Book Recommendation No. 51 (2022): BRENDON BURCHARD: HIGH PERFORMANCE HABITS.
2nd edition Munich 2020.
By Hans-Christian Riekhof
Another New York Times No. 1 bestseller on my book list? Those who know this type of advice from the pen of American best-selling authors also know its typical (sometimes also annoying) elements: an important reference of the topic to a decisive experience in the biography of the author (“an email that changed my life”), many small stories and biographical case studies that are supposed to generate anecdotal evidence, many plausible advice and tips that you have already read elsewhere. The author’s own empirical studies and the evaluation of many coaching sessions also form the basis of the book. Is it worth reading?
Brendon Burchard and the interlocking with online channels
Nowadays, (printed) advice books are ideally closely interlinked with the author’s website, as is the case here. For example, there is the online self-test that Brendon Burchard recommends to every reader. It is definitely worth it, even if you are then supplied with many acquisition mailings from the Burchard house afterwards. Of course, there is also a reference to the author’s YouTube videos on certain (meditation) exercises. Reading books today is basically impossible if you are not online at the same time.
Brendon Burchard: It’s about the changeability of our everyday habits
Why did the book arouse my interest at all? Because it’s about “habits”, i.e. more or less everyday personal habits and their change and above all changeability (!!). Self-manipulation in the most positive sense.
But what are the High Performance Habits?
- Create clarity and meaningfulness regarding your own intentions
- Generate energy to promote concentration, mental endurance and positive emotions
- Increase the necessity and drive to achieve extraordinary performance
- Increase productivity in your own primary area of interest
- Develop influence on the people in your own environment
- Show courage by clearly expressing your own ideas and intentions.
These 6 habits of Brendon Burchard are anything but self-explanatory as keywords, and ultimately there are indeed content overlaps in the 6 chapters. But it is definitely worth dealing with these topics in detail. I don’t want to give you a content summary at this point (the author provides this at the end on 5 pages).
What did I take away from the “High Performance Habits”? There would be a lot to mention, for example using mental stimuli in everyday life to stimulate “habits”.
Perhaps as a conclusion only this much: the reading is definitely worth it if you want to deal with your own habits and their review and further development. It helps a lot to skim some of the case studies from the author’s coaching practice a bit faster.