High Performance Habits By Brendon Burchard - Book Review
TLDR: Skip the intro to the high-performance book. On second thought, skip the second section “Beyond Natural” as well because the main thing is to keep your main thing, the main thing.
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“Why, are you telling me what you’re going to tell me?! Just spit it out already!”
My second attempt at the book by Brendon Burchard, High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way, is not going better than the first.
Don’t get me wrong, I found gems in the intro and the section entitled, “Beyond Natural,” but I believe that it could all have been said in less than 20 minutes. Instead, the intro alone was 53 minutes.
Beyond the feeling that he was boosting up his ego with an hour and a half of showcasing how awesome he is, Brendon did give some good thoughts that other entrepreneurs can take advantage of.
Psst: if you’re up for it, get the book or audio on Amazon and support my coffee habit.
Through some life trials and an accident, Brendon realized that you have to set an intention every morning to do something that matters.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur or a “real job” kind of person, we’re often stuck in the grind of the day without purpose. We network, do client work, and tell our kids to get to bed (for the 20th time) but we’re just going through a checklist of things. There’s no meaning behind the task.
In the Intro (or the section after, honestly, I couldn’t tell the difference between the 2), Brendon explains what he knows about high performers.
High performers are essentially pretty cool and successful people.
It felt kind of like when I used to read horoscopes as a teen – pretty vague and appealing to almost anyone. Do I want to feel loved? Why, yes, how did you know?!
Here’s a quick rundown of high performers while cutting a ton of talk Brendon gave in between (you’re welcome).
They are more successful than their peers yet less stressed.
High performers love challenges and are always confident they’ll achieve their goals despite challenges.
High performers are healthier than peers.
They’re also happy.
They are admired but their ego takes a backseat to service.
They get better grades and reach higher levels of success.
High performers are more likely to hold higher positions like CEOs and Senior Executives.
They work passionately.
Happiness in what they do doesn’t correlate with pay and they feel rewarded either way.
They’re assertive.
High performers serve beyond their strengths.
They produce more quality output (not task numbers, rather value in their field).
Do you see it? It’s a horoscope.
This could literally be applied to almost any slightly educated person who got good grades in school. Then, you toss in that happiness doesn’t correlate with pay, or that they’re happier than their peers is kind of a catch-all. I’m assuming that if a high performer is being underpaid but happy, they would leave. I mean, my bills have never paid themselves.
Then, applied to the biases against gender and people of color, I’m not sure these would stick. “Assertive” isn’t a word I would want people to say about me – especially at a job. As a Latina, I’ve been told I’m just “really passionate” or have “latin fire” when it comes to [insert your topic of choice]. No, motherf*cker, you’re just underpaying me by 20% or more. But, let’s leave that pandora’s box untouched for a moment.
There is something interesting about these qualities that seem to come from a high school career handbook. They are all something many, including me, aspire to be. Hell yeah to being healthier and a CEO!
After what seemed like forever, Brendan FINALLY got to the 6 habits and for the second time trying to get through this book, I understood why my peers told me to skip them. It could literally have been 15 minutes.
High performers have mastered, according to Brendan’s findings, these 6 habits (which he and his team refer to as HP6): clarity, energy, necessity, productivity, influence, courage
Ok, now we’re getting somewhere.
The gem that I took away from all of this portion of the book?
The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing.
Now this, I can apply to my businesses and life. What’s my main thing? Other than being Scrooge McDuck and diving into a vault filled with money, it’s to be a badass example of what hard work can get you.
I believe that your main thing can be anything that excites you so much that it’s hard to fall asleep and easy to wake up. It’s the one thing that makes you gleefully drop off your kids at daycare each morning. Well, I do that either way, but I digress.
So how can we keep the main thing, the main thing?
You could add this to your daily journaling session while sipping hot organic tea from the mountains of Guatemala during sunset. Or repeat it as a mantra during your yoga sessions. Me? I’ve placed a sticky note on my monitor.
“Be a badass example of work ethic – while being paid what I’m worth.”
Sorry, Brendan, this brown Latina is too passionate and fiery to be happy with not getting paid.
Section 1 Part 1 coming up soon. You can listen along with me by getting the audio version and supporting my coffee habit.
