232: The Secrets of High Performance and the 3 Alarms with Eric Partaker

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Eric Partaker. Eric is an interesting guy. He had been ranked "Top 30 Entrepreneurs in the UK", 35 and under, by Startups Magazine, and among "Britain's 27 Most Disruptive Entrepreneurs" by The Telegraph. His work has been featured on a number of major TV stations and networks, as well as in the Wall Street Journal and The Economist. He has also appeared as a guest judge on the The Apprentice.

Over the last 20 years Eric has advised Fortune 50 CEOs while at McKinsey & Company, helped build Skype’s multi-billion-dollar success story, and founded several companies, before becoming one of only 300 certified high-performance coaches in the world by the High-Performance Institute.

But, it’s not just that Eric coaches a very exclusive number of top performers throughout the world, it’s unique experience and way of looking at things that really makes his standout – and that is what I want him to share with you today.

www.EricPartaker.com

Get a free copy of the 3 Alarms there as well

Eric story takes place over a decade when we got on a plane and felt a little “off” at take-off. As the plane climbed, he began to feel pain in his chest and arm. Luckily, a doctor was on the plane and checked him and determined he was having a heart attack. The plane had to do an emergency landing.

He landed in a small town in France to a waiting ambulance and remembers saying to the paramedic, “Please don’t let me die. I have a 5-year-old son.” He ended up being ok as they got to him in time. Eric says that this was the start of history, because prior to that he was a workaholic working 100 hours a week.

It became his mission to help others avoid what he went through. But it took a little more time. Eric says that it was not even the heart attack that sparked the final change. He changed his health habits, but still 3 years later he still had not changed himself outside of that and woke one day to his wife sobbing telling him she was going to leave him if he didn’t change his ways. He was not present and available to his family. He needed to make changes on the home front. He realized there were 3 domains that we must be balanced in: Health, Wealth, and Relationships.

Define High Performance and what it means. What does a true Top Performer look like?

• Take a step and look at the why
• Only 2% of people that reach their full potential. 98% don’t. It’s terrifying and liberating at the same time.
• The liberating part is that you can be part of the 2%.
• Think of performing at your best in the life domains: Health, Wealth, and Relationship.
• Peak Performance gives a set of tools to be your best in each of the areas.
• Don’t picture the Ferrari. Picture what it means for you to be your best.

Are there habits that people can develop to perform at their highest potential? What are the traps that keep them from doing this?

At the 13 min mark, Eric talks about the 3 Alarms.

He starts with I-P-A.

Identity: Behavior follows identity – you have to choose who you want to be before anything.

Productivity: Knowledge isn’t where the game is played. It’s readily available. The game is turning knowledge into action.

Anti-Fragility: The more you get hit, the stronger you become. The true opposite of fragile. Things will not go to plan. You must step into it, rise to the challenge, and get stronger because of it.

Understanding this is one thing, but putting it into action is another…How does someone choose who they want to be and so on? Focus on 3 things, the 3 domains.

At the 18 min mark, Eric talks about us putting on our hero costumes and instinctively knowing what to do.

Remember, behavior follows identity. We did this as kids all the time.

• The practice and simple practical tool for remembering this is the 3 Alarms.
• Take out your phone and set 3 alarms each for one of the domains – but in the alarm write out what you at your best would be called in each of the domains. What is your super hero name for each one?
• For example, in the health department for Eric, his alarm says “World Fitness Champion” because that is who he is when he shows up in the gym. At 6:30am each day, this goes off for him. He steps into this identity when he works.
• 9am is “World’s Best Coach”
• 6:30pm is “World’s Best Husband and Father”
• Linking this intentionality to the best time of day for it is game-changing.

At the 21-minute mark, we discuss how little reminders like the 3 Alarms and others can make a difference even subliminally and using them to create your future self. We also discuss choice and the role it plays in your success in your life. It is best to listen.

What are some of the traps that you see keeping people from reaching their true potential?

• Procrastination. It kills success.
• It ends up being a self-defense tactic because what you know you need to do is not something you want to do.
• The simple solution is to change the way you talk. When you feel the urge to procrastinate, you should stop and take notice of what is going in your head.
• Instead of saying “I have to,” change it to “I choose to.” Even if you don’t like it, you are still choosing it.
• Then give it a small of time, like 5 mins. So instead it becomes, “I choose to start for just 5 mins” - this defeats procrastination.

2 Special Forces techniques to increase success?

• Some of Eric’s clients are ex-special forces and are masters of anti-fragility.
• One of the things they do all the time are “pre-mortems” and “post-mortems.”
• This is a great anti-fragility builder.
• When you visualize everything ahead of time and note any potential obstacles and how you will overcome, it helps tremendously as you begin the project, task, strategy, or going after a goal, etc.
• Ask, “If I were to fail completely in this, what are the reasons this would happen?”
• Then figure out what you can do ahead of time to overcome the reasons. Then, when done, do an analysis of what happened and what you learned from it – and what you could do better the next time around.

The 3-13-3 multiplier. Tell us about that and how it relates to entrepreneurs.

The first 3 is the 3 Alarms

• The 13 is adding 13 weeks back to your life every year.
• The average person loses 28% of their work day to the ineffectiveness of multi-tasking. (this stat comes from the book The One Thing)
• Taking out 6 weeks for vacation per year, that means at 28%, we are losing 13 weeks per year of productivity. Over a 40 year career, that is an entire decade!
• The solution is to master the art of single tasking.
• Get old school with a time sheet and track every activity you do in a day for a week to see where you time is going.
• When you get better a single tasking, you get more productive and you add more time back into your life as you are becoming more productive.
• You can increase the ability to achieve your goals 3x by taking on the avoidance of loss head on. We have an over-aversion to loss.
• If you tie a monetary loss to something you are avoiding that if you continue to avoid and not do, you have to pay up. Basically a bet. It will motivate you to do it. You can also make the payout go to something you despise which further incentivizes you as you will not want to pay it. ​

What is the one thing that has surprised you most on your entrepreneur journey and what is your biggest takeaway from it?

• Becoming world class at something is not nearly as hard as people make it out to be.
• It requires you really understanding where you are going to be your best in.
• Blocking your calendar and time to work on and develop those skills.
• Then show up and have respect for yourself to keep your appointment with yourself to do it.
• It is so much closer than people realize.

 

Best Quote: Becoming world class at something is not nearly as hard as people make it out to be. It is so much closer than people realize.

 

Eric's Misfit 3:

1. Choose your identity. Choose who you want to be. You did it as a kid and you can do it now.
2. Measure how you are doing daily. Show up and do you best. At the end of the day give yourself a W for a win and an L for learn. No more than 6 L’s in a month.
3. Remember to not take things too seriously. Have a good time.

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