Introduction: Why Some People Succeed Where Others Stall
Most people set goals, but few see them through. The gap between ambition and achievement isn’t talent or luck — it’s habits. High performance habits are the systems that drive consistent success. They are the difference between executives who operate at a world-class level and those who get stuck in busyness.
The best part? These habits aren’t exclusive to elite athletes or billion-dollar CEOs — they can be learned by anyone.
So, what exactly are high performance habits? And how can you apply them to your own life? Let’s look at 10 habits shared by extraordinary performers, supported by both my own coaching experience and high-quality research.
What Are High Performance Habits?
High performance habits are repeatable behaviors that enable long-term achievement and build resilience. They go beyond productivity hacks — think of them as systems for sustained excellence. Brendon Burchard popularized the term with his book, High Performance Habits, where he laid out six key behaviors that elevate you into an elusive club.
In this blog post, I expand the conversation with my own set of 10 habits that are drawn from my work with CEOs and leaders worldwide.
Use this as your operating system to excel at whatever you do — underpinned by practical routines that can transform how you work, lead, and even live.
The 10 High Performance Habits
Be Productive, Not Busy
Busyness simply creates an illusion of progress. But real productivity isn’t defined by how much you work; rather it is defined by the results you deliver. High performers operate with deep focus, avoiding shallow multitasking.
According to Asana’s Anatomy of Work Index, knowledge workers spend 60% of their time on “work about work” — that means checking emails, incessantly chasing updates, and attending unnecessary meetings. If you’re only left with 40% of your time to produce real, value-driving output, that doesn’t paint a very promising picture, as you can imagine.
This kind of scattered approach is a performance killer. When your attention is fractured across endless small tasks, you never create true momentum. You can only cultivate high performance habits when you start protecting your focus.
Tip: Protect time for deep, distraction-free work. Block at least 90 minutes each day, as a calendar appointment with yourself, to focus on cognitively demanding tasks that move the needle. And treat this time as sacred — that means no emails, no notifications, no multitasking. Just pure, undivided attention on whatever task you’ve assigned that time block to.
Commit to Lifelong Learning
Extraordinary performers and leaders are also lifelong learners. Whether it’s through reading, mentorship, or courses, they use learning as fuel for growth.
Research by McKinsey & Company shows that organizations that encourage continuous learning are more resilient and adaptable. Such companies embed continuous learning into their culture and, as a result, are better equipped to navigate disruption and sustain excellence.
I often emphasize that learning doesn’t always have to come from formal, structured programs. Sometimes it comes from reading a book. Sometimes, it can happen through a conversation that you have with someone. And at other times, it can be from a mistake (failures and missteps usually reveal lessons if you look at them closely enough).
The key is to remain open and to schedule time for deliberate learning.
Tip: Schedule time daily to learn — read, listen to a podcast, or connect with mentors. Capture key insights and connect them back to your goals so they don’t stay abstract.
Focus on What Matters Most
High performers focus on a few priorities that deliver disproportionate results. This isn’t about doing more; it’s about choosing better. Ask yourself: Which three actions this week, if executed, would most move the needle? The discipline of ruthless and relentless prioritization is what separates high performance from wasted effort.
I often reference the 80/20 Rule to drive home this point. According to the rule, 20% of your actions will deliver 80% of results. Your job is to identify that 20%. If you’re not sure of where to begin, this infographic that I created to sum up the essence of the 80/20 Rule could be of help:
Most people default to tackling the easy or urgent. High performance habits demand you to have the courage to prioritize the vital few while saying ‘no’ to the rest.
Tip: Each Monday, identify your “critical three” tasks for the week. Use them as anchors to avoid being pulled into the noise.
Sacrifice Your Old Self
What got you here won’t get you there. High performers shed limiting beliefs and old behaviors to step into their future (optimized) selves.
To do this, I recommend a simple exercise: write down your “current self” and your “future self”. What are the beliefs underpinning your current self? What are the limitations? What are the fears?
Then, describe your new self. This could be the version of you in five to 10 years from now. How does that version of you look and behave? How is it different from your current self?
You are the author of your own life. And if you want to take it in the desired direction, you need to sacrifice that old self to create room for the new self to blossom. The act of writing down who you want to be creates clarity and accountability.
Research on neuroplasticity shows that our brains can rewire when we deliberately practice new patterns. For example, a 2004 study published in Nature (Draganski, et al.) demonstrated that adults who learned to juggle developed increased gray matter in brain regions linked to visual and motor activity — evidence that practice biologically rewires the brain. But that requires creating the space to let go of the old story and step into the new one.
Tip: This week, identify one habit that’s holding you back and one new habit that aligns with your future self. Replace the former with the latter.
Aim to Be Better, Daily
I use what I like to call “champion proofs”— small, daily actions that demonstrate you operating at your best in the areas of life that matter most (for me, those are health, wealth/work, and relationships). Over time, these help shape identity shifts. High performance habits are less about radical change and more about consistent alignment with your best self through small, simple daily actions.
For example, completing a workout that your brain is telling you to resist proves that you are showing up as your best self on the health front. Finishing a challenging project at work is evidence of you at your best, most focused version at work. And making time for a loved one, even if it’s something as simple as making a phone call, shows your commitment to operating at your best on the relationships front.
Your actions each day evidence you at your best.
Tip: Choose one action that you will perform each day that proves you showed up as your best self in the areas of life that are most important to you. At the end of each day, review to check if you lived up to that standard.
Make Quick Decisions
Speed has a compounding effect. McKinsey research found that executives spend nearly 40% of their time making decisions, and 60% felt that the time spent making decisions was being spent poorly.
Organizations that delay decisions stall progress and lose momentum. On the contrary, those that made decisions that were both quick and high quality significantly outperformed their peers.
It’s important to clarify here that speed doesn’t mean recklessness. It means avoiding paralysis by analysis. It means empowering teams to decide rather than hoarding every decision. And it means accepting that some choices will be imperfect but, more often than not, reversible.
Finding that balance between speed and quality requires structure. The four frameworks in the graphic below can help provide that structure.
Tip: Apply the “good enough” rule. If you have sufficient information to make a call, act. Create guardrails so teams can decide quickly within their remit.
Lead with Courage
Courage is the gateway to potential. Without it, fear keeps leaders small. Research into leadership has consistently shown that vulnerability and authenticity are critical for building trust and psychological safety — both cornerstones of high-performing teams. Courageous leaders step into discomfort to expand the realm of what’s possible.
There is a great Native American parable to highlight this concept. The story goes that a chief is explaining to a young warrior that in his mind, there are two wolves constantly battling each other. One is the fear wolf and the other is the courage wolf. The young boy asks the chief, “Well, which one wins?” And the wise chief says, “Well, whichever one you feed the most.”
So, ask yourself: Are you feeding the fear wolf more often or are you feeding the courage wolf more often? High performance habits require deliberately feeding the courage wolf. And that happens by speaking up when it’s risky, making bold moves, and leaning into hard conversations.
Tip: Identify one fear that’s holding you back this week. Reframe it as an opportunity and take a bold step forward.
Treat Greatness as a Journey, not as a Destination
High performance habits don’t die with one-off achievements. Michael Jordan didn’t stop after winning his first NBA championship — he immediately got to work and began preparing for his second title. And then the third and the fourth and so on. Greatness isn’t the finish line. It’s a daily pursuit. Continuous. Relentless.
Deci and Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory demonstrates that intrinsic motivation — finding joy in the process itself — sustains excellence far longer than reliance on external rewards. In their 2000 research paper, the authors found that behaviors driven by autonomy and mastery lead to greater persistence, performance, and well-being over time.
I often emphasize that milestones are fleeting. If you attach your identity to a trophy, you’ll feel empty the next day. But if you fall in love with the process of mastery itself, your motivation becomes renewable.
Tip: After each milestone that you achieve, determine the next one to unlock. Train yourself to love the climb as much as the summit.
Reframe Stress
Stress is not the enemy — your perception of it is.
Stanford research on stress mindset shows that people who view stress as an enhancing agent rather than as a debilitating one responded better to stressors, were more physiologically adaptive under pressure, and were more open to feedback — a key quality of high performers.
Think of how you build muscle at the gym. By stressing it. How do you develop immunity? By exposing your immune system to germs. Our bodies already have this system of treating stress as an enhancer wired into it. We just need to transport that same system into our minds.
In the ‘gym of life’, each stressor is a rep. Complete the rep and you come out of the process stronger. By viewing stress as a form of training, high performers turn challenges into opportunities for growth.
Tip: When faced with adversity, pause and ask: How would the best version of myself respond to this?
Rejuvenate and Recover
Recovery is part of the work.
In a Harvard survey of more than 180 leaders, 43% said they don’t get enough sleep at least four nights a week. This sleep deficiency impairs critical leadership behaviors.
Similarly, McKinsey reports that insufficient sleep and recovery can erode executive performance and that sleep awareness programs can, in fact, create better leaders.
Without recovery, performance breaks down. To ensure I give myself enough time to recharge, I practice a hard stop to my workday. At 6:30pm every evening, I have an alarm go off. And when that happens, I know it’s time to shut down and transition into home life.
Just as race cars need to make pit stops so the wheels don’t come off, humans need to recover to stay on course.
Tip: Work in focused sprints of 50 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of recovery. Set a clear end to your day to protect rest and family time.
Bringing It All Together
These 10 high performance habits form a system that can help you achieve extraordinary success:
- Be productive, not busy.
- Commit to lifelong learning.
- Focus on what matters most.
- Sacrifice your old self.
- Aim to be better, daily.
- Make quick decisions.
- Lead with courage.
- Treat greatness as a journey, not as a destination.
- Reframe stress.
- Rejuvenate and recover.
High performance isn’t about working harder; it’s about working smarter, with clarity, courage, and consistency. Adopt these habits and you’ll close the gap between where you are today and the extraordinary results that you’re capable of achieving.
If you’re a Founder or CEO who’s looking to level up, check out the Founder & CEO Accelerator, where we help leaders operationalize these high performance habits. The frameworks taught there will help you lead with focus, speed, and resilience.
Greatness isn’t reserved for the elite few — it’s accessible to anyone who builds the habits that enable and sustain it.
Explore More:
The Secret to Goal-Setting Success: What Top CEOs Do Differently
From KPIs to OKRs: Weekly Operating Rhythms That Fuel Company Growth
How Top CEOs Execute Strategic Planning: Tools You Can Use Too
The Ultimate Guide to CEO Coaching: What Every Leader Needs to Know
