Book Review: “High Performance Habits” by Brendon Burchard

High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard is one of the greatest self-development books I’ve read! 

I highly recommend this book for anyone who is looking to achieve greater levels of success, growth, happiness, health, energy, and life satisfaction.

This book was much better than I expected.

To be totally honest, I initially held back on buying the book when it first came out in 2017 because the title, High Performance Habits, sounded a bit generic to me. 

I’ve always been a fan of Brendon’s.

But I hesitated because I thought Brendon was probably going to cover a lot of tried and true topics that other motivational authors had already written about over and over in other self-development books.

I couldn’t have been more wrong!

In High Performance Habits, Brendon covers and explains a lot of outside-the-box ideas that I haven’t seen discussed in many other books.

The information isn’t just outside-the-box, it’s extremely helpful. 

Based on research that Brendon and his team did with tens of thousands of people around the world, he illuminates 6 key habits that allow high performers to achieve super-success and high levels of happiness at the same time.

This book isn’t just designed to help you become successful.

It’s about becoming happy AND successful—becoming phenomenal at what you do, while maintaining your happiness and loving your life the whole way through. 

Now that’s a way of life I can get behind. 

So what are these 6 habits? 

The 6 High Performance Habits

One of the worst and most pervasive problems in the United States and around the world is confusion, a lack of clarity.

As simple and straightforward as it sounds, getting clarity and getting intentional about who you are and what you want out of life will be one of the most powerful shifts that ever takes place in your entire life. 

That’s why the first High Performance Habit is Seek Clarity. 

It is so important to seek and get clarity on who you are, what you want for your life, what your goals are, who you want to be, what skills you want to gain or master, what your values are, what’s meaningful to you, how you want to interact with others, and how you want to make others feel.

Get clear and intentional about every single category of your life!

Other authors have said this before.

But this section is special because it walks you through all of the many categories of life where you should be seeking to gain clarity. 

The more specific you can be about what you want, the better.

It’s also important to set deadlines. 

Clarity will increase your happiness, confidence, self-esteem, assertiveness, performance, and productivity.

On the flipside, confusion about what you actually want will sabotage your health, relationships, happiness, and growth. 

In what areas of your life, can you gain better clarity?

The second High Performance Habit is Generate Energy! 

High energy equates to high performance. 

The biggest change-makers, innovators of the world have tons of mental, physical, and emotional energy.

They’ve got so much passion and vitality. 

All you have to do is just spend a little time with any person who is at the top of their field or at the top of their game.

And one of the first things you will notice is their energy.

They just have more of it than the rest of the pack.

That is what separates them.

It’s one of the most important secrets of the world’s highest performers.

On the flip side, low energy will hurt your happiness, confidence, influence over others, health, and well-being. 

So what are you doing on a daily basis to consistently generate huge amounts of energy within yourself? 

Brendon walks the readers through practices like meditation, yoga, exercise, and healthy nutrition that can help you get your energy to peak levels. 

The third High Performance Habit is one of the more outside-the-box ones: Raise Necessity. 

Raising Necessity is a mentality and a way of life that I instinctively already understood before I read the book.

But Brendon explains this very clearly here in a way that I haven’t seen in other books. 

High performers Raise Necessity.

They succeed not just because they want to, but because they have to.

High performers make success a MUST, not just an option.

They feel a sense of duty, obligation, responsibility, urgency, and necessity towards their work and their goals.

In order to perform at a high level and become one of the greats, to become a legend in your field, you must feel that it is absolutely necessary for you to excel. 

Low performers hate necessity.

They think it is painful and stressful.

High performers on the other hand, love, understand, and thrive on that obligation.  

Raising Necessity isn’t the easiest thing to do, if you haven’t already adopted that mentality already.

So Brendon explains 4 different ways for us to make success a MUST, not an option. 

You can make success a must by tying excellence to your identity, to who you are; developing a strong obsession with your craft; developing a powerful sense of obligation to someone or to a group of people beyond yourself who need you to succeed; and using deadlines with real consequences to create urgency. 

Out of everything in this book, Raising Necessity really hit home and resonated with me the most.

Because I’ve always felt that the majority of people struggle to move forward with their dreams because they haven’t made their goals a must yet. 

There is so much truth to this. 

When you make your dreams a must, as opposed to an option, you will make the sacrifices, put in the dedication, and go the extra mile to make it happen.

And you will win in the long run. 

What are you going to do today to make success a MUST for you, as opposed to an option?

The fourth High Performance Habit is Increase Productivity. 

Increasing Productivity as a means for achieving success may seem straightforward.

But the actual tips and strategies that Brendon mentions here are super helpful and outside the box. 

According to their research, Brendon’s team noticed that high performers are actually more happy, less stressed, and MORE productive than others.

That means the world’s highest performers are somehow managing to joyfully get more done while feeling less stressed about their work at the same time.  

How is that possible?

The answer is Prolific High Quality Output. 

To be legendary, you need to figure out what it takes to produce high quality work.

Learn the priorities in the creation, quality, and frequency of that output.

And then just put out as much high quality work as possible! 

You have to focus on the highest priorities and the highest quality activities.

Brendon recommends spending 60% of your workweek on your High Quality Output.

And then spend 40% of your time on other work. 

This simple hack can get you to the next level.

Because 40 hours a week spent on high quality work is much better than spending 60 or 80 hours per week on low quality work that doesn’t move the needle on your progress or help you move forward. 

Less work.

Better results.

Less stress.

More happiness. 

Brendon also recommends getting in touch with legends in your field who are already really successful.

Then ask them what the 5 major moves to their success were.

Then focus on following through with those same 5 moves in your own career. 

The fifth High Performance Habit is Develop Influence.

Brendon explains that your ability to understand and influence people is a HUGE predictor of how well you do in life.

Influence over others can actually reduce your stress, increase your self-belief, boost happiness, improve your success, and help your reputation. 

Brendon defines influence as your ability to shape other peoples’ beliefs and behaviors as you desire, to get people to believe in you and your ideas, buy from you, and follow you.

One simple, but super-powerful way to gain more influence over others is to just ASK people for what you want and what you need.

High performers are in the habit of asking for what they want. 

If you never ask, you’ll never get an answer! 

These are some other ways that you can gain influence: Give generously to others without expectation.

Teach people how to think.

Challenge people to grow, develop their character, and contribute to others.

And become a role model of the actions and qualities that you want others to embody. 

And the last, but definitely not least, High Performance Habit is Demonstrate Courage. 

There is a strong correlation between massive success and courage. 

Courage means taking action in spite of fear, danger, pain, bad consequences, and high stakes.

High performers are in the habit of taking courageous action much more often than others do. They are risk-takers!

And they have a bias towards action, regardless of fear, danger, or high stakes. 

If you’re looking to attain more results in your life, one of the simplest and most powerful steps you can take is be brave!

Take that action in spite of the possibility for negative consequences and repercussions. 

Your courage will lead you to the next level!

In what categories of life are you looking to demonstrate more courage and take more risks this year?

Moving forward with more bravery could be the difference between fitting in and setting yourself apart from the pack. 

So those are Brendon Burchard’s 6 High Performance Habits—the daily practices that allow the world’s highest performers to enjoy more happiness and create more success than the grand majority. 

High Performance Habits is an excellent read, that I recommend.

Brendon touches on some ideas like Raising Necessity that I have never seen discussed in such a powerful way before.

And even when he did cover some more traditional ideas like Increasing Productivity or Developing Influence, he did so in a way that was unusual, very informational, and very helpful. 

What is your favorite High Performance Habit?

Did any of these ideas resonate with you more than the others?

Have you seen any success with these habits already? 

Let us know in the comments.

And keep in mind, I have not covered all of the information from this awesome book here.

There are full chapters of information that I did not review. 

So to read the full book and learn more about becoming a high performer, make sure to buy yourself a copy High Performance Habits and dive in!

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About Bo Muchoki

Bo Muchoki is a motivational content creator, writer, blogger, Youtuber, conscious rapper, and more.

He lives in the Washington D.C area.

He runs a blog at WhateverItTakesMotivation.com.

And he is the author of a forthcoming guidebook about sobriety from alcohol. 

Follow Bo on Instagram and Twitter at @BoMuchoki.