Define What's Meaningful

Hey, my friend, it's Brendan Burchard. And welcome to a special episode of the Brendan Show. In this episode, I'm going to play for you a section of the audiobook of my book High Performance Habits. How Extraordinary People Become that way. And I'm gonna play for you a practice that will ultimately help you become a higher performer in anything that you're doing, whether it's related to your health or your career or other positive life outcomes. This is the practice that will really serve you. And I'm gonna be releasing a series of these so that you can get a taste of the book. But also whether you have the book or you don't have the book, you can put these practices into your life to develop the habits that matter the most. That's ultimately what my book is about. Has become so well known for high performance habits is the result and the findings of the world's largest study of high performers ever done. Over 190 countries reporting in over 2 million data points an unbelievable amount of.

Research over a three year period with.

Me and academic research teams to find the the strongest correlations we could of which habits led to long term success. And they were also healthy, they were also happy, they also had positive relationships. And that's the magic of it.

All right?

High performance isn't just about getting ahead for achievement's sake. It's ultimately about a distinction of a new way to strive so that you do reach the next level of success. But this time you do it more sane, healthier, more happier and you enjoy the process. You can succeed long term. That is what this book is about. It tells you exactly which habits make the most difference. And we break it down each habit into three different practices. Now, this audio excerpt today for you is one of those practices. And please just listen, follow the prompts, put this either mindset or philosophy or tactic into your life and you'll see a total change. So I'll be releasing a series of these for you in upcoming weeks and months right here on the Brendon Show. And tell you what, if you like this, you're welcome to go get the audiobook on Audible or anywhere else where you download your audiobooks and you know, it's whatever it is, 1216 bucks for that. Or if you want the deluxe audiobook version which comes with additional training, additional interviews and and an online course along with it. If you want that, you can actually get it for free when you order a hard copy book from us@Brendon.com habits. So just listen to the practice if it resonates with you. Put it into play. If not, no worries. Keep listening to the Brendon show. You'll find something that's useful. But if it really resonates, go to brendon.com habits and get your copy of the book from that site so that we can give you the free deluxe audio edition of the audiobook. I think you're really going to enjoy this and as always, I want to thank you all for supporting my message. I deeply believe that as each of us develops deeper motivation and starts practicing these high performance habits, not only can.

We change our life, not only can.

We reach longer term success and be less stressed and crazy and enjoy the process this time, but but we can change the world. The right habits changes your world ultimately changes other people's world. Without further ado, please enjoy this excerpt.

Of high performance habits.

How extraordinary people become that way.

Practice three Define what's Meaningful Unhappiness is not knowing what we want and killing ourselves to get it. Don Harrell High performers can do almost anything they set their heart and mind to, but not every mountain is worth the climb. What differentiates high performers from others is their critical eye in figuring out what is going to be meaningful to their life experience. They spend more time doing things that they find meaningful, and this makes them happy. It's not one of strength that locks us into unlived lives. Rather, it is lack of a decisive cause, something worth striving for an ambitious purpose that sets our hearts ablaze and our feet marching forward. Our striving for a meaningful life is one of the main factors associated with psychological well being. But what do we mean by meaning? When most people talk about having meaning at work, they typically discuss a enjoyment of the tasks of work, b alignment of personal values with the work, and c fulfillment from the outcomes of the work. When researchers try to identify what is meaningful to people, they often focus on how important you say an activity is to you, how much time you spend at it, how committed you are, how attached to it you are, and whether you would do the work despite low compensation. They try to figure out whether you see the work as just a job or an important career or calling. They often associate a clear sense of purpose with an overall sense of meaning in life. Do high performers approach meaning the same way? We randomly selected 1,300 individuals who scored in the top 15% of on the HPI and ask them questions such as how do you know when you're doing something meaningful? What does it feel like if you had to choose between two good projects. How would you go about choosing the one that would be most meaningful to you? How do you know when you're doing something that isn't bringing meaning into your life? At the end of your life, how would you know whether you had lived a meaningful life? Since the questions were open ended, we combed through the responses looking for patterns. What emerged was that high performers tended to equate four factors with meaning. First, they linked enthusiasm with meaning. When forced to choose between two projects, for example, many mentioned they would do the one they could be most enthusiastic about. This finding dovetails with research findings that enthusiasm independently predicted the life satisfaction, positive emotions, fewer negative emotions, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations, self acceptance, purpose in life, engagement, positive relationships, meaning, and achievement. Clearly, if you want a positive life, you would do well to summon as much enthusiasm as possible. It was these feelings that inspired me to ask myself this question every morning in the shower. What can I get excited or enthusiastic about today? That simple question has changed the way I walk into each day. Try it. The second link to meaning was connection. People who become socially isolated report that their life has lost meaning. Social relationships, especially with those closest to us, are the most frequently reported sources of meaning in life. Like everyone else, high performers value the relationships they have in life and work. What's unique about high performers, though, is that connection often correlates with meaning, especially at work. Connection is less about comfort than about challenge. In other words, high performers feel that their work has more meaning when they are in a peer group. That challenges them in their everyday life, too. They value being around inspiring people who push them to grow more than, say, people who are just fun to be around or are generally kind. Third, high performers relate satisfaction with meaning. If what they are doing creates a sense of personal satisfaction, they feel that their life is more meaningful. Teasing out what satisfaction means to people is as difficult as finding out how they define meaningful. But for high performers, there is a clear equation for what leads to personal satisfaction. When your efforts correspond with one of your primary passions, lead to personal or professional growth, and make a clear and positive contribution to others, you tend to call those efforts satisfying. There's a formula in the book on page 86, and it's this passion plus growth plus contribution equals personality satisfaction. Other researchers have found that security, autonomy, and balance can also be important to satisfaction, especially on the job. The fourth way that high performers say their efforts have meaning is by making them feel that their life makes sense. Psychologists call this coherence. It means that the story of your life or of the recent events in your life is comprehensible to you in some way. This sense of coherence seems to be particularly important to high performers. They want to know that their efforts align with something important, that their work is significant, and that their lives are creating a legacy and feeding a larger purpose. Often the desire for things to make sense is more important to a high performer than our autonomy and balance. They will put their own desires for control or work life balance aside if they sense that what they are doing makes sense and adds to a greater whole. Certainly more research needs to be done on how high performers view meaning. The research my team and I have conducted gives us a good start, though. You may find this simple equation enthusiasm plus connection plus satisfaction plus coherence equals meaning. Again, that's enthusiasm plus connection plus satisfaction plus coperformance equals meaning. Not all these factors need to be in play at once to give us a sense of meaning. Sometimes just watching your child walk across the room can do it. Or finishing that important report, a lovely date night or hosting a mentoring lunch can make life meaningful. The important thing is you need to bring more conscious and consistent thought to what you will find meaningful in life. You start by exploring your own definitions of meaning and how to enhance it in your life. When you learn the difference between busy work and your life's work, that's the first step on the path of purpose. Performance Problems Number one The activities that I currently do that bring me the most meaning. 2. The activities or projects that I should stop doing because they are not bringing me any sense of meaning. 3. If I was going to add new activities that bring me more meaning, the first ones I would add would be putting it all together. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe to it. Joseph Campbell you have to have a vision for yourself in the future. You have to discern how you want to feel and what will be meaningful to you. Without those practices, you have nothing to dream of and strive for. No pop and zest in your daily life. Propelling you forward. We've covered a lot in this chapter. How do we put all these practices together so that our practices for clarity are are strong and consistent? I recommend the same thing I did for Kate, who felt that she was just going through the motions in her work, her relationships, and her life. You'll recall that she was so good she didn't really need to try anymore. She forgot to look to the future and have strong intentions which led her to being busy but unfulfilled. It led her to feeling lost to help her reorient herself. I had her begin a simple habit of contemplation that would hit all the practices you've learned. In this chapter. I gave Kate a tool called the Clarity Chart. It's a one page journal sheet that I asked her to fill out every Sunday evening for 12 weeks.

You can find the short version in.

The book and you can download the full page version@highperformancehabits.com tools that that's highperformancehabits.com tools. Of course you don't need to fill out the chart every week. You don't have to do anything I'm suggesting, but I promise that this activity will help you even if your responses don't change much from week to week. High performance clarity happens because we put these concepts up onto the dashboard of our conscious mind. Perhaps you've given occasional thought to the concepts we've discovered in this chapter, but our goal is to focus on these things more consistently than you ever have before. That's what moves the needle. With greater focus will come greater clarity, and with greater clarity will come more consistent action and ultimately high performance. The Clarity Chart. Download a printable weekly version@highperformancehabits.com tools it in the book. It's on page 95 and on page 95 you'll see a chart with six boxes. One box says Self. Another says Social. Another says Skills. Another says Service. The very things we covered in Practice 1 Self, Social Skills and Service Practice 2. You'll see a box for focusing on the feeling. Practice 3. You'll see a box for defining what's meaningful. Again, you can get this chart@highperformancehabits.com forward/tools.

Okay my friend, I hope you enjoyed that audio excerpt of my book High Performance Habits. How Extraordinary People Become that Way Again. If you really enjoyed that and you'd like the deluxe audiobook version for free, go to brendan.com habits get the book through that site and we'll go ahead and give you the deluxe audiobook version of the entire book for free at no cost. As my thanks for ordering through our website, I want to thank you as well for supporting my message. You know, we've really started this worldwide performance conversation. We've got dozens of companies and major organizations who have bought the book in bulk, who are sharing it with their teams and employers, employees who are sending their people through our assessments, who are getting all the tools that we built around this book. We're changing the conversation about performance performance in major organizations and small businesses around the world and if you'd like to support that, just pick up a copy of the book, get some amazing results, tell us your story and we'll try to get out there the best way that we can. It's an honor to serve each and every one of you. I began this journey to decoding what it really takes to become a high performer now, gosh, 20 years ago in my life. So having it all come together and these set of practices in high performance habits has been quite the journey. You know, the last 10 years of my life being a high performance coach and then this last three years of.

Academic research to prove it all out.

At least to find what the data suggests and leads us to in terms of the strongest correlations. I know you're going to love this book. So for those who already got it, thank you. Keep sharing the message because if you'll post on social media high performance habits of you listening to this episode or reading the book every single day and week, we are still out there giving away all expense paid trips, giving away swag t shirts, cups holders, free online courses. It's my students, we're celebrating you. So just go post on social media, tell us what you thought of this episode and just again, use high performance habits and the brendon show so that we know you Listen to us on the brendon show and we'll go ahead and try to find you and give you some free gifts. We can't do it for everybody but we're out there consistently doing it and I mean, I've already given away, I don't know, 50 to $100,000 worth of stuff just this month already. So it's been pretty active and I thank you all, all of our students who've made this the best stellar, all of our students who supported the message, all of our students who've committed to their continued education, their personal growth. I'm honored to be on that path with you. So thank you again for supporting the brendon show. Thank you for supporting high performance habits. I look forward to seeing you out on the road someday. Until then, remember, you can change your habits and change your life. If you're going to practice any new habits, practice the ones in high performance habits and as always, go out there every single day of your life. Live fully, love openly and make your difference. Today it.