‘I don’t believe in work-life balance’: The six habits of high performers, according to this coach

“I don’t think many of us are good at just sense-checking randomly. We get busy being busy,” Laughlin says. “If we can check in once a month and see what really needs our attention, we can recalibrate for the month ahead.”

Still, it’s not what necessarily sets high performers apart.

As he gets to the nitty-gritty of what it is about those who consistently perform at their peak, Laughlin says he noticed recurring themes, outlined in his new book, Habits of High Performers.

“It’s habits,” he says. “I’m yet to see a holistic high-performer who doesn’t have all of these.”

Here are his top six tips to acheive high performance:

1. Get radically clear: “Most people, when they’re asked what they want, start with ‘Ahhh, Um’,” Laughlin says. The high-performers he has worked with take the time to get “really clear” about what they want and what they are willing to sacrifice to achieve it. “I’ve interviewed hundreds of people over the last five years and I ask them all of these questions,” he says. “There is strong discipline in these people from their parents. The majority went to normal schools, not private schools – there’s no silver spoon or nepotism – and they have clear goals.”
2. Be full of BS: High-performers are aware of their subconscious beliefs around money, success, failure, and happiness – and the ability to rewire those to support their goals, says Laughlin: “There’s a high level of belief around their ability to achieve, be successful and come back from failure.” For Laughlin, belief systems are the most challenging aspect of performance.“I’ve failed way more times than I’ve succeeded,” he says. “I won the world championships seven times, but I’ve lost it 12.” Transforming a belief requires asking what a better belief might be about failure or success or anything else. He suggests writing down the ideal belief on paper and then repeating it verbally as a mantra to create new neural pathways over time: “Our brain is so plastic.”
3. Live your life on purpose: A pursuit has to be more meaningful than just winning, Laughlin says. He recounts how current world number-one golfer, Scottie Scheffler, recently questioned the point of winning.“It’s fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it’s not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart,” the 29-year-old said during a press conference last month. “If I win, it’s going to be awesome for two minutes ... Then it’s like, OK, what are we going to eat for dinner? Life goes on.”
   “It’s intrinsic purpose,” says Laughlin, noting that extrinsic purpose – money, power, fame – doesn’t lead to lasting fulfilment. “The high-performance people who want that stuff tend to burn out, they tend to have catastrophes, they tend to be on the front page of paper for the wrong reasons.”
4. Multiply the motivation: “They discipline their inner domain to try and dominate their outer domain,” he says. Inner discipline involves sleep, diet, exercise and considering the effect of our behaviours on our hormones and neurotransmitters.“People think it’s just hard work ethic. I would disagree,” Laughlin says. “If our hormones are not where they should be, we’re not going to have the motivation to get up and chase the goals. If you’ve got low dopamine, low serotonin, endorphins, you’re toast.” He points to studies with dopamine-depleted rats which found they had no motivation to eat even if when food was placed right in front of them. “We’re dopamine-depleted if we spend too much time scrolling, or we wake up and are straight on our emails … high-performers take time to put boundaries and friction in place, so their motivation comes from within.”
5. Focus on your priorities: When people tell Laughlin they’re too busy, he asks to have a look at their phone. Too often, he says, their screen time paints a different picture.“You don’t have a busy problem, you have a priority problem,” he says. “High-performers say ‘no’ a lot. They are focused, not busy. And they have systems and boundaries in place to help them stay focused on their priorities.”
6. Do the work and take no shortcuts: Get out there, hit the ground, be disciplined.“You don’t catch the world’s greatest in leadership or sport taking shortcuts. They’re willing to take the stairs,” he says. “They know that delayed gratification is where true success is. For them to dominate their field and become the GOAT, go the extra mile.”

Some goals are unrealistic, no matter how motivated or purpose-driven we are, so Laughlin also suggests finding little points of evidence to support the potential of the goal where possible. Armed with realistic goals and a practice of high-performance habits, he doesn’t doubt anyone’s ability to become a high-performer: “I don’t think they can, I know they can.”

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