What I Learned from “High

Performance Habits”
Ameet Ranadive
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May 10 · 8 min read

I recently read High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard,

and came away very inspired to follow his advice on building
habits to become a better performer. Brendon has synthesized
academic and original research in psychology and high
performance to develop his HP6 model. In this post, I will
summarize my key learnings from High Performance Habits and
hopefully encourage you to read the book.

Brendon’s HP6 model is composed of six key habits, organized

into two categories. The first category is “personal” habits, the
second category is “social” habits.
HP6 Model (source: High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard)

The six key habits are:

1. Seek clarity: know who you are, how you want to interact
with others, what you want to achieve. Be intentional about
your thoughts and actions.
2. Generate energy: build up significant reserves of energy so
that you can maintain effort and focus for sustained periods of
time. Care for your mental and physical well-being, and bring
positive emotions to your work.
3. Raise necessity: tap into the reasons why you absolutely
must perform well, both internal (identity, values, standards of
excellence) and external (obligations, dependents, public
commitments, deadlines).
4. Increase productivity: focus on the highest leverage actions
within what Brendon calls your “prolific quality output” (PQO),
the area where you can drive the greatest impact. Forget about
all other distractions.
5. Develop influence: connect with others to influence them to
support your efforts and projects. Build trust with others to
enable strong collaboration towards joint goals.
6. Demonstrate courage: advocate for your ideas, take bold
actions, stand up for yourself and for others.

It is difficult to summarize everything that Brendon has captured

in an entire book, but I will highlight my most important take-
aways for three habits: Seek clarity, Raise necessity, and
Demonstrate courage.
Seek clarity
The first habit is about seeking clarity for who you are and what
you want. As Brendon writes:

“High performers are clear on their intentions for themselves,

their social world, their skills, and their service to others.”

Brendon calls these the Future Four: Self, Social, Skills,

and Service.

Self
The first aspect of clarity is knowing yourself. Brendon advises us
to:

“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.”

Ask yourself questions about aspirational words that describe your

future self. What do you want to become in the future? One
example Brendon mentioned is a woman who described herself as
“alive, playful, and grateful.” These words reflect your values and
aspirations. By asking yourself how you would describe your
future self, you’re gaining clarity on who you want to become.

Social
Brendon writes:
“High performers… have clear intentions about how they want to
treat other people… In every situation that matters, they know
who they want to be and how they want to interact with others.”

Ask yourself, “How can I be a good person or leader in this

upcoming situation?” or “What does the other person need?” or
“What kind of tone or mood do I want to set?”

Asking yourself these questions helps you become more

intentional about how you want to interact with others, and helps
you avoid being entirely reactive or defensive in high-stakes or
stressful situations.

Skills
Know what skills and experiences you need to develop in order to
be more successful in the future. By identifying your primary field
of interest and the skills required to excel, you can then be
intentional about learning, practicing, and reflecting on those
skills. Over time, you will develop the expertise necessary to be an
excellent performer.

Service
Finally, high performers care deeply about the positive impact
they will make for others, and for their broader community. They
seek to clarify whom they are serving and what those people need,
in order to deliver their contributions “with heart and elegance.”

“What will provide the most value to those you serve? This is a
question high performers obsess about.”
Brendon advises us to think about high performance in service as
a search for relevance, differentiation, and excellence.

“Relevance has to do with eliminating things that don’t matter…

They ask, ‘What matters now, and how can I deliver it?’

“Differentiation allows high performers to look at their

industry, their career, and even their relationships for what
makes them unique. They want to stand out for why they are,
and to add more value than others do.

“Excellence comes from an internal standard that asks, ‘How

can I deliver beyond what’s expected?’”

He notes that under-performers tend to focus more on self over

service. They are more concerned with their own needs and
desires, rather than on what those whom they serve want.

Raise necessity
You won’t be motivated to push yourself to perform well if you
don’t believe it is absolutely necessary. Brendon therefore advises
us to consider four factors in creating performance necessity:
identity, obsession, duty, and urgency. The first two factors are
internal forces, and the second two are external forces.
Factors that drive performance necessity (source: High Performance Habits by Brendon
Burchard)

Identity (personal standards of excellence)

“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their

commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of
endeavor.” — Vince Lombardi

High performers hold themselves to a high standard, and monitor

their own behavior and performance goals often. They ask
themselves questions like, “Did I perform with excellence today?
Did I live up to my values and expectations for giving my best and
doing a good job?” They tie their identity to doing a good job, and
they set challenging goals for themselves.

Obsession with understanding and mastering a

topic

“To have long-term success as a coach or in any position of

leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way.” — Pat Riley

The first internal force to raising necessity is around identity,

developing an internal standard for excellence. The second force is
around obsession.

“High performers are deeply curious people. In fact, their

curiosity for understanding and mastering their primary field of
interest is one of the hallmarks of their success… They feel a high
internal drive to focus on their field of interest over the long term
and build deep competence… People who become world-class at
anything focus longer and harder on their craft.”

Social duty, obligation, and purpose

In addition to the internal forces that raise necessity, there are two
external ones as well. The first of these is social duty, obligation,
and purpose.

“High performers often feel the necessity to perform well out of a

sense of duty to someone or something beyond themselves.
Someone is counting on them, or they’re trying to fulfill a promise
or responsibility.”

“When you feel the drive to serve others, you sustain solid
performance longer.”

High performers often ask themselves, “Who needs me right

now?” It could be your family, your teammates, your customers.
These high performers double down on their efforts to help others
out of a sense of duty, which leads to the excellent performance. As
an example, often when soldiers are asked why they performed
heroic acts of bravery, they say it was because their comrades were
depending on them and they did not want to let them down.

Real deadlines
High performers have a sense of urgency. They use real deadlines
as a motivational tool for themselves to increase their
performance.
“Nothing motivates action like a hard deadline… What is a ‘real’
deadline? It’s a date that matters because, if it isn’t met, real
negative consequences happen.”

Real deadlines can come from a number of things — internal or

external events, public commitments, and contractual obligations
can all create real deadlines. High performers often use
commitments — to their teams, to their managers, to their
customers — as a lever to create real deadlines. In high-stakes
negotiations, the presence of a deadline for a response from the
counter-party creates urgency and motivates action.

Demonstrate courage
The final habit that I will discuss in this post is about
demonstrating courage. Why is courage important for high
performance? Because it motivates you to take bold action in the
face or risk or even fear. And that bold action is often what drives
great impact and high performance.

“Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the

opportunity to change things for the better.” — Harry S. Truman

What do we mean by courage?

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of

fear.” — Mark Twain

As Brendon writes:

“Courage is not fearlessness; it is taking action and persisting

despite that fear… The more actions you take facing fear,
expressing yourself, and helping others, the easier and less
stressful these actions become… I think of courage as taking
determined action to serve an authentic, noble, or life-enhancing
goal, in the face of risk, fear, adversity, or opposition.”

In order to demonstrate courage, Brendon advises us to do a few

things.

1. Honor the struggle. Don’t get frustrated or overwhelmed by

opposition, inertia, or challenges that make you struggle. Meet
those struggles with poise, dignity, and determination. “No one
who achieved greatness avoided struggle. They met it, engaged
with it. They knew that it was necessary, because they knew
that real challenge and hardship pushed them, extended their
capabilities, made them rise… [Tell yourself:] The struggle I’m
now facing is necessary, and it’s summoning me to show up, be
strong, and use it to forge a better future for myself and my
loved ones.”
2. Share your truth and your ambitions. Each day, reveal to
others what you’re really thinking and what you really want in
life. You will start believing more in yourself by repeating your
objective, deepening your own resolve to overcome obstacles in
the pursuit of your goal. In the process, you may also find
kindred spirits and collaborative supporters who share your
dreams and goals.
3. Find someone to fight for. Remember who depends on you,
and you will find the will and the courage to fight for them. “We
will do more for others than for ourselves. And in doing
something for others, we find our reason for courage, and our
cause for focus and excellence.”
In High Performing Habits, author Brendon Burchard synthesizes
academic and original research in psychology and performance in
order to develop the HP6 model. To recap, the HP6 model consists
of six habits — three personal and three social:

1. Seek clarity: know who you are, what you want, and whom
you serve.
2. Generate energy: build up your reservoirs of energy to
maintain focus and effort.
3. Raise necessity: focus on the reasons why high performance
is absolutely essential.
4. Increase productivity: perform the highest-leverage actions
and ignore distractions.
5. Develop influence: build trust and influence with others to
gain their support.
6. Demonstrate courage: advocate for your ideas, take bold
actions, and stand up for yourself and others.

In this post, I have gone deeper into three of the habits: seek
clarity, raise necessity, and demonstrate courage. Seeking clarity
involves exploring the 4 S’s (self, social, skills, service) to become
intentional about what you want, how you want to act towards
others, and how to be the most valuable to those whom you serve.
Raising necessity requires you to focus on identity (what are your
values and standards of excellence), obsession, duty, and
deadlines. And finally, demonstrating courage involves honoring
the struggle, sharing your truth and ambitions, and finding
someone to fight for.

One common thread that I noticed throughout the book is the idea
of serving others, feeling a sense of duty towards others, and
fighting for others. The highest performers are much more others-
focused than self-focused. Brendon observed that most people are
willing to do more for others than they are willing to do even for
themselves. By focusing on others, high performers find the
motivation to dream, the strength to persevere, and the courage to
act.

Why do some people succeed more quickly than others, and maintain that
success over the course of decades? And out of that extremely small
subset of people, why do some of them seem miserable, while others live
happy lives?

Success and happiness: That's the combination we all hope to achieve. But
the problem is, how do we become more successful and feel more fulfilled?

Brendon Burchard has spent 20 years answering that question, and in High
Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way, he
provides the answers.

Brendon is the author of best-selling books like The Motivation

Manifesto and The Millionaire Messenger, is a pioneer in online education
(his videos have been viewed more than 100 million times, and more than
one million people have taken his online courses), is a Top 100 most
followed public figure on Facebook, and is the CEO of High Performance
Institute.

Brendon's findings in High Performance Habits are based on extensive

research, but, more important, he lays out practical, real-world ways you
can adopt the six habits to use in your professional and personal lives.

I read an advance copy, and I promise it's one of the best books you'll read
this year. So I spoke with Brendon to get a brief overview, in his words, of
the six habits.
Here we go:

1. Seek clarity.

High performers don't necessarily get clarity. Instead, they seek it more
often than other people -- so they tend to find it and stay on their true path.

For example, successful people don't wait until New Year's to perform a
self-evaluation and decide what changes they want to make.

I've worked with Oprah, and she starts every meeting by saying, "What is
our intention for this meeting? What's important? What matters?"

High performers constantly seek clarity. That makes them better at sifting
out distractions because they constantly refocus on what is important.

A simple approach to seeking clarity is to focus on four things: self, skills,

social, and service. How do you want to describe your ideal self? How do
you want to behave socially?What skills do you want to develop and
demonstrate? What service do you want to provide?

Asking -- and answering -- those questions more often than other people
will definitely give you an edge.

2. Generate energy.

Our research shows, unsurprisingly, that most people lose energy

throughout the day. By 2 or 3 p.m. they're starting to flag, and many finish
the day feeling wiped out.

But some people -- some extremely busy and productive people --

aren't wiped out.

What we found is that most people bleed out energy and intention in the
transitions between tasks, between meetings, etc.
High performers have mastered their transitions. They're more likely to take
a quick break, to close their eyes, to meditate -- to give themselves a short
psychological break that releases their tension and focus from one activity
so they are primed to take on the next.

They recharge themselves throughout the day, between activities -- it's as if

they generate energy throughout the day instead of losing it.

If you want to feel more energized and creative and be more effective at
work -- and leave work with plenty of "oomph" to enjoy your personal life --
give your mind and body a break every 45 to 60 minutes. While that can
sometimes be tough to do, whenever possible, plan your day in those
chunks.

3. Raise necessity.

Before every major activity, high performers raise the psychological

necessity regarding why it is important for them to perform well.

I was working with an Olympic gold medal sprinter. One day I said, "When
you're lined up against all these other sprinters, and the difference in
winning and losing is hundredths of a second, how do you know who is
going to win?"

He said, "I would put my money on the person who says, 'I'm going to do
this for my mom.'"

I've had similar conversations hundreds of times with the top 15 percent of
high performers, and they all tell themselves why it's important for them to
succeed at whatever they do that day. They all associate a deep sense of
identity with performing with excellence. They don't just find meaning --
performing with excellence is so critical to their identity that it's almost like
food and water.
Most people are scared to attach their identity to their performance. High
performers are willing to put themselves out there and place their identities
on the line. That's why we call it raising necessity: It's necessary for them to
perform with excellence.

It's not a passion, it's not a preference, it's a necessity.

To raise necessity, always know whom you're doing it for. Ask yourself, out
loud, "Who needs me to be on my A game right now?" When I sit down at
the computer, I literally say, "Who needs me on my A game right now?"
and it brings my focus back.

It could be your family, your team, your peers, your customers, your end
users -- whomever it is that you have to perform well for. Speak your "why"
to yourself, out loud.

To be a high performer, your job is to prime your mental ability to perform

an activity well. To do that, you have to raise the necessity so you enter
with a high level of intention, so you perform with excellence.

4. Increase productivity.

High performers increase the outputs that matter. When Jobs came back to
Apple, he stripped down the product line. Then he focused on increasing
the quality of the products that remained.

That's what we all have to do: The main thing is to keep the main thing the
main thing.

High performers are also more productive because they see five steps
ahead, and align themselves to achieve each of those things.

That finding changed the way I look at almost every project I start. What
are the five moves? What are the five major needle-moving moves that will
get me there -- and what are not the major moves, so I know the
distractions to avoid? What key skills do I have to develop to accomplish
those moves?

For example, before I started developing online courses I didn't know

anything about video. Technology wasn't a strength, speaking wasn't a
strength, but I identified those skills as necessary for my long-term
success, and I obsessively worked to develop them.

What's interesting is that many high performers didn't know they were
thinking in five moves; they did it unconsciously. They didn't realize they
consistently identified the absolute must-have skills for long-term success
and became obsessed about gaining those skills. They just did it.

But you know, and now you can.

5. Develop influence.

High performers develop influence by teaching people how to think and

challenging them to grow.

Teach people how to think and you change their lives. High performers say
things like, "Think of it this way" or "What if we approached it this way?" or
"What do you think about this?" Over time, they train the people around
them how to think -- because when you impact someone else's thoughts in
a positive way, you have influence.

But that's not all they do. Think of an influential person in your life. Maybe a
parent, a caregiver, a teacher -- choose someone who impacted you. They
taught you how to think about yourself, or about others, or about the world,
and they also challenged you to grow.

Why was this person so influential? They inspired you. How? They pushed
you. How did they push you? They always told you to be your best.
High performers challenge the people they care about to grow. That's what
makes the most difference where influence is concerned.

6. Demonstrate courage.

We did a tremendous amount of research on courage, and we found that in

the face of risk, hardship, judgment, the unknown, or even fear, high
performers tend to do a couple of things.

First, they speak up for themselves. They share their truth and ambitions
more often than other people do. They also speak up for other people more
often than others do. In short, high performers are willing to share the truth
about themselves.

Just as important, they "honor the struggle." They know struggling is a

natural part of the process. That makes them more courageous, because
they enter into a pursuit knowing it will be hard. They can handle the
struggle because they expect it.

Sometimes they use different language to describe the phenomena. Some

say they are "patient through the process." Others say they're "OK with
other people doubting or judging them." But each of them has an almost
reverence for the hardship: They honor the struggle as necessary to forge
the kind of character that will help them deserve the outcome they desire.

Many people complain about the struggle. High performers don't. They're
fine being in the weeds, getting muddy. They know that showing up, even
when they're tired, will help make them the best.

Knowing that the process will be hard -- not just accepting that it will be
hard but appreciating that working through the tough times is necessary for
success -- makes them less afraid.
High performers have also identified someone to fight for. Early on, I
assumed courage would come from, say, a mission to change the world --
from a broad-stroke purpose or meaning.

That's not the case. Courage comes from wanting to serve one person or
one unit: wife, husband, family, a small group of people. The will to work
through uncertainty or fear comes from wanting to serve someone who
needs help.

If you want the courage to stay the course, to overcome obstacles, to honor
the struggle, don't focus on changing the world. Decide who you're doing it
for, and then work hard for them.

That will give you all the courage you need.