Whether it be in business, sport or life in general, there are 3 behaviours which all High Performers exhibit. These are clarity, intention and consistency.
Be it building a business into a global empire, winning gold medals or just living a genuinely happy and fulfilling life, all high performers have absolute clarity about where they are going, act intentionally and consistently in their habits and behaviours.
Clarity
High Performers not only have a very clear vision of where they want to be in 6 months, 1 year or 3 years from now, they have a plan in place to achieve it. They also understand at a very deep level what they will need, in terms of, skills, behaviours and resources in order to achieve their desired goals. The thing is they develop a plan and then execute it on a daily basis. They have thought out and planned for most of the details yet are flexible enough to adjust along the way when an obstacle presents itself. The key is to get very specific about what you want to achieve and how to go about it. Being too vague will scupper most plans. High Performers are very clear and specific about what they want to achieve.
Intention
All High Performers act intentionally on a daily basis. Whether it is in the boardroom or on the football pitch, the idea is to be fully immersed in the subject at hand. To illustrate this, when was the last time, before walking into a meeting, you asked yourself what is the intention of this meeting and what is it that we are hoping to get out of it. Too often, we wander through life on autopilot without giving much thought to what we are currently doing. When Roger Federer goes out to practice, he doesn’t just hit tennis balls all day long. There is a specific intention for every practice, every shot. High Performers understand this and therefore act intentionally more so than most people. They are fully immersed in what they are doing because it will take them one step closer to what they want to achieve.
Consistency
Lastly, High Performers are relentlessly consistent. Too often nowadays people give up too early, they hit some type of obstacle early on and tell themselves they can’t do it. It took Jeff Bezos nearly 15 years to achieve the success he now has with Amazon, Roger Federer spent years honing his craft and is now a 20 time Grand Slam Champion. They didn’t give up when things got difficult. They worked each day, consistently to get them to where they are now. We live in a world of instant gratification, we want everything to happen straight away for us. High Performers understand real greatness takes time and relentless perseverance. Small wins on a daily basis, day after day, week after week until one day it falls into place.
The thing about High Performance is that it does not belong to an exclusive club of people, anyone can achieve it, you just have to be willing to put in the time and do the best you can with what you have right now. Start by creating a plan of where you want to be or want to achieve in the next 6 months. Then start taking actions on a daily basis that will get you closer to achieving that goal. Be present in what you do, whether it is dinner with your partner or a meeting at work, put away all distractions and really engage with the subject and people you’re with. Lastly, it is not about big wins but rather those small achievements on a regular basis that really count and move the needle towards High Performance.