Passion Struck with John R. Miles - What 7 Skills Create High Achievers? EP 84

Episode Date: November 26, 2021

The seven skills that create high achievers: in this episode of the Passion Struck podcast John R Miles provides eye-opening advice on what defines a high achiever, what derails people from becoming high achievers, the seven skills that create high achievers, and the initial four steps you can take to become one. The seven skills include: Action Orienter Visionary Strategiser Cognition Crusader Positivity Embracer Resilience Builder Constant Learner Persistent Adapter New to this channel and the passion-struck podcast? Check out our starter packs which are our favorite episodes grouped by topic, to allow you to get a sense of all the podcast has to offer. Go to https://passionstruck.com/starter-packs/. This episode is sponsored by Athletic Greens, a custom formulation of 75 vitamins, minerals, and other whole-food sourced ingredients that make it easier for you to maintain nutrition in just a single scoop. It tastes great and gets you the nutrients you need, whether you're working on the go, fueling an active lifestyle, or just maintaining your good health. Visit https://athleticgreens.com/passionstruck to get a FREE year supply of Liquid Vitamin D + 5 FREE Travel Packs with the subscription. Like this? Please join me on my new platform for peak performance, life coaching, self-improvement, and personal growth: https://passionstruck.com/ and sign up for our email list. Thank you for joining us today on the Passion Struck podcast.  New Interviews with the World's GREATEST high achievers will be posted every Tuesday with a Momentum Friday inspirational message! SHOW NOTES 0:00 Introduction 3:30 What defines high achievers 6:00 What derails people from becoming a high achiever 11:06 Seven skills that create high achievers 15:48 Four steps to become a high achiever 20:50 Key takeaways ENGAGE WITH JOHN R. MILES * Subscribe to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnRMiles * Leave a comment, 5-star rating (please!) * Support me: https://johnrmiles.com * About: https://johnrmiles.com/my-story/ * Twitter: https://twitter.com/John_RMiles * Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Johnrmiles.c0m. * Medium: https://medium.com/@JohnRMiles​ * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/john_r_miles PASSION STRUCK *Subscribe to Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-passion-struck-podcast/id1553279283 *Website: https://passionstruck.com/ * Gear: https://www.zazzle.com/store/passion_struck *About: https://passionstruck.com/about-passionstruck-johnrmiles/ *Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passion_struck_podcast *LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/passionstruck *Blog: https://passionstruck.com/blog/

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Passion Struck Podcast. Thank you to all of you who return each and every week to learn to live better, be better, and impact the world. And if you're new to the show or you want to introduce it to a friend and family number, we now have starter packs. These are collections of your favorite episodes organized by topic. To give you an easy way to see everything that we do here on the show. Just go to passionstruck.com slash starter packs to get started. And if you're not familiar with our YouTube channel, you can also check it out at John

R. Miles on YouTube where we have over 200 different videos ranging from long form format like today. To shorter videos we call mindset moments, please check that out if you haven't before and subscribe. And why I want to read some reviews from the fans of the week. Today's first comes from a fan in the United Kingdom. Harry Switzer writes, perfect podcast.

I love listening to this every day. And the second one comes from Arthur Lennox Osh in Canada, who writes, Marvelously done. I got actual information out of how to create a career service. That's from a recent episode that we did with Steve Swift.

Thank you, Perry and Arthur, for taking the time, for right those reviews. I hope the show's so much. Today's show is in response to a question that I got from a listener on Instagram. And their question goes like this, I feel like I want to take my career forward to the next level. I see others around me at work who are getting promoted while I am staying in my status quo. They are referred to as high achievers in my company. What do you think

distinguishes a high achiever? What are characteristics that you've seen throughout your career that define them? And what initial steps can I take to become one? Excellent question, and I will tackle all of those and more. Thank you for choosing the Passion Strike Podcast and choosing me to be your host and guide on your journey to living in no regret's life.

Now, let the journey begin. Welcome Visionaries, creators, innovators, entrepreneurs, leaders, and growth seekers of all types to the passion strike podcast. Hi, I'm John Miles, a peak performance coach, multi industry CEO, Navy veteran, and entrepreneur on a mission to make action co-viral for millions worldwide. And each week I do so by sharing with you an inspirational message and interviewing high achievers from all walks of life who unlock their secrets and lessons to become an action

struck. The purpose of our show is to serve you the listener. By giving you tips, tasks, and activities, you can use to achieve peak performance and for too a passion-driven life, you have always wanted to have. Now let's become passion struck. Every once in a while, I meet that unique person who can show up every single day, being the best versions of themselves. They spend their days striving to reach their goals, exerting focus and energy on achieving success.

Do you know someone like that? Or is it possibly you? Whoever that person is, they are most likely to possess the potential for being a high achiever. We all want a high-yield successful life, but desiring and achieving have a vast gap between them that many are not able to overcome. But the good news is you can learn how to become a high achiever.

The degree of your success and achievement isn't set in stone and you can learn how to become a high achiever. The degree of your success and achievement isn't set in stone and you can learn to be one yourself. So let's first tackle what does it mean to be a high achiever and is it a trait that you inherit or is it something that you work for and can achieve? Put simply a high achiever is someone who gets stuff done. And I'm not talking about insignificant stuff. They are the superstars that can move mountains and solve the most significant problems in companies by taking a vision and making it a reality. High achievers are results driven, ambitious,

career-minded, motivated people, eager to take responsibility and accomplish meaningful goals. They work with tremendous efficiency and outperform their peer group. High achievers are the people who bring revolutionary change to the world. If they're after something, they make it happen, no matter how big or how small it may be. These people mold the perspective of things. According to their will, devise a plan, act on it and accomplish significant wins. They do things that would seem difficult if not impossible otherwise. They show a significant amount of focus and discipline. They set targets and goals, and keep working on them until they

are achieved. I achievers have a positive mindset. They consider challenges as an opportunity to thrive rather than a problem. They avoid setbacks by making friends with adversity. High achievers have this approach that whatever happens to them is the result of their hard work and they realize that they are the only ones who can take responsibility to achieve it. So rather than working on luck or the support of others, they work hard and achieve big. According to the book Human Motivation by David McClellan, three things psychologically motivate us to be high achievers. The need for power, the need for affiliation, and the drive for achievement. This psychology explains why high achievers have a strong desire to set and defeat challenging goals.

These people often enjoy participating in competitions, winning them and being recognized, but they also crave affiliation with others in achieving these goals. So now that you have a clear picture of what a high achiever is, you might be wondering what derails people from becoming high achievers. I encounter and coach many people complaining that their productivity level is in decline and they now feel stuck and lack drive and ambition.

There can be many reasons behind that based on my observations. Here are some of the most common ones that I have found that often derail people. The Passion Struck podcast will be right back. I am so excited about today's sponsor Athletic Greens because it is a product that I personally use and love. In fact, Athletic Greens is completely transforming nutrition and helping so many achieve peak performance. This product is so easy to use and make part of your daily morning routine, and that's exactly what happened to me. I just come down every single morning, and the first thing I do is take one scoop of their powder, put it in an eight ounce glass of water, and it tastes amazing. And the product consists of 75 different vitamins,

minerals, immune supporting mushrooms, and probiotics. So much here to help your nutrition get the boost that it needs without you having to go to either the store or e to salad or whatever it may be in our hectic schedules. And with all the stressors better around us, this is such an easy way to solve your daily nutrition. Now they are offering my audience a special when you subscribe. And this includes a one year supply of vitamin D and five travel packs. Go to athleticgreens.com slash passion struck to get started.

Again, get your one year supply of vitamin D, those five travel packs by going to athleticbrings.com slash passion struck. Now, let's get back to becoming passion struck. We're all aware of the pros and cons of modern technology in the all digital world that we exist in. In some ways, it enables us to achieve things that we never thought were even possible. But at the same time, it plays a significant role in creating distraction. Let's just look at social media to provide a concrete example. According to a statistician report from 2020, measuring the period 2012 to 2020,

daily time spent on social networking for the average person is roughly 145 minutes. That is nearly two and a half hours per day, wasted on looking at meaningless pictures and posts instead of focusing on achieving your passion. But it isn't just social media. It's checking email, responding to instant messages, surfing the web, and streaming videos that are all sucking productivity from so many.

Second, they are disengaged. There are a growing number of people worldwide who are disengaged in their careers and their lives. I've talked about this a lot on the podcast. Statistics show is many as 85% of the world's full-time workers are disengaged. This disengagement creates a half-hearted mentality when it comes to focusing on achieving results. Why?

Because if you're disengaged, you don't feel passionate about the work you're doing and how what you're doing is making an impact to the company you're working for, or potentially the goals that you have in life. When this happens, people who are disengaged go throughout their life in something that I call casual engagement. This concept of casual engagement is something I talked about in episode 25 on the topic of living a pinball life. When we approach our lives and careers this way, we bounce off of things without any intentionality, just like a pinball.

We are letting the game a pinball play us instead of us playing the game a pinball and winning it. Third, they lack prioritization. When you feel like there aren't enough hours in the day, you're probably not prioritizing your day appropriately. I discussed this in length in episode 27 where I talked about the I don't have time syndrome. We have a growing societal dilemma where people focus on what appears urgent instead of what is important and essential to them achieving success. If you feel like you, too, are one of the people struggling to deal with any of the issues listed

above, don't worry. I have some characteristics that I'm going to give you and some tips on ways that you can make your day-to-day behaviors, actions, and tasks more productive. Having spent nearly three decades interacting with thousands of people in the military, Fortune 500 companies, big four and management consultancies, private equity, small business leaders, and entrepreneurs, I've identified seven key characteristics that define high achievers. Countless behaviors can affect your productivity, but the ones I'm going to go over with you are some of the most prominent ones that I have seen throughout my career and from my research. How many of these characteristics make up your DNA. The first characteristic is that they are an action-oriented.

High achievers don't just think they take action. They're always focused on moving the needle forward. They don't just sit on it with analysis paralysis. They take calculated risks that lead to making huge things happen. Talking and thinking are easy, but taking action to achieve results is taking it to another level. This ability of taking action is something that

allows high achievers to complete tasks that propel their careers and their lives to the next level. The second characteristic they possess are they are visionary strategizers. The majority of people go throughout their life without a clear vision of the future. In contrast, high achievers take a journey through their future and to find a clear path to achieve what they want. Something that may seem like a maze to others, these people see as a clear path. They can look at the future and back into the steps that are needed to achieve it. The third characteristic is that they are a cognition crusader. High achievers try to perform at the highest level of cognition possible. This means taking care of their body that puts them in that high state of cognition.

They maximize their sleep, keep themselves physically fit, work daily on their mental health, and demonstrate a tremendous amount of focus and self-discipline. This focus on cognition keeps them mentally sharp to tackle the day and makes them consistent, which in turn keeps them focused. Our minds control the critical outputs of the brain, which then impacts everything. Judgment, perception, beliefs, emotions, and personal interactions. They're all a projection of you.

The fourth characteristic of high achievers is that they are positivity embraces. Trust me, there's nothing in your mindset that you can't change. And high achievers face challenges head on, even when their chances of success are slim. They carry on with it. And if they fail, they fail fast

and take it as a learning experience. To high achievers, every task is doable. And they believe that they are more than capable enough to perform it, even if they haven't done that task before. They possess an Ican attitude towards whatever they are called to accomplish. The fifth characteristic of a high achiever is being a resilience builder. The ability to bounce back from a setback is an essential skill of high achievers. Instead of being hindered by setbacks

and obstacles, they remain committed to their tasks and their goals. There are always challenges in the line of success. So if you're not resilient enough at one point or another, you're going to give up on achieving that success and end up finding yourself stuck and disengaged. Number six, high achievers are constant learners. As Dr. Sue said, the more that you read, the more things that you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you will go. We are in the midst of the fastest period of change in the history of our planet.

High achievers believe there is no concept of standing still and being satisfied with the current amount of knowledge that they have, they keep learning. They use each day to learn and grow and focus on becoming a better version of themselves. High achievers possess an unquenchable craving for knowledge. And the seventh characteristic of high achievers are that they are persistent adapters. Famous basketball coach John Wooden said,

adaptability is being able to adapt to any situation at any given time. One of the hallmark characteristics of high achievers is expanding their capacity to handle change, no matter how grave that change may be. They realize that change is all around them and have the foresight and the ability to adapt to their circumstances and thrive in whatever situation they find themselves in. So now that I've told you what a high achiever is, what derails people from becoming high achievers, the seven characteristics that I have found that are in the DNA of high achievers, I now want to go through four steps that you can take to start your journey and to becoming a high achiever. The first is to establish your goals. When you are on

your passion journey, you have to ask yourself, why am I doing this? Should I be doing this? Is this what I want for myself and my career? When you answer these questions, you may realize you never intended to be where you are right now. Perhaps you didn't think it through before you went down this path. That's why you must set goals for yourself. Keeping in mind that you're doing it because you want to do it, and you must do it to achieve what you desire. Instead of just mindlessly ending your day, completing a task, see how it will benefit you in the long run. Once you see that what you desire. Instead of just mindlessly ending your day completing a task, see how it will benefit you in the long run. Once you see that what you're working on has mutual benefits, not only for your workplace, but for you as well, you will put more effort into it and achieve better results. Now, the second step that you can take is to get rid of distractions.

As I talked about earlier on things that derail us, distractions are all around us. It's in the form of social connections, games, television, and other forms of entertainment. Now, I'm not saying that you shouldn't have a social life and that you shouldn't do those things some of the time. We all need to have fun and we all need to socialize. My point here is don't go overboard. When it's those important

moments of your life, like setting your intentions for the day, or participating in your career, get rid of all the things that have the potential of distracting you. This way, it's so much easier for you to focus on the task. Give it your best and ultimately produce a higher yield. I know it's not easy to distance yourself from these things, but you must. Start slow, set a timer on your phone, limit the amount of time that you spend on it. Once the timer goes off, turn the phone off

and place it far away so that you will not go to it. What you do for work means that you're on technology all the time. Obviously, you can't put your phone or laptop away in this circumstance. What you then have to concentrate on is learning self-control and self-discipline. To establish these traits, you need to continuously remind yourself of your responsibilities and the importance of the task that you're currently performing. What productivity demands of you is focus, seriousness and determination. So do just that. Become focused, become determined, and take things seriously. The third thing you can do is to take

sufficient breaks. There is a difference between a machine and a human being. We often forget that when we are overburdened with work and feel like we are a machine. Our mental and physical health depends on rest, relaxation, sleep, and peace. When you end up overworking yourself and you allow the hustle culture to take root, your brain's ability to perform is compromised and you suffer in productivity.

As I covered in a previous episode on this, here, the whole concept of the more effort that you put in, the more it's going to yield, is completely false. Time isn't relative to efficiency. Instead of doing your work in a half-hearted way, take a short break, rest a while, go for a walk, do a mindfulness exercise. Once your mind has rested, you will find it is so much easier

to deliver your work without feeling exhausted. As Russell Eric Dobdah said, taking a break can lead to break-thruz. Now, the fourth and final suggestion I have is perseverance. When pursuing any meaningful goal, you are most likely going to encounter many challenges, setbacks, and difficulties. Under such circumstances, two things come

to mind. Do I stay resilient with this task, even if there are challenges involved, or do I give up on it? High achievers always go with the former. They stay committed to their goals and never back down. No matter how many hurdles are thrown in their path, these ambitious people believe that life is a vehicle and they are the drivers in control of it. This strong belief in themselves, resilience, focused, and determination adds to their strength and helps them to see the bigger picture, which in turn allows them to achieve their goals. With all that being said, I want you to remember that life is full of ups and downs. To be productive and become a high achiever,

you must give it your best every day. Work hard and know that the best will come. Hopefully, after hearing this podcast, you'll be able to much better understand what you lack and what you must do to become a high achiever. And I hope this answered the question for the listener who posed it today and gives anyone who's listening to this a much better idea of what it means to be a high achiever, what can do rail you from it, characteristics of high achievers

and some initial steps that you can take in your own life. And over the course of today's episode, I covered two or three different topics and I referenced them to earlier podcast episodes that I've done. One of those was on the, I don't have time syndrome, episode 27. Another one was on the, I don't have time syndrome, episode 27. Another one was on, how do you avoid the hustle culture

and breakthrough? And the last one was episode 25 on Stop Living, a Pinball Life. I also referenced a couple books on today's episode, and you can find them in the show notes, and also on our webpage page where we have a whole recommended book list that comes from guests of the podcast and my own personal episodes and recommendations. I do want to let you know that these all have affiliate links that you can use to buy these books and the proceeds go to

keeping the lights on around here and helping us and keeping this show free. Thank you again for joining us today on the Passion Struck podcast. Now go out there yourself and become Passion Struck. Thank you so much for joining us. The purpose of our show is to make Passion Go viral. And we do that by sharing with you the knowledge and skills that you need to unlock your hidden potential. If you want to hear more, please subscribe to the Passion Start podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to your podcast ad. And if you absolutely love this episode, we'd appreciate a five star rating on iTunes, and you sharing it with three of your most

growth-minded friends, so they can post it as well to their social accounts and help us grow our passion start community. If you'd like to learn more about the show and our mission, you can go to passionstruck.com where you can sign up for our newsletter, look at our tools and also download the show notes for today's

episode. Additionally, you can listen to us every Tuesday and Friday for even more inspiring content. And remember, make a choice, work hard, and step into your sharp edges. Thank you again for joining us. you