People often ask me (Brendon Burchard) whether there is a specific “state” that will enable them to succeed over the long term. Well, by definition, emotional and mental states don’t endure. They’re fleeting. Moods stick around longer, and habits hold the longest, which is why we focus there.
But I think what people are really getting at is. “How will I feel when I’ve hit high performance? What does it feel like, so I can reverse-engineer that?”
That question can be answered by the data. In a keyword analysis of public survey data on over thirty thousand high performing respondents, it’s pretty clear: When people talk about how they feel in high performance, they report feeling full engagement, joy, and confidence (in that order).
This means they tend to be fully immersed in what they are doing, they enjoy what they’re doing, and they have confidence in their ability to figure things out.
Rounding out the top five were purposefulness and flow, as in “I feel like I’m in flow.” (“In the zone” was not an option in our surveys because it’s a phrase rather than a word, but it was the most common written-in descriptor.) Determination, focus, intention, deliberateness, and conscientiousness rounded out the top concepts people used to describe what being in high performance felt like.
Knowing this, you might as well start with the end in mind. Start bringing your full attention to the moments of your life. Start bringing more joy. Start bringing more confidence. These things will not only make you feel better, they’ll also help you perform better. Still, the same caveat applies to states as to strengths: Without effective habits, they’re just not enough.
* Source: High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard