High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way

Only 40 pages or so into the book, but felt compelled to leave a review as so far it's proving to be both a very digestible and informative book to read.I like how the author is clear as to how he arrived at determining the habits (hint: through extensive research and studies). Plus, how he sprinkles in personal anecdotes relating directly to his coaching clients. Can alreasy see why it has received such high ratings.

This is an empirical research based book on Habits to be extraordinary as the tag line of the book states -"How Extraordinary People Become That Way". Brendon is a writer who has written 5 other books and you may have seen him on Social Media where he has a very large fan following. Do look him up if you have never come across him. His message certainly resonates with me and I love the fact that he is such a genuine Human Being.If you look him up you will see that according to Success Magazine and Oprah.com he is considered as the world's leading high performance coach. I am not saying this to big him up, but to put this information in context with the book. The very fact that Brendon is a high performance coach working with some incredible people at the pinnacle of success is where he can bring in these learnings in the book along with the research study that the book is based on (The research in the book includes 195 countries and more than 2 million people representing data points, which is now the world's largest high-performance study ever done)Through this work, he has identified several habits that successful people have and narrowed it down to 6 habits that make the biggest difference. The 6 habits that are the biggest needle movers. The book is all about these 6 habits that are divided into Personal and Social Habits. If you want to get a sense of this then use the ‘Look Inside’ feature in Amazon where you can also get to read the introduction and the first chapter of the book including the dive into the first high performance habit - Seeking clarity.The book is fairly large book with close to 400 pages, however, it has information broken down nicely into the habits and you can work through bit by bit. For me, this will be a reference book I will be looking at regularly along with other tools that Brendon recommends. Also included with the book is a free professional assessment and planner sheets which you can print and fill in as well. This is where I feel that the book adds great value.The book is not just about getting you excited about the habits by talking at you. It gets you to ask very powerful questions of yourself and helps you start the process of embodying these habits. So for example the clarity chart you can print has questions and prompts on Self, Social Skills, Service, Focus and Feeling and also getting you to define what is meaningful to you. So you could read a chapter in the book and then print and complete the chart which would allow you to set your intent and also have a plan of action. It also means it is individualised to YOU and where you are at in your life at that moment.Each chapter starts with a story of Brendon working with a client which is a very powerful way of understanding the concept and helping set context. It also really helps drive the message and can help the reader understand the effect of the lack of that particular habit and of course the power of adopting it. With each chapter having a different story this really helps bring the habit to focus. Brendon then talks through various practices that can be done to adopt and excel in that habit. Each Practice has its performance prompts with powerful questions e.g. "If I was going to get in the best shape of my life, the first three things I would stop doing would be..."Apart from the 6 habits, Brendon also talks about sustaining success (After all, High performance is about having the success over a sustained period and not just short bursts) and being aware of traps people get into (Especially when you are good at something). This information is also very useful and helps bring the book nicely to a close.As mentioned in my review headline, the book does an excellent job of bringing to light the 6 Habits that have the power to TRANSFORM you. It makes it clear that this is not a magic pill and just knowing this information does not really do anything. Actually understanding where you are on this (Through the assessment), getting a great understanding of the habits (Which the book does very well) and also applying this to your own life (the worksheets and engaging with the performance prompts and questions help tremendously) is crucial for you to then have a massive, positive and transformational shift that the book is aiming to give. Please don't use this as just a book you will read once and put back. It is an empowering tool and the more you engage with it, the more you will get from this.I highly recommend this book. As mentioned, if you are still not sure, please look at the ‘Look inside’ feature so see some of the content. Also have a look at Brendon's podcast, the Brendon Show where you can find audio excerpts of the book which I feel are also a very powerful way of engaging with the book content. I am grateful for having read this book and I will continue to use this over the coming months and years as part of my self-development journey.

Update: I was half way through when I reviewed first. I did carry on till the end. It got worse! It is classic marketing puffery. It's not bad advice but it essentially seeks to convince you that a coach is an ongoing beneficial thing..and without it, you just can't be high performing (against whose criteria) If you lack the ability to be honest with yourself and objective about who you are, this type of nonsense might help. For the vast majority, it is utter tripe. Common sense smothered in pseudo science with almost certain fictitious scenarios to back up a flimsy point. Avoid!This was super hyped as a must read. It’s a great piece of marketing that much is true. Claims of not using people you don’t know as examples and instead focusing on ‘you’ are soon forgotten as the author treads the tired trail of made up people who took his advice and soared. The advice is not bad. Very logical at times. However it could be summarised in 25 pages max! The other several hundred are feebly repetitive, going over and over the same ground… yea the author is successful, yes they have worked globally, yes with some famous people, yes it’s accredited… We get it! His greatest success was marketing the advice as the ambrosia of success. You certainly won’t be worse off for reading the book, other than a few dollars, but you will feel someone just did a magic trick and you how it it’s done and wonder why you bothered paying to watch. There are good short summaries online. Save your money and use those instead.

Great book, really getting into the psychology of our motivations as well as mapping out nicely what we all need in order to feel balanced. A very practical and down to earth book. As most of these books it could do with less repeating itself in places, but it's definitely worth a read. And of course he is selling himself hard, but not through the book (or at least that was not my impression), but later on if you sign up to his emails. Even if you are not going for absolute high performance (myself I love balance and not am not interested in being THAT busy), the book can still be applied to your own life to optimise it at your own level and gain the balance by looking at ALL areas in your life.

My only way to change towards the wanted direction was to replace habits that did not serve me with better ones.After gaining clarity of what is important to me and identifying the areas I wanted to improve, the challenging question was: what would be the best habit to achieve what I want?With Brendon's High Performance Habits I found a great tool box. You can read it from beginning to end or just go to the areas where you are facing the biggest challenge. What I love about this book is that it is a combination of personal experiences, research and practical steps. That makes it easy to read and encourages to take action. And that is also something Brendon emphasized: Without actually taking the action there is no intended change happening.

If you are serious about high performance then look no further. The journey of personal development never stops but sometimes we can all be guilty of consuming knowledge and not acting on it. Knowledge isn't power, applied knowledge is power!If applying these principles is the way to the next level then I'm ALL IN.See you guys at the top 🏔😎

Very good book, very informative, with great views from an individuals experience, and also but goals into perspective not only for business but also for social