The Determinant of High Performance

Are you a high performer?

Do you know any low performers?

Do you know what the main difference is between the two?

The only difference between the high performers and the low performers is their habits.

High performing, successful, happy men and women are those who have taken the time and disciplined themselves to develop the habits that lead them onward and upward in every area of their lives. Unsuccessful, unhappy people, on the other hand, are those who have not yet developed those habits.

The good news is that all habits have been learned, and are therefore learnable.

You can learn whatever habits and behaviors you consider desirable and necessary.

The only limits are the limits your place on yourself.

The question is always, “How badly do you want it?”

If you are willing to work on yourself long enough and hard enough, you can form and shape yourself into the kind of excellent person that you are designed to be. No matter what you have done or not done in the past, at any time, you can draw a line under your previous life and make the decision that your future is going to be different.

You can begin thinking different thoughts.
Making different choices and decisions.
Taking different actions.
Developing different habits that will lead you inevitably to the successes that are possible for you.

Abraham Maslow, the psychologist, once wrote, “The ultimate end of human life is to become everything you are capable of becoming.” Your purpose should be to fulfill your potential as a human being and to accomplish every goal that you can possibly set for yourself. Your aim should be to get the very most out of yourself in every area of your life.

There are some people who accomplish an extraordinary amount with their lives, as opposed to the great majority who accomplish very little. Peak performers…

Seem to earn more money.
Have better families, friends and relationships.
Enjoy higher levels of health and energy.
Achieve much higher levels of success, esteem and prestige in their fields.
Live longer, happier lives than the average.

This should be your goal as well.

Think Long Term

The greater clarity that you have regarding your long-term goals, the better and more accurate decisions you will make in the short-term to assure that you achieve your goals on schedule.

You then assess your current situation, and determine how much you are worth today. You draw a line from where you are today to where you want to be at a certain date in the future. You then plan out a strategy or road map of exactly how you are going to get to your goal of financial independence in the time that you have allotted.

The rule is this: be clear about the goal but be flexible about the process. Be open to the fact that a thousand things will change on the road to your long-term goal.

As long as your goal is clear, you can continue to remain flexible and open minded. You can reevaluate and try different things. You can accept feedback and self-correct.

Your Highest and Best Use of Time

Perhaps the most important habit you can develop in personal management is the habit of asking, “What is the most valuable use of my time, right now?”

In its simplest terms, people succeed because they develop the habit of consistently working on the one thing that can give them the highest rate of return on energy, and life, out of all the things they could possibly be doing at the moment. People fail because they are unable or unwilling to determine their true priorities, or they are not then disciplined enough to work on their key tasks exclusively until they are complete.