James Clear is a renowned author of the New York Times bestseller “Atomic Habits.” In this video of Clear’s interview with High Performance, he talks about how to build awesome habits and what high performance means to him.
Clear’s work has been used by teams in the NFL, NBA, and Fortune 500 companies. He emphasizes that mistakes are not what ruin people, but rather the inability to avoid repeating those mistakes. One of the deepest needs people have is to belong, but often people choose to belong to fit in rather than to achieve what they say they like.
Clear says that every action one takes is a vote for the type of person they wish to become. Although human beings first appeared on Earth around 2 million years ago, they still talk themselves out of things and limit their potential. The reason behind this is competing priorities, a lack of self-awareness, and not being clear about what one is optimizing for.
One must know what their most important priority is and avoid taking on too many projects to achieve high performance. Overall, Clear emphasizes the importance of self-reflection, knowing oneself, and making conscious decisions about one’s actions to achieve success.