Take control and maximize your potential. 

The desire to maximize our potential and increase our performance is one of the greatest motivators for any human being. Leaders have long sought to understand how attitudes and behaviors enable certain people to excel and succeed over the long term and make the most of their lives.

I will remember November 18, 2002, for the rest of my life; it is the day I walked into the gym to get a fitness assessment from a personal trainer. I weighed in at 275 pounds. I felt obese and very stressed because of my weight, the daily challenges of young children, and not enough time to devote to my own personal health.   

A few days earlier, I had asked my business coach why I couldn’t get myself to achieve the goal of losing weight that I had set for myself multiple times. 

He gave me this advice: First, schedule out time like an appointment on your calendar. Second, you need someone to hold you accountable to your weekly workout schedule. That day started my journey not only to better my health, but also to improve my mind and my business.

In a recent study by the High Performance Institute, they defined “high performance” as consistently succeeding beyond standard norms across domains while maintaining life satisfaction, well-being, and positive relationships. 

Rather than focusing on overarching personality traits, HPI studied the habit patterns that lead to long-term success. When your habits are executed daily, it leads to enduring high performance and overall life satisfaction.

For more than a decade, HPI studied and analyzed 1.6 million high-performance students in over 195 countries. This research led to the identification of six deliberate habits for reaching high performance in any field.  The habits are: seeking clarity, generating energy, raising necessity, increasing productivity, developing influence, and demonstrating courage. 

Each of these habits is learnable and can serve you in multiple areas of your life and career. Let’s define each of these areas so we understand how we can implement these habits to improve our lives daily.

Seeking clarity 

Be clear on who you want to be and what goals you are striving to achieve.

Generating energy

Be sure to care for your mind and body to ensure high levels of energy for the long term.

Raising necessity

Tap into your drive of “why,” and work hard to succeed.

Increasing productivity

Spend time on things that matter and protect yourself from distractions and the things that don’t matter.

Developing influence

Be a leader who persuades others to buy into important projects that make a difference.

Demonstrating courage

Don’t be afraid to take bold action even in the face of uncertainty.

During my journey I have noticed that when I feed my mind and exercise four to five times per week, it allows me the productivity to accomplish the goals that I set for myself. A few years ago, I coined an acronym that’s become a motto for me — CHARGE, or Create Habits Around Real Goals Everyday. 

The best part is that all of this can be accomplished by creating daily habits to help you create a healthy mind and healthy body, which will equal a healthy business.

The key factor is you must decide to start today! I leave you with this quote as you ponder your next habit: 

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly.  We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”

–– Aristotle 

Gary Wilbers is a successful entrepreneur and coach who mentors business owners and leaders to reach their full potential in life.