Don’t just take what top performers share by face value — dig deeper

We see it in articles. We hear it in podcasts. We lean in to the information when courageous leaders and top performers share them in interviews. 

You know what I’m talking about — articles like 6 High-Performance Habits That the Happiest Executives Have in Common or 5 Morning Habits of Highly Successful People; advice like “here’s Elon Musk’s morning routine — and his top productivity tip”; podcasts like NPR’s How I Built This.

Now, these resources teaching you how to be more productive may serve a purpose. They can provide value. However, we need to accept that it’s also the things that top performers don’t outwardly share that contribute to their success or highly driven work ethics.

What are these “secrets” that top performers are not sharing?

It often lies in the everyday. Little things that may not seem as transformative. The behaviors that are not as obvious but are actually built into their lives, that give them the consistent advantage.

Often, it is us that are not asking the right questions. We’re not choosing to dig deeper into the behind-the-scenes work top performers put in.

If you look at a fitness influencer on Instagram who posts daily workouts and what-I-eat-in-a-day videos, you’re going to think that those are the exact things that have shaped their amazing physique or strength.

The details they post and what they decide to share with the world makes you, the audience, think that that’s what it takes. So you emulate that. Or, if they have a workout program, you follow through. When they invite you to join in on a challenge, you’re one of the first people to sign up.

While what they show may be contributing factors, what actually sets them apart is the not-obvious behaviors that separate an average person from a top performer.

In this case, maybe this fitness influencer views rest days as “cardio days”, but to the public, the perception of the rest day is one where the athlete stays home and does nothing.

Maybe there is a warm-up that they consistently do, that they don’t show on their IG highlight reel as it’s not as interesting, but which actually contributes to their mobility and lowers their risk of getting injured.

Maybe it’s the regular sleep they’re getting and the amount of H2O they consume everyday. Maybe they calculate their macros and calories beforehand, and smartly work their way around living a balanced life.

You’re not going to uncover everything, but learning to recognize that there are a lot of areas you do not fully understand about how a top performer is productive, and pushing yourself to ask questions from a different perspective, can help inform the productivity hacks you want to adopt a lot faster.

Do not plan your career

Focus on developing critical thinking skills, building on big-picture thinking, and actively pursuing opportunities.

I understand needing a plan. A goal to pursue. A milestone for yourself so you know where you’re headed. A purpose for life. These things are important, but it’s also good to remember that the world is constantly changing. 

Who we were in 2019 did not expect the events that would transpire in 2020, and for us here in Malaysia in 2021, to still be going through lockdowns during the pandemic.

If you chart popular college degrees back to the past few decades, you’ll also see how the trends shift. Engineering degrees were huge back in the 1980s, making up 8.4% of all college degrees in 1984, compared to 2011 when that percentage dropped to 4.7%. Computer science degrees also saw similar percentage trends.

I’m not discounting college degrees here. The point I’m making is, few have managed to plan out their lifelong careers and stick with it line by line. That’s because industries evolve, technologies advance, and we as people, are always adapting. 

Focus on continually developing your skills and broadening your horizons. Seek out opportunities and take advantage of new experiences when they are presented to you. 

Every opportunity you take on will bring you potential returns.

Maybe it’s extra income, maybe it’s fruitful relationships that you would otherwise not be able to build, maybe it’s learnings that you can bring forth to show greater value in your career journey.

My motto with this is, never say never. At any given time, I know what I’m willing to try and what I am not as interested in. If an opportunity presents itself, I allow myself the chance to jump on it. And if it doesn’t work out? At least I’ve given it my best shot, and I can move forward to other things that can make my career journey a lot more productive.

Your limiting beliefs are causing you to procrastinate

There is a reason why you’re procrastinating, so until you figure out your limiting beliefs, you’re not going to get out of your rut. 

More often than not, there are psychological barriers fuelling it. Here are 3 common psychological barriers that often plagued me in the past:

Fear

It’s natural to fear the unknown. Fear of taking action, because what if it doesn’t work out, right? The next time you encounter that, try fear setting. It’s like goal setting, but instead of thinking about the goals you want to achieve, push yourself to think about what you fear the most. Usually, what you fear is the worst thing that could possibly happen. Essentially, what’s making you procrastinate and what’s stopping you from being productive.

Then, think about the steps you would take if you had to fix or solve that worst thing if it does happen. Chances are, it’s not that tough to imagine if you just spend some time thinking about it. If it’s something you would be able to fix, then ask yourself, what are you waiting for? If it’s something you can’t fix, then you’ll know to change your strategy or shift your goals. 

The key here is to calculate the cost of inaction — essentially, what would happen if you did nothing at all and just continued to worry.

Time

Do you find yourself saying “I don’t have time” often? 

I remember saying that to myself a lot when I had all these creative ideas and experiences I wanted to try or get into. In my mind, I just didn’t have the time because I was already so busy with my full-time job, and I wanted work-life balance — head to happy hour after work, hit the gym 4x/week, spend time with people I care about, etc.

However, what you’re really saying when you say, “I don’t have time”, is that you’re not choosing to see this thing as a priority.

It’s true that we have limited hours during the day, and so many things we want to do. But we’re also choosing to scroll through our social media feeds in bed, or opting to put on a feel-good flick after a long day. None of these are inherently bad. I bring them up to highlight that these are all choices.

Before 2020, I said “I don’t have time” a lot. 

Before I could commit to a regular 4x/week strength training program, I spent a few years saying that it was not possible, that I didn’t have time. But when I finally prioritized my lifting goals, suddenly, committing to a 4x/week strength training program shot itself up to the top of the priority list.

And when that happened, I was considerably busier at work compared to where I was 2 years prior! So it’s not a matter of “I don’t have time”. Just what I was willing to let go, like not having happy hour drinks every single day.

Resources

Is it a lack of resources that’s stopping you? Do you find yourself telling yourself, “I can only do it if I have this. But I don’t have this yet, so I can’t do it.”

This is an ongoing work in progress for myself, to not chase an arbitrary idea of perfection like, “I need the best video camera before I can start a YouTube channel” or “I need to have a fully built website before I can launch” or “I need to be sure that gyms can continue to stay open before I commit to a program”.

Sometimes, it’s essential. But if you look at the top performers of today — anyone from your favorite YouTuber to someone like Jeff Bezos — they didn’t start off already having the best gear or even selling the product they’re most known for today. 

No, they struck out on their own, went with their gut, and just tried.

Their first product or creation are often not that great, but do we care? No. Because who they are today and what they provide add value to our lives today.

Don’t sweat the small things that make what you’re doing less than perfect. Resources can be acquired down the road. Skills can be developed. But what’s more important is that you get started now instead of procrastinating.

I’d argue that putting yourself out there and falling head first is better than not doing anything at all. I’d hate to spend my entire life wondering about what could have been. 

You are your worst boss

How do you manage yourself? Whether you’re striking out on your own as a solopreneur, or whether you’re expected to set your own KPIs within an organization, managing yourself comes into play.

And that’s when most of us reveal how we’re our worst boss. 

If a boss talks to us the way we talk down to ourselves, we’d hate it. If a boss doesn’t put effort into understanding and helping us develop the skills we need to grow in our career, we wouldn’t be happy either.

So why do so many of us hesitate when it comes to trying something new? Why do we give up at the first sign of failure? Why do we not push ourselves to soldier on, the way a good boss would?

Maybe you’re not the most adept marketer, maybe you’re not the best salesperson, maybe you’re not the most intuitive manager. You can still be in the top 25% at a few skills, and that will already make you more productive than most. To get there, you’ll need to put in the work.

Personally, it was when I had to manage a team that I started becoming more productive. I started forgiving myself more, pushing myself to pursue opportunities that came my way, even if they didn’t work out — because hey, at least there were learnings and I knew what to do to move forward and produce better work. 

Every feedback that came my way became an opportunity to see how other people perceived a situation, and I would then learn to put myself in their shoes, to view things from their perspective.

That, in turn, allowed me to develop the ability to look at a situation from multiple directions and on different planes, which has not only greatly benefited my working relationships, but also my productivity. It had me so amped up all the time!

Most importantly, I always tell myself to at least, just, try.

It doesn’t have to be perfect, but if I waited for this intangible idea of perfection, I wouldn’t be moving forward at all.

My lesson here is to always afford the same kind of treatment and expectation to myself, the way I would afford my team. What I am always working on is balancing between offering myself kindness and pushing myself through failure.

All the great content you consume means nothing if you don’t create and contribute

You can read all the newsletters and blogs and Twitter threads you want, but until you take action to change your attitude and behavior, nothing will change in your life.

I love Twitter threads. I learn so much from the #BuildInPublic community, and more. It’s inspiring and my feed is filled with these nuggets of wisdom that are helping me grow shenenigains. My email inbox is filled with these amazing newsletters from growth marketers and creators. 

But it becomes too much of a good thing when I spend more time consuming instead of creating. So everytime I find myself scrolling aimlessly and spending an unplanned hour diving deeper into the black hole of creator content, I catch myself and push myself to write down some ideas based on what I’ve learned in that hour.

Now, it has become second nature. In fact, this article was inspired by a Twitter thread.