There are some things that set high performers apart from high achievers. They are the things that allow them to become leaders in their fields. They are the things that keep the high performer moving forward when the high achievers have to hit the eject button.
Here they are:
1) Always looking for growth
When you’re always looking for growth, you see opportunities to learn where other people see things that intimidate them, make them fearful, or cause them to second guess themselves. I saw a clip that described this so perfectly the other day… The basis was that a woman giving some sort of speech to a group said that the one thing she appreciated about her Dad the most was that every single day he would ask her “What did you fail at today?”. She continued to say that he would actually be disappointed if she had nothing to share. She explained how this completely redefined what failure meant to her; it was about learning and nothing more. She was excited to fail at something because it then showed her all of the possibilities and opportunities for growth. When you learn to see failure as nothing more than an opportunity to improve and get better, there’s nothing to be afraid of and everything to be excited about.
2) Self Care
There are plenty of ways to include self-care in your day…. and there is no right or wrong way to do it! But, one of the essentials of having great self-care habits is having boundaries. High performers know when to push themselves when to go one more rep when to go that extra mile. They also know how to say NO. They know when to take a step back, recover, reflect, and relax. If you’re not taking care of yourself (mentally and physically) you’ll find that your endurance and your ability to persevere drops dramatically.
3) Always have a game plan
I’m not saying that you need to plan every single moment of your life. But, for the things that are important, the things that are deeply valued, high performers have a rock-solid strategy for getting there. This means that they know what the end result is and then they break it down into smaller, bite-sized pieces. They use their roadmap to both validate their progress as well as see where things need continued improvement.
Are you using these strategies every day? If not, how could you start to implement them?
-Coach Lauren
