[00:00:00] Let's talk about books today, friends. So there's a couple books, not, I'm an avid reader. Like I read a ridiculous amount. But there's only a couple of books that I have read more than once. And I've shared with you Atomic Habits. It's by James Clear one of, I think I read that book five or six times and I probably should read it again.

[00:00:20] There's just so much to devour. Another book that I've read a couple times is The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho, I think that's how you pronounce his last name. It's really a book about following your dreams and that one is actually fiction, but it's like a fable, I guess. And anyway, definitely worth.

[00:00:41] Reading also like the meditations of Marcus Aurelius really love reading that Stoic literature. But the book I want to talk to you about today is

[00:00:54] High Performance Habits by Brendan Burchard. I love him. I think he is such a powerful inspiration for people who are In front of other people on a regular basis. So, you know, social media coaches course creators, that sort of thing. But he has an organization that sent out surveys to lots and lots. I want to say thousands, but I don't know that for sure.

[00:01:30] But Could be just been hundreds, but a lot of people who the world considers to be

[00:01:38] high performance players. And he took all of that information, synthesized it down and came up with these six habits that really indicate a person's ability to lead, to To to have long term success. And what I love about it is that he equates success, not just with financial success, but with personal fulfillment. 

[00:02:11] So what I want to do is. Go through, I'll give you like the Cliff Notes version of these six things. We'll kind of talk about how to apply them to ourselves as bloggers. But if this appeals to you, I really encourage you to get his book. Okay the first one is clarity. We talk about this a lot, right?

[00:02:31] Clarity in your niche, clarity in your audience, clarity in your personas, clarity in their needs and preferences, and clarity about your goals. So what you want to do is know who you want to be for your audience and be clear about how you're going to get there. And I think that's probably one of the most important of all the ones we're going to talk about because if you're not clear, then nobody else is going to be clear either.

[00:03:08] Part of being a blogger, even if it, even if you don't feel like it, is being a leader, right? Teaching, sharing being a leader. A source of inspiration, of guidance for other people, and you can't provide clarity to your audience if you don't have it yourself. So that's number one. Number two is e learning.

[00:03:31] I love that he added this in here because we, we tend to forget this part of what we need to work toward when we just think about business, but having good health and sustained energy is so, so important to working sustainably. toward our business goals. So exercise, meditation, rest, those are really important parts of leading a successful business.

[00:04:03] Number three is raising necessity. And what that means is that whatever you're set out to do, that you don't do it because you want to do it or you prefer to do it, You do it because it's a necessity. So you're setting high standards and you're emotionally committed. And here's what I want to say. I think this is Leslie talking, but I think what you might want to remember is that it's your job to be emotionally committed to your why.

[00:04:38] So you don't have to be emotionally committed to your search rankings. to your RPM, to whatever method you're using to reach your audience, because that's going to change over time. It has changed over the last year, right? So if you can be emotionally committed to your why and not your how, then you can evolve your business.

[00:05:06] as it needs to evolve over time. You can grow it, you can grow, you can expand it, you can change it, you can morph it, but you're always committing to that. Okay, the next one, increased productivity. And this does not mean add four hours to your day, because you just can't, especially if you want to maintain that energy level.

[00:05:30] What it means is, only focusing on the outputs that matter the most and that contribute to your major goals. So there's going to be other outputs that people request of you when it comes to your business. And you're going to have to learn to say no, because when you can say no to the things that If it's not leading to your goals, then it's just another way of saying yes to those goals.

[00:06:02] Number five, develop influence. Now, this does not mean develop a social media account. Although if you are, great for you. But this isn't fake influence. This isn't taking who we are and presenting some side of it to the outside world. It's really about building trustworthiness with your audience, building community, building trustworthiness.

[00:06:23] building being seen as a leader with your audience and with your colleagues too. And finally, finally, the last one is demonstrating courage. So this means, I think for us, asserting ourselves and taking risks. Now, it could also mean speaking up for your beliefs or you know, getting out of your comfort zone in other ways.

[00:06:47] But I think for a lot of people that are listening now, I want you to, I want you to read it as taking risks and doing something different. Here's the thing, friends. You guys are just like me. We're all wondering what we should be doing now. We're trying to figure all these things out. And yet so many of you are just continuing to do the same thing that you did this time last year or two years ago or five years ago.

[00:07:20] And you know that old adage about insanity and how it's Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Well, that's what's happening. You're driving yourself insane. You've got to grab some clarity, grab some courage, and do something different. If you want a different outcome, you've got to behave differently.

[00:07:42] Take those risks. And if you feel like, oh gosh, I can't take the risks. Okay, well, work on your energy. Work on understanding what your why is and how that's the thing that you should be committed to and not just your page views. Work on getting rid of those things that are on your to do list that aren't leading you toward your most important goal.

[00:08:08] Okay, so that is from Brendan Bouchard's book. I really, really recommend it and, you know, and the others I talked about, Atomic Habits by James Clear, The Alchemist what else Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Those are just a couple that I have found worthy to read more than once.