and don’t allow yourself to fall of the bandwagon.
The fifth habit is to Develop Influence. This chapter was great because it gave all sorts of insights and tips on how you can develop influence with the people around you. Having influence with those around you will be absolutely crucial to reaching high levels of success in life. We’ve talked before at CTM about making sure your surround yourself with people that lift you up and make you better, and this chapter touches on that as well as how you can form those bonds. Because, while developing influence with everyone is good, it’s especially important to do it with people that are already where you want to be in life.
The sixth and final habit is to Demonstrate Courage. This chapter was incredible. This isn’t about going around and showing everyone else that you are the man, and that you have everything figured out. This chapter is all about demonstrating courage to yourself, it’s about pushing beyond what you think is possible so that you can enter unknown territory and conquer it. He goes through various strategies to apply pressure on yourself to do courageous things, and strategies to change your mindset so that doing courageous things is easier.
Overall, I loved this book, it provided some awesome perspectives and new twists on a lot of habits that I have heard before, but Brendon also gave actionable steps. Each chapter had questions and action items so that you can begin taking action the day you being reading the book. I highly recommend this book to anyone that is looking to lead a happier, more fulfilling life, and as a result also lead a more productive life. Take care y’all, and good luck.