The Six Pillars Of High Performance

Welcome to the Do Hard Things Podcast with your host Jay Tiegs, Are you ready to amplify and improve your life? Then you are in the right place.  On this podcast we have unfiltered conversation with inspiring people who take on challenges and share with us, the wisdom from their journey. We talk about how doing hard things adequately enable all of us to deal with life's struggles and challenges and ultimately improve the quality of our lives. 

Transcript

A Clear Definition Of High Performance

High Achiever Vs High Performer

The Six-Pillar Self-Assessment

Pillar One Productivity That Matters

Pillar Two People Fuel Or Drain

Pillar Three Psychology And Self-Talk

Pillar Four Physiology As Foundation

Pillar Five Presence Without Distraction

Pillar Six Purpose And Alignment

Find Energy Leaks And The Cost

Caged Comfortable Fully Charged Life

Coaching Offer And Closing Challenge

SPEAKER_00 0:43

What's up, everyone? Welcome back to the Do Are Things Nation. I'm your host, Siegfried J. Teagues, Army veteran, high performance coach, author of Life on Offense. I help driven people find clarity, get energized, refocus so they stop drifting and get unstuck so they can live a peaceful, powerful, purposeful, and productive life. And today we're going to be talking about the six pillars of high performance. You're going to have an opportunity to grade yourself to see how you're showing up, see where you might have some energy leaks. And uh today is my birthday. I am 48 years young. And hey, today I couldn't think of anything else better to do than record a podcast today. I also led a bunch of high performance sessions. And, you know, I've I've been in throughout the day today, just in a room full of driven, ambitious people who are building something big in their life. And I'm like, you know what? This very topic, this very topic could help so many other people. It's going to be the topic for the podcast today. So I've been teaching this all day, and I'm creating a podcast around it. And it's going to be very, very useful. It's been very, very impactful for everyone today. And look, doing hard things is not just a motto, it's a way of life. And I think it's really, really important that uh, I mean, if you're listening to this, you're someone that takes your personal growth and development serious. That's why you're here. You're looking to level up to be better. And today's going to be an opportunity to uh do some reflective work to do just that. So, all right, well, let's uh let's get into it. When you when you think of high performance, when you think of high performance for yourself, what do you what we're gonna pause here for a second? I want you to think about the definition. When you think about high performance in your life, what do you think about? Because oftentimes what people will think of, you know, some of the common things are getting things done, serving with excellence, living a purposeful life, achieving my goals quickly, being on my A game. Those are some of the uh the things that pop up. Uh, those are some of the more most common answers that question today. But what is your definition? What is your definition? As you sit here listening to these words and pause for a moment. What do you think of when it comes to high performance? What does that mean to you? Well, Brendan Bichard, who is my coach and mentor, who founded High Performance Institute, the definition that they found and created is high performance is succeeding beyond standard norms consistently and over the long term without sacrificing your health, relationships, or sense of purpose. So succeeding beyond standard norms consistently over the long term without sacrificing health, relationships, or sense of purpose. And consistently, long term without sacrificing, those are some three key words. Look, anyone can sprint. Anyone can sprint for a period of time, but what separates a high performer from a high achiever is the sustainability. You know, the things that you're executing on, your portfolio, your business, all these things can grow, but the person can still be shrinking. And that's high achievement mode versus high performance. There is a distinction. There are a lot of high achievers out there. I'm a recovering high achiever focused on high performance. I know a lot of high achievers. What's the distinction between the two? Well, a high achiever will get results. The high performer gets results and sustains. The high achiever will sacrifice the health for the win. They might blow off workouts, hit the drive-thru because they're they're in work mode. They got to close the deal. We've got to put the hours in, right? So we've got to sacrifice our health. The high performer protects energy as a strategy. It's part of the energy that is required for high performance. So it's not one of those things that are cut out. High achiever relationships are collateral damage. Might be willing to step on people, or maybe you're willing to cut out the family time and skip date night because you got to work and you got to grind. High performers look at relationships as something that is cherished and part of the scorecard for performance. The high achiever will run hot until they burn out, then they finally take vacation, looking at vacation like a crutch or I don't know, they have a weird relationship with vacation. We don't we don't do that very often, but when I get burned out, I'll take one. High performer, they build the systems. Vacation is part of the plan. So they avoid burnout. So they can, they they they know how to take the foot off the throttle before they burn out. The high achiever, they live in the gap. The high performer lives in the gain. It's a great book called The Gap in the Gain. And gap thinking is where you're currently at in comparison to where you want to be, your future goal that you're trying to work on. And that sense of uh I'll never be satisfied until I get there. There might be a sense of frustration, especially when you feel like you're spinning your wheels, you're not making momentum. That is gap thinking. The gain is looking at what you've accomplished. You are committed to future goals, but it, but, but the if you there's no attachment to the outcome of the future goal. Like if you don't attain it, yes, you're ruthlessly committed to it, but if you don't achieve it, like you're good now because peace and happiness can only be found in the present moment. So living in the game means that, hey, I'm ruthlessly committed to my goals because that's what high performers do, but I'm not attached to the outcome. So you can be peaceful today. A lot of people, high achievers, like they're frustrated, I'll never sell. That's just part of the hustle culture teachings. High achievers will define their success by output, high performers define their success by output and their overall well-being to include their relationships, being connected with their purpose and their health. So, where in your life might you be showing up as a high achiever versus a high performer? Which one do you resonate with most? Some people might be have have a little bit of each bucket, right? But ultimately we want to live a high performance life. Remember, high performance, succeeding beyond standard norms, consistently and over the long term without sacrificing health, relationships, or that sense of purpose. So it's really, really important. That's how you find balance. And there has been periods of my life where I was committed, ruthlessly committed to my day job, especially in the military. I mean, you're you're taught mission first. And I did not balance my mental health very well. I did not have balance in my personal relationships very well, and I did not manage stress very well. And what that led to was incredible burnout. Like you can have chronic burnout, and it ultimately led to a divorce, and it led to some things in my life being so out of balance that I had, you know, thought about ending it all and tapping out. That's not healthy, but I would, man, even in my darkest moments, I was still so committed to my job and executing with excellence. No one I played such a good character, no one knew any anything different. That's how that's how good I was at playing my character. The and it's just not good, it's not sustainable. And there are a lot of people like I was definitely in the extreme. You may not have uh experienced that level of burnout. I mean, where you were that, I mean, just things were so out of whack. And uh it took me a while to rebound from that. And this is why I'm so passionate about teaching this, because I don't want anyone to feel or face what I had to personally face. And some people just need a just a new direction, new idea. And that's that's what I'm here to do. I'm a guide. That's that's what I look at is as my role. So look, anyone can sprint. Driven people are really great at sprinting, and maybe you've been sprinting for years, but high performance is not a sprint, it's a standard you hold for yourself every single day. It's running a marathon with consistency, being committed to that. And it's uh, you know, across every area of your life, not just your career or business, but every area, every domain of your life arena. And high achievement, I don't know, but when you when you are the bill's gonna come due, you're gonna have deferred costs, and at some point that bill is gonna come due. And Tony Robbins said it best. Success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure. And there are people that have the nice car, the big home, big bank account. They've achieved it, but they're disconnected from their wife. They've probably been through a divorce. They they don't know their kids. They their health is completely out of alignment and they are unhappy. Success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure. That is by Tony Robbins. So let that let that marinate for a second. So today I'm going to run you through the same diagnostic I ran my group through this morning. The six pillars, score for each one, and then a question at the end that that I promise you will uh enable you to do some deep thought and how you're showing up, and maybe you'll determine what what's going well and maybe what area you you could improve in. And so the six pillars of high performance, there are six of them. The first one is productivity. Productivity. Like the work that you're doing. Is it the right work? Is it the right work? Is it, you know, are you focused? How much of your day is is spent in uh in distraction? Are you doing your life's work? What would it take to improve your productivity each week? And I'm talking about your professional productivity, but there's productivity in your personal life too. Like how do you deepen your relationships? How do you expand your hobby? What are you developing? How do you get you know deeper, deeper, a deeper relationship with God? A lot of times people are just so focused on productivity at work. That's it. I'll I'll work with a client. We open up the calendar and it's all work items. Like, where's where's date night? Where's your hobby time? Where's where's your time for spirituality? And so productivity is not just limited to your work. And what what major projects are you working on? And what is stealing your attention? If we're to pull up the Eisenhower quadrant, you know, are you in that that quadrant number two? That's where that's the sweet spot where you're working on things that are important, but they're not urgent. And so we're not doing busyness. Productivity, you know, is is is spending your best hours on your highest leverage work. Or do you find yourself being in reaction all day, answering messages, sitting in meetings that should have been emails, putting out fires all day and calling that a productive day? I've had days like that where I just ran around like a chicken with a head cut off and I laid my head down on the pillow. I'm like, man, I was busy today, but what did I actually get done? So are you working on the right things or just working? So on a scale of one to 10, how would you rate, how would you rate your productivity? Are you doing your life's work? Are you doing busy work? High performers are ruthless about being productivity. They protect their time like it's their most valuable asset. They know the difference between urgent and important, and they have the discipline to work on what matters most, even when everything else is screaming for their attention. And that's the discipline, putting up some boundaries. So, how would you score yourself? One being low, ten being high. Be honest, because most people I work with think they're seven or eight until they actually look at how they spend the last five days. You mind inventory. You know, do you have a calendar that you're operating out of? If I were to ask you, you know, to see your uh your calendar, would you be embarrassed? Would it just be work tasks? Is it organized, color-coded? Like, does it make sense? How productive do you think you actually are? All right, next pillar. People. People. Every relationship in your life is either an investment or a withdrawal. People are either actively fueling you or they're draining you. Colleagues, your friends, your partner, your kids. So the people around you fueling or draining you. Who in your life is getting the best of you right now? Your sharpest thinking, your best energy, your full attention, who's getting whatever's left over for the day. What people skills have you developed the people skills needed to serve and lead? Can I influence and persuade people to believe in me, to buy from me, to follow me, to invest in me, to support me? This one's really, really important. And, you know, people are really important because they are one of the critical components, ingredients to living a fulfilled life. Conversely, they can also be the biggest hell in your life if you're around the wrong people, because they can either fuel you or or drain you. And so this pillar can be can get some of the most the quietest reactions, not because people don't care about the relationships, but if you actually look hard, you know, most driven people realize the people they love most have been getting their leftovers for a long time. And that's that may not be easy to sit with, but hey, it all starts with awareness, right? Are the people you love most, are they getting the best of you, are they getting the leftovers? How would you rate your people's skills? And can you influence and persuade people to participate with you, to buy from you, follow you, invest in you, support you? All right, next pillar. Next pillar is psychology. This is your inner game. This is your operating system. If you're a computer, this is the operating system that you're operating with. And some people have not done an update in a very, very long time, a software update. You're still running on Windows 95 because that's when your psychology was installed in your hard drive. This is how you look at the outside world, how you talk to yourself when no one's watching. When something goes wrong, how do you react? When you fall short, how do you react and respond? When the gap between you and where you want to be feels impossibly wide, what does the voice in your head say? Is it coaching you forward? Or are you, I mean, our mind can be a terrorist? You might be the biggest shit talker. Your mind can be the biggest shit talker to you that you've ever experienced. So a scale of one to 10, how strong is your mental game right now? Your mindset, your self-talk, your belief, and what is actually possible for you. Now, the good news is you can upgrade the software. It can be done. It's not easy, but it can be done. And it starts with awareness. This is the opportunity right now. Like, where are you at in your mental game on a scale of one to ten? Is your psychology supporting you? Or is it holding you back? Does something need to be upgraded? A lot of the things that we downloaded that are holding us back are from, you know, childhood. It's from from upbringing, from parents' expectation, things learned in school. I mean, look at the military. You know, I had some programming there that that has not, it's served me well in many ways, but there's some things that I've had to deprogram as I transitioned in the civilian world. How is that for you? How is that for you? Because psychology is key and critical to high performance. The research is clear. High performers do not have less fear or less doubt than anyone else. They're not fearless, they've just built a better relationship with fear. And that all comes with your psychology. They act despite it. So your psychology score is not about how confident you feel on the outside. It's about whether your inner voice is working for you or against you right now. And so, how would you rate your psychology if you were to describe it to someone you were mentoring? What would you say? All right. So we've talked about productivity, people, psychology, next pillar, physiology. This is your body, your physical body. This is the machine that you have to, the vehicle to navigate in this world. And your body is the if your psychology is the software, the physiology is the hardware. Everything else runs on this: sleep, movement, nutrition, recovery, stress management. This was your vehicle, you would not to expect a car running on empty with four flat tires to perform at its best. I think about those, those, when you turn on the TV sometimes, especially when you're out in California, like every day there's a car chase and they shoot out the tires, and the car is spinning without the tires, and there's like sparks flying everywhere. A lot of people are operating like that. That's how they're that's how they're navigating life. They're not performing at their best. Most driven people are running their bodies on deferred maintenance, calling it hustle. So, how well, honest score here, how well are you doing with your body? How are you taking care of your physical energy, which has a direct impact, isn't it true? When you're physically tired, it directly impacts your mental energy, your emotional energy. Like you're, you know, if you only got two hours of sleep last night, you're gonna be a grump, right? And your spiritual energy, all these go hand in hand. And uh your physiology, which is where you can get a lot of margin in, you know, are you taking care of yourself? Are you, if this is a vehicle, you know, are you are you are you following the maintenance schedule, going to the doctor, taking care of doing all the things you need to be doing? Are you doing those things? So your physiology is important. You can have the best mindset in the world, you can have clarity, strategy, and drive, but if your body is depleted, sleep is broken, you're not moving, you're you're you're running on caffeine and stress hormones like cortisol. None of the other pillars matter because physiology is the foundation. Everything else sits on top of it. So, how well are you taking care of your body? One to ten on a score. All right. Next, next pillar, let's talk about presence. You can be physically in the room and completely absent. You go to the restaurant, you see the couple sitting there, gazing into each other's cell phones, not into each other's eyes. People just aren't present. You can be at dinner with people that you love and be somewhere else entirely. We're playing a conversation, planning for tomorrow, a lot of doom scrolling. That little that little device is like uh it just teleports you to another dimension mentally. And we spend more time on it than we realize. So, how present are you being with the ones you love the most? When you're in a room, you know, with your loved ones, are you there? Are you mentally present with them? You might be physically in the same room, but are you mentally there, connected emotionally? And then a flip side of this coin is when was the last time you're present with yourself without taking any inputs? This is where, you know, as a breathwork facilitator or meditator, you know, slowing down, removing the clutter from the mind. The mind can be like, I don't know, I call it like a like a like a raging river, a class five rapid, like especially after a flood. And you if you take a scoop of that water and you were to pull it out, you know, it's like brown and murky. But if you let it just sit, if you put the glass on the table and just let it sit for a little bit, all the sediments will begin to come down. That brown water will actually become much more clear. And that's what we need to do. We need to stop sometimes. We just need to be present with ourselves. That's why 90% of the world's highest performing people have some form of meditative practice. And what I've learned is that for people that struggle with meditation, like I have, uh, breath work really, really helps because the breath work slows down the nervous system so you can connect with yourself. Going for that long run, going for a run, uh, no inputs, like, you know, not listening to a podcast, just being with yourself, going to sit outside in nature. When was the last time you're present with yourself? So presence is really, really important. It's, you know, when was the last time you're fully present with someone you love? No phone, no mental noise, no background task, just completely there. This is how we like close out the tabs on our hard drive. We have so much stuff going on. If you know you got your memory on your laptop that that that you know, terabytes of memory, then you've got your RAM, which is like the rapid access memory. That's what your mental dashboard does. You can only compute so many things, and you're running a computer maxing out the RAM with all of the tabs open. So this enables you to start closing out the tabs. Close out the tabs. So on scale one to ten, how are you doing with your presence? How are you doing with your presence? And then finally, pillar number six, your purpose. This is the deepest one. This is the one most driven people have have really, really you might be struggling with this, but this is the most important. Why are you doing the things that you're doing? Why are you building what you're building? What is the thing that gets you up before the alarm on a hard day? The thing that keeps you going when everything is falling apart, when you're challenged, the thing that makes the sacrifice feel like it's worth it. Do you know what that is for you right now? On a scale of one to ten, are you in alignment with your purpose? I feel humans were here to create, create for the greater good of other humans so we can give, grow, and gain. And when we can figure out what that is, man, we feel so much more peaceful. We feel in alignment. If everything you're chasing, every goal and milestone, every number that you have ever set for yourself, if you hit all of it and nothing else in your life changed, your health is the same, your relationships are the same, your sense of who you are is the same. Would you feel like you won? Would you feel like you won? And that question is why I do this work, because most driven people had never stopped long enough to ask it. You know, the an earlier version of me would have been like, hell no, I'm not done. I got so much left to do. And I know I mean, internally, I still have things to do. But if if the Lord were to take me home today, I'm at peace. I'm good. I truly, honestly feel like really, really good because I know that I'm in alignment with my purpose and my mission's done, then he's calling me home, and I'm good. But for longest time, I don't think I could answer that. And so being in alignment with your purpose really helps you with decision making. It helps you with establishing boundaries. People that are in alignment with their purpose are far more peaceful. And that is the difference. That is the difference as I look back at my life, like when I was out of alignment with my purpose, when my mental psychology was out of whack, when I wasn't managing my physiology. I mean, that that had a just a compound effect on every other pillar. My productivity sucked because like a workaholic, I was I wasn't delegating things, I had challenges with the people in my life, I wasn't being present. Like it was just one thing can can lead to another. Like like in your vehicle, like the chiming chain breaks, it can like jack up everything else in the engine. And uh that's how I was running for a long time. And so these are the pillars, these are the foundations. Your productivity, the people, the psychology, the physiology, presence, and purpose. These are all the foundations of living that high performance life. And so you have a score for each one of these. And I want you to take a look at this and determine, you know, which ones are you leaking the most energy with? Which one might you be leaking the most energy? What is that costing you to leak that energy? And how does it feel? What happens if nothing changes? If you continue on this path six months from now or a year from now, what what will happen? And who loses if you don't win? Like who else does it affect? What would it feel like to put some energy, get some clarity, get some focus in this area, and improve it from just a couple of points from the the the point you're currently at? What what what would that look like and feel like? How might your life change? And so this is a critical part of uh of what I do. I help people, you know, we we took a holistic view of our life and we boil it down to the most important things, and we just do some reflective work and we find opportunities to inject some energy, find some ideas to help you get in alignment so you can be more productive, to be deeply more deeply connected with the people in your life, have greater influence, to have a better psychology that serves you, to improve your physiology and your energy, your physical energy, your mental energy, your emotional energy, your spiritual energy, to be more present, to be in alignment with your purpose. And when all of these things are in alignment, you feel peaceful, powerful, productive, and you're on purpose. And man, it feels good. You live that fully charged life because there's three types of lives people live: caged, like they're stuck in a cage, can't get out, trapped. They feel like they're really comfortable, like they have all the means, they they have money in their account, they've got the career. That feels really good, especially after years of living the caged life. But if there's a level of like comfort where you're like, man, I should be happy, but you still feel unsettled, like this is it, like there's got to be another level. Then finally it's the fully charged life. And that's where you're firing on all cylinders. That's when you are dominating the six pillars, you are living that high performance life, getting things done, crushing your goals, giving, growing, and gaining, living that peaceful life. And uh, this is the work. It's not hustle and grind, that hustle culture mentality. I used to subscribe to that. That did help for a little bit, but ultimately you're not gonna be any more peaceful. Peace is the ultimate flex. Having a peaceful life is the ultimate flex. And yeah, I this is it just takes an honest look at who you are and uh and working on yourself and deciding that, hey, I'm gonna invest time and energy to uh improve this aspect of my life so I can create that peace. And that's what this whole movement is about. That is my mission, that is what I'm here to do. Create a community, driven people, help them get refocused, help them get clarity, energized, stop drifting, get unstuck so they can live that peaceful, powerful, purposeful, productive life so they can continue to give, grow, and gain to others and make the world a better place. I'm just a combat multiplier. I'm just I'm just here to to leverage that and help people. Because look, you watch the news lately, you scrolled on social media, the world needs good people doing good things. We need kindness in the world, we need people making an impact. We need people to not be so miserable and sad like I was. And yeah, so that's it. Uh that that's that that's it. If I can help you in any way, we're listening to this right now. You know, you can click on the link. If I can help you, you can look at the different offerings that are there and connect. And if you want, you can even grab some time on my calendar. We can sit down and go through exactly what came up for you today, your scores, your lowest pillar, what's showing up in your life, what you actually want to do about it. And uh the links in the show note, grab some time on my calendarly. And yeah, I only opened up to a limited number of spots. So when they're gone, they're gone. But that's that's the work. Like I said, it's not more hustle, it's not more grind, it's not the next milestone. It's looking honestly at who you are and deciding that you know what? I want to live that high-performing life. So if this episode hit home, share it with a person in your life who needs to hear it. And yeah, that person that you're thinking of right now, send it to them right now. Like, hey, you need to check this out. You need to check this out. I think this is uh this is useful and this could be this could be beneficial to you. So we if if you're feeling even extra generous, you might go over to uh Apple or Spotify and leave us a review. It really, really helps us with the algorithm. And yeah, today is the diagnostic. We talked about the six pillars, providing an honest score for each one, and uh rating yourself on your productivity, people, psychology, physiology, presence, and purpose. And and yeah, I want you to dominate these things, dominate the basics like we talk about in the book. If you haven't grabbed the book, you should go grab the book because it's actually pretty awesome. And uh it'll it'll help you out. So, anyway, that's all I got. If if you like this episode, like I said, share it with someone, leave us a review, go to the uh the uh the link tree that's located in the show notes, and uh you can see all the different offerings, the upcoming retreats, the different events. Grab the book, grab some time on my calendar if there's a slot available for you. And I just uh if you're listening to this and you can and you've listened to this far, thank you for being here. The world is hard, can be hard, but we do hard things around here making the world a better place. We make ourselves better so we can show up for those around us to be that lighthouse that everyone needs us to be. And that's why we're here doing the work. And just gonna encourage you to keep getting after it. And I will see you all in the in the next episode. That is it from the Do Hard Things Studios. See you guys. We'll see you soon. Bye.