This article will teach you how to shift your mentality from mediocre to high achiever, how to think, and truly leverage everything you have.
What does it mean to think like a high achiever? There are a lot of people out there who are well-equipped to do great things, but they lack the ability to trust their own strengths.
They struggle to see too far ahead. And that in turn, robs them of their true potential.
There are two types of people in this world: Those who get it, and those who don’t.
And there’s only one thing that differentiates between the two: It’s the unwavering belief in your ability to shape your own future.
Here’s how to think like a high achiever!
Don’t worry if you don’t feel like reading, you can enjoy the video below or watch it on YouTube:
The first thing we need to look at is:
Massive amount of action
The most common thing you will find amongst high achievers is the amount of action they take every single day.
Most people live their life in maintenance mode.
They do only what’s requested of them, in order to avoid any negative repercussions. They go to work so they don’t get fired. It’s the main motivator.
Average people do the bare minimum so they don’t lose the little they have.
High achievers do what needs to be done, to get what they want.
At the end of the day, it’s that simple.
Nobody wobbled their way into success like a confused little duck.
There is a direct correlation between how much action you take every single day towards your goal, and actually achieving it.
This isn’t about hard work and burnout.
It’s about being mindful of what needs to be done.
You see, when you get to a certain level, everything gets more competitive and more demanding. The more you grow, the more you need to do to maintain your momentum and trajectory.
The bigger a business gets, the more things you need to run smoothly. We can confirm that from personal experience.
And the only way to stay on top of things is by getting used to taking action.
So what does taking massive amounts of action really mean? How does it translate into the real world?
Every high achiever we talked to has some form of a decision matrix to figure out what needs to be done and when.
You might be familiar with this example:
We like to use a modified version of it, where we place tasks on a difficult and impact axis.
So here’s what you do:
First, you write down everything that needs to be done in the foreseeable future.
And we mean absolutely everything. You should have at least 15-20 items.
Mind you, these need to be closed actions, so things as: “optimizing the landing page for your product” or “creating and launching an ad campaign”.
After you have your action items, you start placing them in order of impact and difficulty, within the matrix.
And then you get to work, starting off with things that are easy and have a high impact and continuing with those that are harder.
The things that are easy and low impact will be done after the things above the difficulty line are done.
And those that are hard and have a low impact, you delete completely. Because those are a waste of time.
Then, once you are done, you make another matrix for the next period.
We found this to be a really efficient way of staying on top of everything that needs to be done and making sure you always have something to do.
Now, besides taking massive amounts of action, you also need to make sure you don’t work for the sake of working.
Focus on results
Look, nobody cares who’s the hardest worker.
Nobody cares who has the most responsibility or the highest pressure.
In business, as in life for that matter, results are all that matter. Shift away from an effort mindset and move towards a results mindset.
In fact, to better understand this, let’s look at two similar scenarios:
Scenario 1
You run 5 days a week without taking anything into consideration.
After a while, your stamina improves, you get healthier, you lose some weight, and so on.
Finally, nothing wrong here.
Scenario 2
You run 5 days a week, making sure you burn 500 calories on each run. That amounts to 2500 calories consumed in a week.
Now, to lose 1kg of weight, you need to burn around 7700 calories.
Which means 3 weeks of running, while not making any changes to your body. This means you can expect to lose 3 kg in 1.5 months IF your body is functioning properly.
Moreover, if you lower your normal caloric intake by 500, you will double the amount you could lose in that timeframe.
These are, of course, rough estimates and different from person to person, but you get the point.
When you focus on results and measure the things that get you there, you get a better idea of how the whole process looks and what impact your actions have.
And it becomes easier to make changes along the way. This approach works on everything that you do.
Focusing on results is crucial to becoming a high achiever for several reasons:
- Firstly, results are tangible evidence of progress and success. It provides clear direction and motivates you to push beyond your comfort zone.
- Secondly, focusing on results helps you better prioritize your time and resources. When you know how long something takes, and what’s the expected outcome, it becomes easier to avoid getting distracted and get it done.
- And ultimately, being result-driven makes you accountable and responsible. When the plan is laid down before you, and you fail to execute it, you’re the only one to blame.
But you see, focusing on results is just one side of the coin.
The other side is having a:
Strong foundation
Why do you think elite athletes practice the same drills over and over again?
Even when it becomes extremely monotonous, they still do it.
That’s because it helps them hone their technique, improve muscle memory and develop a deeper understanding of their sport. And every major improvement they wish to make will be placed on top of this foundation.
For entrepreneurs, a strong foundation means a framework for effective decision-making.
In fact, here’s a super easy way to find out if you have a strong foundation or not, as an entrepreneur.
Let’s imagine you suddenly get hired as the CEO of a $100+ million company and you need to run it for a total of 5 years.
What will you do in your first quarter?
If you have no idea where to even begin, well, there’s your answer.
The point is, no foundation means diving in blindly. It massively increases the time it takes to get anything done. Some things work when you learn them as you go, and some don’t.
If you want to think like a high achiever, you need to get deeply familiar with how your craft works.
There’s a reason why the Pros master fundamentals and the amateurs master trick shots.
And speaking of pros and amateurs.
Deliberate growth
This right here is what separates high achievers from the pretenders.
You see, those who pretend to be successful rely on 3 things:
- Luck
- Timing
- Circumstances
That’s why they always fall victim to “get rich quick” schemes. Because they take huge risks in the hopes of big returns because someone told them about this new thing that nobody knows about.
There’s nothing a crypto millionaire can teach you.
Mainly because they’re all broke now because they bet on the hype instead of understanding the technology behind it.
Back to the point, what is deliberate growth?
You see, it’s all about predictability and sustainability. Yes, we know, sounds very sexy.
However, let’s look at this from a business perspective.
Firstly, a healthy business is growing at a predictable rate and it keeps doing it sustainably for the long term.
To be more specific, a healthy growth rate is around 15 – 25% annually. And if you look at stocks, the average returns are around 11% annually.
The point is, high achievers look at their industry, whether it’s their business or personal growth, and establish an expected growth rate along with a plan to do it.
And then they stick to it, using the things we talked about previously in this video.
Pretenders look for the big boom. Do you see the difference? High achievers are methodical and tactical.
They have a strong foundation that they use to create a plan that’s focused on results. They have the end goal of growing in a predictable manner.
Being a high achiever doesn’t mean being overly ambitious, wanting to change the world, or anything like that.
It means that you are aware of the possible outcome and you are willing to go through the trouble of making it happen.
The second part is essential because only some people are willing to go through the trouble.
If you want to think like high achievers, then you need to remember the following: They are after only one thing – Achievement.
Shocking, we know.
But the point is, having something within your reach, and achieving it, is extremely empowering and motivating.
If you are smart enough, you can plan your life from achievement to achievement and you will always have something to look forward to.
If you’ve enjoyed our insights on how to think like a high achiever, you’re going to love tomorrow’s piece. See you soon!
