Last week I discussed the first habit of high performers: Seeking Clarity. Today, I share with you the second habit of high performers: Generate Energy
According to Brendon Burchard, high performers learn how to generate energy which helps them perform at a lnhigh level over a long period of time. Now, to be clear Brendan in his book defines energy as the “holistic kind that includes positive and enduring mental, physical, and emotional vibrancy. “
Why is energy so important? Well, no surprise here but low energy is highly correlated with low performing success, and high performance is tied to high energy. People with high energy achieve much more success in their primary field of interest than their peers. The great thing about energy is that it is not something that you are born with. Energy comes from transforming the way you think and feel about any given situation. To help generate energy throughout your day Brendon shares with you practices in his book. I discuss below the two practices that I found to be really helpful:
Practice One – Release Tension, Set Intention
The easiest, fastest and most effective way to help increase energy is to teach yourself how to master daily transitions according to Brendon Burchard. A few examples of daily transitions are when you wake up in the morning from sleeping to waking, when you go from commuting to walking into work, and finally, the most obvious transition is when you come out of that meeting that didn’t go as planned and you have to hop into another one. We all experience many transitions throughout the day which impact our energy levels.
To start increasing your energy levels you need to recognize how you feel throughout certain situations and how you interact with others. A good way to start would be to write down all the transitions you go through on a given day. After you do that you can ask yourself these questions to help you understand how you think and feel throughout each one.
- Do you ever carry over any negative energy from one activity to the other?
- Do you ever feel depleted but still plow into your next activity without a break, even though you know you should take a breather?
- What if you could change the way you think before each transition throughout the day? What would the impact be? How would you be able to do that?
Now, since you have a good understand of the daily transitions and how you feel and interact with them you can use Brendon’s technique which he calls release tension, set intention.
Here is how it works:
- Before walking into the next transition of your day close your eyes for a minute or two.
- Now, say the release in your mind over and over again. As you do command your body to release all the tension in your shoulders, in your neck, in your face and jaw.
- After you have felt all the tension being released, now you can set your intention for the next transition.
Practice Two: Bring the Joy
As you know one of the greatest joys of being a human is that you have a choice, and you can choose how you feel at every moment throughout the day. High performers recognize this and choose to “bring the joy” to their day by implementing habits that allow them to focus on positive thoughts and feelings. Here are six habits high performers try to implement into their day to day according to Brendan’s research:
- They spend time thinking about how they want to feel in advance of a key event.
- They strongly believe that their actions will be rewarded.
- They prepare themselves for moments when things go wrong. Remember their high performers are no different then you and I. They are human.
- They want to interject challenge into their day.
- They steer social interactions into positive emotions.
- They reflect on how grateful they are.
What better way to practice “bringing the joy” then starting your day with simple questions:
- What can I be excited about today?
- What or who might trip me up or cause stress, and how can I respond in a positive way, from my highest self?
- Who can I surprise today with a thank you, a gift, or a moment of appreciation?
If you felt like these were helpful feel free to purchase the book here or check out this blog, podcast, and website here for other helpful insight on living your best life. Remember, making the choice to read through the practices is the first step. The second step is putting action towards implementing them into your day.
Now, Wake Up! It’s Day One.