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For over 20 years, Shaun McCambridge has been inquisitive, learning and experimenting with different ways to leverage our greatest asset….. our minds, to work for us rather than against us.
Join Shaun as he engages with inspiring guests to provide you with tangible knowledge and insights to help you achieve more.
This show is powered by Stellar Recruitment and is inspired by our company purpose and WHY which is….. “Inspiring growth, Changing lives”. Shaun McCambridge is the Managing Director of Stellar Recruitment, a devoted husband and father to four spritely children. Ensure that you subscribe, rate and review!
Hi guys. I'm Shaun McCambridge. For over 20 years, I've been inquisitive, learning and experimenting with different ways to leverage our greatest asset, our minds to work for us rather than against us. Join me as I engage with these inspirational guests to provide you knowledge and insights to help you achieve more.
The show is sponsored by Stellar Recruitment. And inspired by a company purpose and why, which is inspiring growth and changing lives. Thanks very much for tuning in.
Hey James,
James returns to the show and the story behind the book
thanks for joining us here today, mate, always good to catch up. Love what you're doing. Obviously keep an eye on it from afar, but mate, you're a bundle of energy. You're inspiring a ton of people and congratulations on this new book that you've authored since we are getting some great feedback.
And yeah, have a great impact. So I guess you been super fortunate to catch up with some amazing individuals and sort of understand what makes them so, but yeah, in terms of, you know, before we get into some of those habits themselves, I guess I'm keen to understand what drew you to studying high performance.
I know that yourself as a world champion, obviously high performances in your DNA, but yeah, what sort of surprised you? About some of these individuals you've got close to about, you know, how they live and think day to day. Because I think sometimes there's a, a notion that you think these people are superhuman, right?
Totally. And those sorts of things, but yeah. Yeah. What have you getting close to some of these wonderful individuals, what have you sort of learned about how they sort of go about their lives on a day-to-day basis at a basic level? Yeah. Lots actually, Shaun, thanks for having me back on the show. It's great to be back.
Happy New Year to you and your listeners. So I would love to talk about what got me to actually, uh, to the point to write the book and I'm a speaker. Not a writer. And so I vowed why would I ever write a book? But as I kept speaking, people kept saying, James, that's a book. I was like, what's a book? Like, well, what you're sharing, like the framework of high performance.
I was like, ah, people can just come and listen. Well, we can only get 80 people in a room, you know? So I ended up writing the book. And key reason being, you mentioned I was a world champion, Shaun, however, you know,
World champion success vs the hidden cost off the field
people might go, that's high performance and I won seven world titles. That's really high performance.
But what they didn't see and what we don't see, you and I, we don't see this with, uh, tiger Woods. Until we see it in the front page, we don't see it with the top athletes, the top CEOs, we don't see what's happening behind the scenes. Hmm. So for me, yes, I was a multiple time world champion, but my marriage was heading downwards and ended in divorce.
I had a pretty strong relationship with alcohol. I didn't sleep much, I didn't gym much. I worked way too many hours, and it was all about career success. Now I know there will be a listener right now that's listening to this going. Um, I put a lot of time into my career. My relationships could do with a little more love.
My health could do with a little more love. That's what sent me in the direction of writing this book. My whole idea was can someone be a high performer on field at work in their career or sport whilst also being a high performer off field? Is that possible? So that was initially what, what got me fired up.
Yeah, no, I think that's the, uh, the challenge sometimes. I mean, I sort of look at my life through the pillars that you learn through things like YPO, there's this personal, professional, and family. Mm-hmm. And often you see maybe one or two of them going really well, but to the detriment of, of others. So it sounds like you've been really curious about trying to crack the code, so to speak, and sort of understand how do.
Perform across all, all, all facets of life. But, um, yeah, I mean, I'm keen to sort of under understand a little bit more about the book itself. So yeah, I guess sometimes you think, you know, high performance is doing more. You see the likes of Elon Musk, uh, you know, running, you know, numerous companies and God knows how he does it and all the rest of it.
But I know in the book you sort of challenge that notion, you know? So is there any particular habit in the book? That, you know, I guess allows you to achieve more. But you know, I guess with, with less, you know, I guess you talk about this notion of MVP, right? Most valuable priority and that sort of centers you in terms of what you should be focusing on.
But can you talk more about maybe challenging that notion of high performance is just about doing more? Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, I had a interesting discussion with one of Australia's leading psychologists on the topic of burnout and this guy's like Australian of the Year and like just an incredible human.
And he said to me, James, your definition of high performance is wrong. I was like, why is that? He said,
Redefining high performance beyond "winning"
high performance is simply winning. And I says, is that right? I was like, well, what about the people who won in sport in in movies and theaters in business, and ended up taking their own lives? Is that what we would define as winning?
And he got a bit uncomfortable. And I says, okay, we should be uncomfortable. Because high performance to me is performing above the norms in your industry. Mm-hmm. And in your life whilst maintaining healthy relationships and wellbeing. That to me, is truly high performance, and that is winning. So for me, the one thing I see with high performers, and I wrote about it in the book, is that
Saying no as a key high-performance habit
high performers say no a lot.
They're very comfortable to say no. I look at Elon Musk and I'm like, wow, you're pretty incredible in a lot of ways. However, there's not one part of my life that I wouldn't wanna swap for his life. I just wouldn't wanna do that. So hustle was something I did in my twenties and in my early thirties. I believe that hustle is not the way to achieve success.
It's habits. And it's not lock or hustle, it's all comes back to habits. So the very first habit, I would say the listener needs to just lock in for 2026, say no way more often. Yeah. And I guess Sally, so if you clear on your priorities, then that sort of helps you sort of run a filter through things that are coming at you, right?
Does this help advance my priorities or is this sort of peripheral to that? So there's a bit of a consciousness and then a bit of discipline to react to that, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. May I share a little example of that priority? Yeah. So in the book, I've got a thing called
The Values & Priorities filter
the VP filter. Mm-hmm. And it's the values and priorities filter for making decisions.
Mm-hmm. Now, you and I, we make decisions every moment of every day. Should I eat the thing? Should I take the call? Should I go to the gym? Should I say yes or no? So we need a filter sometimes for the big decisions. So picture this. I'm in Cape Town, South Africa. Mm. A few years ago, and I'm sitting down at a cafe and there's a guy in Cape Town called Sia Ksi.
Mm-hmm. And for those that are not into sport, he's the spring box captain, world champion. Amazing at what he does now. His story is phenomenal. Came from nothing from ruins. Growing up in a township to being arguably. The next most influential figure to Nelson Mandela that that country has ever seen. So he has a foundation called the Ksi Foundation, which is all about ending gender-based violence in South Africa.
So I'm sitting down and my partner Caroline, and they say, Hey James, we've got a movie coming out next month. It's called Rise. And it's about seas rise. And we're gonna release it at the Spotify headquarters in, uh, in London, England next month. And it's gonna be right before we play the All Blacks Twicking them.
And we'd love you to come and be our host and our mc. We love the podcast, we want you to be there. And there'll be all these amazing people in the crowd. And my ego is just going, oh my God. Like I want to be there. Like I run a podcast in New Zealand. I want to be at the Spotify headquarters in London.
This is awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So I said yes in principle. And they said, what? What does in principle mean? I was like, I just need to check my calendar. I don't have it with me right now. I'll check it when I get back to the hotel. So get back to the hotel, get the calendar out, look at the calendar, and on the very same day is my little boy who
Choosing Finn's school production over a major London event
Finn, who was six at the time, his school production.
And it's gonna be in Christchurch, New Zealand, 12,000 miles away from London. So big dilemma. I really wanna be at this event in London. I want to be hanging out with these cool people and at this very special event for sia. But I also wanna be at my son's very first school production at the town hall.
So I start going through what are my priorities, and they're very clear, family, fitness, finance, learning business in that order. Now, for any of my clients that are listening, you might go, well, why am I number five on your list? I'll say, it's an interesting question, right? Yeah. Why am I number five? Well.
If my clients were number one, they wouldn't get the best of me because my family would be suffering. My fitness would be suffering, my finances would be suffering. So when everything else is in order, I can show up. So I'm gone through this list and going, should I go to London? Should I not? I go right back to them and I say, guys, I'm so excited for London.
I cannot wait for this event. However, I'm unable to make it due to a prior commitment that Hiles can I help you. Fast forward a month. Sitting at the town hall in Christchurch. It's two hour, um, theater production. Finn comes on, he's six years of age, dances on stage, dressed as a fan tale and dances to cheeky little Fanta with his class for about 90 seconds, Shaun, and off the stage.
And I go, did I make the right decision? And I went, hell yes I did. Mm-hmm. Like, there's nothing I would ever swap for that little moment and I'll never get back. Yeah. Am I the best dad in the world? No. But do I have a filter that helps me make better decisions around my priorities? Absolutely. So I'd love to share that just with everyone.
Get a filter for making decisions so that when you're having to say yes or no, you can do it and sleep better at night. Yep. No, I love that. And I dare say without going too far down that path, I dare say things like journaling and those sorts of things help you revert back to that. Reflect on that day, you know, look forward to that day and going, are the things I plan to do or saying yes to, aligned with those priorities.
A hundred percent. I, I think that's really good. You also talk in the book about
Consistency, discipline, and habit formation
consistency, beating motivation every time. And I guess with consistency comes discipline, right? We don't always feel like getting up and training. We don't always feel like getting the work done and that sort of thing. So have you got any tips or tricks around, you know, people that might struggle with that?
How do they sort of build momentum? Yeah, great question. I think motivation's something we all rely on a lot, but it's a dangerous thing to rely on because it comes and goes and there's several things that, uh, really impact it. And Shaun, the listener, needs to realize,
Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation
am I more intrinsically motivated or extrinsically motivated?
And you're gonna have a bit of both, but you're majority one or the other. So if you're extrinsically motivated, money, status, power, fame, those are the things that will drive your major decisions. If you're intrinsically motivated, it's joy, fulfillment, connection. Meaning, so that's the first thing. Get clear on that.
One of my clients was, uh, the All Blacks captain and sitting, chatting about his performance, and I said something. I says, mate, you're so disciplined, like with your physical prowess, you're so disciplined. He went, bullshit. What do you mean? He said, I'm not, I'm not disciplined. I said, yeah, you are. Look at you, man.
You're a legend. He says, no. He says, James, I was consistent enough with discipline in one area of my physical prowess to a point where it became a habit, and I was like. Bang light bulb moment. We don't need discipline forever. We need enough discipline for long enough for that important activity to turn into a habit.
And when it becomes a habit, you don't need motivation like Shaun McCambridge. You don't need motivation to clean your teeth in the morning. You just do it right? Mm mm. It's one of those things. Yeah, it's the same with the sales calls. If someone's wanting to make the sales calls, same with getting to the gym or whatever it might be.
We just need that consistency for long enough to get across the line and realize what does motivate us. What would you say Shaun motivates you in terms of, is it money, status, power, fame? Is it impact fulfillment? What would you say? I think family's the big motivator, isn't it? Yeah. All it is for me, you know, I think everything sort of cascades from that and I think that's sort of ultimately your, your best legacy that you leave behind, hopefully, you know?
Did you do a good job of trying to help your kids become, you know, good humans? You know, I think if you look yourself in the mirror and say that I feel like I did my best, or I tried my best. Like you say, you're not always the best down in the world you aspire to. I think if I nailed that, I think I would be happy.
So, you know, with that comes, you know, providing for them, trying to role model for them, a bunch of 'em, spend time with 'em, just presence, you know, shape and guide their, you know, outlook on life and all the rest of it. So I think for me, that's the, the big motivator. And I think that's a pretty powerful one because, you know, on the, on the challenging days, you still gotta show up.
You can't just resign from being a dad, you just can't, you know, uh, put that to the side. It's, it's a daily priority, right? It's, it's a really important role to perform. So I think for me. Becoming a dad really sort of reshaped that probably earlier on I was probably more driven by, you know, perhaps, uh, status and success in the business world and all that sort of stuff.
But I think that pales in comparison now. But I, I guess, you know, a career also helps support that vision of providing for your family and, and, and that sort of thing as well. So it sort of ties into that. So I think it's just sort of evolved probably along with becoming a dad. Yeah, I love that. And I think that's something for the listener to think about is the evolution of what we value.
Yeah. And what we prioritize, I was similar to you winning, making money. Mm-hmm. Building like future success like that. For me that was everything. But you know, nine years ago that changed when I became a dad and now it's like everything revolves around how to be a better dad and partner. Well actually I still need to win as a businessman.
I still need to win as an entrepreneur, as a performer. 'cause if I don't. That's gonna suffer. Yep. So that's, uh, good. Uh, good points. This is an interesting one because I speak to some pretty interesting successful people that from the outside look like they're bulletproof and they've got the success, they've got the gold medals, they've got the World, world Cup.
Trophies. They've got the houses, the businesses, all that sort of stuff. So they look confident from the outside, right? From the outside they look, you know, they're super confident and bulletproof. But then, you know, you get glimpses into the world. You see, you know, you open the newspaper and you see some stars falling from fame or whatever the case is.
And I speak to these people and they, they struggle with doubt. They still say, you know, even though they've built a billion dollar plus company, they're like, I still suffer from
Self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and the Personal Victory Journal
imposter syndrome. Which is wild to think from the outside. But those people do tend to recover well from setbacks, you know, they experience those emotions, but they have setbacks.
But they, they, they tend to move past that and they, they keep going. So, you know, is there any habit that you've stumbled across that helps people? You know, continue with your quest for whatever's important to you and sort of move beyond those setbacks. Yeah, absolutely. There's a couple of things that come to mind, Shaun.
So PVJA personal victory journal, this is something I ask all my clients to have, and it's that idea of having a place where you capture those moments that you're proud of. Things that maybe you graduated school, maybe you moved outta home and started flat. Maybe you bought your first home, maybe you made your first billion, whatever it is.
But capturing these things, because we all have moments of self-doubt, and I was interviewing a Prime Minister a few years ago, and afterwards he turned to Migos. Was I okay? I was like, what do you mean? Were you okay? And he said, was that okay? Do you think they liked it? I said, what do you mean you were brilliant.
It was awesome. Okay, cool. I just, I wasn't so sure. So we think, you know that guy's around the country for half a decade. Of course he's got all the confidence, but every single one of us, except for extreme narcissists, have a level of self-doubt. It's a good thing. Yeah. Just don't let it take over. You're either self building or self beating.
It's either one. It's like you wanna be self building with humility. There's nothing worse than someone screaming from the rooftops how great they are. It's really healthy when you have a low moment to go back to a place, which for me it's the Personal Victory Journal. Could be a little phone album with photos.
It could be a person. You go back to your mom or dad if you're lucky to still have them, and they lift you up again. So if you're having self-doubt, you're normal. You're human. It's a healthy thing. If it's spinning out of control, just ask yourself, what have I done that gives me evidence? But I can step into this new challenge or I can take the big swing now.
I like that because, you know, I think there was a book by Shaun Ako called The Happiness Advantage, and he talked about the positive to negative ratio of thoughts. Mm-hmm. And if it was a certain ratio, you would tend to have a better disposition if it was, uh, inverse relationship where you had more negative thoughts.
Obviously, you know, that affected your disposition outlook. But I think one thing, similar to what you touched on with the noting your victories was gratitude. Exercise and I guess daily. You know, one of the suggestions in terms of habits was before you go to sleep each night, quote
Gratitude and scanning for what's going right
three things you're grateful for for that particular day.
And that might be some of the victories you've had and one thing you're looking forward to, right? So you're actually consciously scanning your day and the day ahead around the things you should be grateful for or the things you've done well. And it sort of rewires your brain in a sense, doesn't it?
Because than haven't. The promotion, the house, the partner, the whatever the case, you're actually scanning your life for the things that are going well for you. So, absolutely. It's a, it's a really good thing. And just reminding yourself of the fact that, you know, there, there is often some really good stuff going on, even amongst the challenges that we all face.
And, and we'll face those sort of moments of doubt. So. I think that's, uh, it's a good, uh, answer on your part and another good, uh, insight from the book. But, um, environment plays a big part in success, you know. So for you, what are the practical things people can do or change or control around surrounding their work, home, or relationship?
To support high performance because there's a lot of things within our circle of influence. So what, what's your sort of take on that? Well, let's think about that environment thing for starters. Mm-hmm. So in the past few years, I've done quite a bit of mental skills work with Canterbury Rugby and Canterbury Rugby.
They train at Rugby Park in Christchurch, New Zealand. Arguably it's like the home of rugby and that's where the majority of all blacks are bred. So you get people from all over wanting to leave their regions that come and be a part of the Canterbury program because it just breeds success. And what's the secret sauce?
You know, the white lock boys, the white locks all came from the North Island man with two region down to this region to be a part of that program. And you can see what it's done, obviously for them. So what is it that happens? Country Bay Rugby and rugby Park. Culture and environment. That's what it is.
There's no other secret sauce. People feel like they belong. People feel that they can take risks and fail. People feel like they can go and ask questions and be curious and not laughed at. It's a really special culture, and I'm sure across the ditch in Aussie. You could probably think of a team right now.
You're like, that culture is just epic and I'm not gonna name them because I'll probably get it wrong, but you know. Yeah. So we need to think about that as an individual. So for us to thrive, our environment needs to be conducive for us to grow and learn and and fail. So sometimes that means Shaun take in stock of who?
The five to 10 people. I hang out with the majority of my time. Are they
Culture and environment: "lifters vs leaners"
lifters or leaners? You know, are they leaning on me and crying about the world and bickering about the government and you know, just always complaining. Or are they lifters? Are they constantly going? You go for it. That's epic. Let me help you with that.
We need to be around people who will challenge us and lift us up. So looking around your environment, then, if the physical environment itself. If it's cluttered, messy, a messy desk, a messy mind. So having real nice clean spaces to work in and for people with a DH, adhd, and I'm definitely on that, uh, that part of the world.
It's hard. I put mugs and cups and, you know, floor wardrobe everywhere. Like it's hard for me, but I know when I've got a clean space. Oh. I operate better. So there's probably a, a lot of responsibility that needs to be taken around creating an environment for me and you. We belong to organizations that challenge us.
So why po? For example, uh, you and me, we've got coaches. Why a coach will call you out and see things in your environment that you don't actually see. They'll call you out in your blind spots. Someone said to me, uh, I put a post up a while ago and I says, I'll die on this post. That you are the byproduct and the sum of the five people you hang out with.
And someone wrote, you're full of rubbish. Are you trying to tell me Richie McCaw was the sum of the five people. He was the average of the five people around him. How could someone so epic like him? And I was like, actually, yes, Richie had five or so people around him who were way better than him in very specific areas that allowed him to become the greatest of all time.
And things like, you know, Steve Hanson seeing things that Richie wouldn't have seen. Wayne Smith, his nutritionist, his conditioner, like. Yes, he was the sum of the five people. And Dan Carter would've been one of those five people for him. So no matter who we are, take stock, who am I spending time with? And if it's a family member, you can't get rid of, just spend a little less time with them.
That's true. Sometimes we gotta do That's that, that, yeah. That's, uh, yeah. You gotta be a little bit selective. What about, uh, you mentioned these really good things, but Ro about, you know,
Relationships and boundaries that protect what matters
you mentioned before you've been on both ends of the spectrum, maybe from a relationship point of view, right? You, you've gone from this ab obsessed world champion.
And this quest for more and success and all the rest of it. And you talked about that. And now from the outside looking in, it looks like you've got a really harmonious and great, healthy dynamic with Callum, which is great. So kudos to you. So what are the environmental things you've done in that context to enable?
'cause your success hasn't diminished, right? You've got this fantastic book. You are highly in demand coach. You're a highly demand as a speaker amongst all the other projects and initiatives. You look at it, you're constantly curious. So that hasn't diminished, that's seemingly gone like that. But you know, your South Carolina and Finn seem to have a wonderful dynamic going on, so talk to us about that, mate.
Yeah, thank you. I th honestly, Shaun, I think it comes down to WMI, focusing on what's most important. Mm-hmm. For me, I think I had a lot to prove as a young man and left Northern Ireland with a bit of a chip on my shoulder and winning was everything. And so my marriage back then didn't. Get the focus or attention that it deserved.
And certainly it takes two to tango in terms of there was things Yeah. That kind of both of us could have done differently. Yeah. But I learned a lot from that. So I came out of that and thought, okay, time to go. What can I take responsibility for? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. What will I do differently next time around if I'm lucky to have another partner?
So I started looking at my behaviors, how I, um, do get quite obsessed with things I'm passionate about and go deep on work and projects. Yes. Yeah. How might that affect my partner? So I started getting some coaching around relationships. I started getting therapy and these things give me different tools and so for Caroline and I, I, we work together, which, you know, is for most people they can ever imagine working with their partner.
It's awesome. Like it's brilliant because we've got boundaries. And we spend a lot of time focusing on what are our next holidays, when are our date nights? Yeah. And then the business comes second. I was like, we've gotta have us first. So I just, now I look for priorities around family time. Carving out time ahead of time.
Not hoping that I'll find five minutes, but creating the space to spend time with the people that matter most. Yeah. I love, it just seems like it's a conscious thought, but you've got some habits or rituals there around, like you said, the date nights to check in, you know, holidays to get away from at all, not let them work, encroach on the calendar too much.
So it sounds like you're doing some really good stuff and it's working well, mate. So it's good. Kudos to you guys every day. You know, I think nothing's perfect, but every day chipping away at it. Yeah. Yeah. So this next one's an interesting one. So in the book you emphasize clarity over hustle, right?
Mm-hmm. So, you know, there's plenty of pundits out there that say hustle is just so critical and, and frankly, I think work ethic is a differentiator, but my view on work ethic is it can become your superpower, but also your achilles heel if you don't regulate that right? 'cause if you're just gonna do the basic nine to five, there's no way you can achieve anything of significance.
I don't think, you know, unless you are this genius, hard work and dedication is just required. If you're gonna achieve anything, great. But I think if you don't regulate that and you touched on, you know, sometimes when, and you quest to achieve greatness, you can become obsessed, right? Mm-hmm. And it become debilitating.
And there's thousands of examples of that. So with that, you know, how do you help your high performers get clear on what really matters and how do you help them regulate, you know, that notion of striving for greatness, but not to the detriment of maybe other aspects of life? Yeah, great question. I definitely feel that, you know, if there was a mantra for the book, it would be pick habits over hustle.
That would be the thing I would focus on. And hustle to me is a word that we often misuse and hustle just means grind and go hard and work longer hours. That to me is not smart. And I'm the same as you in that if I was to work 40 hours a week, always, there's no way I'd be getting the fruits or the rewards that I get in my life.
And I see that with every person I work with. The people who put in bare minimum. Yeah. That's the results they also get, yeah, bare minimum results. So a couple of things. The first habit in the book. Get radically clear. What do you really want? Most people struggle with that. When most people come to me from a coaching perspective, like James, I don't really know what I want.
I don't know what the next chapter looks like, so let's get clear on what you really want. Then let's make sure we get things in the right order of priority. What truly does matter, and you and I have talked about this before.
Counterbalance vs work-life balance
I don't believe in work life balance. There are some weeks, Shaun, I'll put hand on he be honest, where I'll do a hundred hours and people call it work.
I don't look at it as work. I look at it as joy, as passion, as giving back, as making money. It's all of those things combined. I love what I do. But there'll be other weeks when I'll do seven hours because I'm having family time, or I've right in the smack bang, middle P, busy period for everybody else.
I'll go, I'm going off on holiday. I call it counterbalance. It's this idea of just going, you know what? I've got a goal and it's gonna take a hell of a lot of work and I'm gonna hustle, if you wanna call it that. I'm gonna have times of intense focus, but I'm gonna have a tool. It allows me to recognize when I need to counterbalance.
Mm. So I have this very simple tool, and in fact, I'm happy to share it with all your listeners. I'll, I'll give you, we link in a minute of a, a free tool for them to look at it monthly and go, right. What's most important? Let's look at these areas of my life and what's out of whack. So let's say I'm focused on launching the book, so launch the book in August.
Mm-hmm. Shaun, for the six weeks leading up to that, it was 80 to a hundred hours. It was full on no complaints from me. I was all about it and I loved it. However. My next check in in September, like, oh Jesus, my energy's outta whack 'cause I'm not working out my family time's outta whack. Okay. Time to counterbalance.
So then in October, go away family holidays and switch off, stop checking emails. To me that's counterbalance and it's about finding that for yourself. Everyone's gonna be different. Some people might do it within a day and counterbalance within a day. Mm-hmm. I'll go hard for longer periods on, on big projects.
I'm not sure what it's like for you, but that's kind of how I operate. Yeah, but it sounds like you've got a mechanism or a tool like you say, to sort of just reflect on that and you've got the discipline to go, you know what? I've been going flat out for a period of time. You're sort of allowing yourself to have that time to recover, almost like an athlete, isn't it?
It's just like, I've gone for this goal, I've gone for the championship, but now I'm just gonna recover. Before I go again, you're just not gonna rinse and repeat that to the detriment of your own health or the relationships around you. So it sounds like you're quite cognizant of, you know, you're prepared to do the hard work, but you're gonna give yourself that little reprieve as and when you can.
You've got to, there's a piece of research actually in the book, and it was all around this, uh, post event. Illness. Mm-hmm. And, uh, the, the science is phenomenal around this. So after the world championships every year, within about four to seven days, I'd get this horrendous nasal and chest infection every single year.
Mm-hmm. I'm like, it must be the time of the year. Once I started seeing the research on this, I was like, Ooh, I could change my behavior leading up to the world championships and see what happens, change my habits, all of a sudden, never another chest or nasal infection from that point onwards. So I think the fact that, you know, health is a priority, if you don't make time for health, you'd better make time for sickness.
It's one or the other. No, it's uh, it's a good point you make there. So you are lucky enough to work with some incredible individuals. You know, prime ministers, business people, amazing athletes, humanitarians, all sorts of different people, right? It's not just one sort of style of person, but you know, all those people share.
Common traits. Right? You know, they've, they've achieved some wonderful things and all the rest of it, and they've come from all different walks of life. But you know, if you were to sort of boil it down to maybe one thing they share or one habit they share, and maybe you've touched on it with the prioritization or whatever the case is, but what do they share and maybe what separates those people from the people that maybe don't aspire or get to those sort of heights?
Yeah, it's interesting. It's a really tactical thing that comes to mind there when I think of all those people and that I've worked with or that I've interview. It's intention. The word
Intention and execution as the separator
intention is so important. They don't leave things to chance. They write specific things down about their intentions and they follow those intentions with actions.
This idea of The Secret, which I watched many years ago and I enjoyed the idea, is if you manifest and think about things that come true, it's absolute bs. You've gotta get clear what you want. Yeah. And you can meditate on it, but you've also gotta do the work. Do. That's right. That's where the gold is.
Yeah. So like a good example, my friend John, he decided when he was seven he would proclaim to his mother. Two things. Two intentions. One, I'm gonna be a millionaire, and two, I'm gonna be the prime minister of this country. And his mom goes, awesome. You can do it. What does he do? Becomes a millionaire in his twenties and thirties.
Well, multi multimillionaire comes back to his home country after making all his money and becomes a very respected prime minister. That is the same trait. I see showing up in the special forces that I work with. I see it showing up in the entrepreneurs that I work with. They're intentional. They make a plan, they stick to the plan, and if they need to change by one or two degrees because things change around them, they will, but they have a true north.
And they get after it. Yeah. No, I love that. I think it's very easy in life just to, to get caught in that sort of rinse and repeat. You just keep doing the same stuff over and over again. But I think that that notion of being intentional, you know, what do you wanna achieve? But it's not just enough to go, I'd like to achieve X extra Y.
Then that needs to be followed with the action. Right. So I think that's a super simple way to sort of boil down what those people may, what separates those people from others. They're, they're very clear on what they wanna achieve, what's important, but then they're supported by the action. So it's a pretty simple breakdown if you wanna, you know, it's not to say that we're all gonna be prime ministers or, or like John Key multi multimillionaires, but whatever's important to you, right?
Be intentional about that, be clear on that, and be disciplined about the habits or the actions that follow to enable that a hundred percent. To me, there is a formula that there's a truly a formula to success. And in the book, I've tried to distill that into something that's really practical. Uh, and before I forget, actually, that planner, the high performance planner, I wanna give it to your listeners for free.
So they could just go to jj locklin.com/planner and I'll get the team to send that through if you wanna pop it in the show notes. Perfect. That'd be good. Now, a lot of people achieve great things and all the rest of it. And then you see the breakdown or demise of athletes and all the rest of it, because sometimes when you're pushing the boundaries, right, that results of burnout and you know, if it's not Tiger Woods, then there's, you know, different people over time that have fallen from grace, right?
Or, or just broken down and, and sort of had to recover before they go again or whatever the case is. So what habits. Help protect people from, you know, coming down that rabbit hole. Because I think when you're pushing and striving all the rest of it, there can be a downside. We touched on that before. You know, be that your health, your relationships, your sense of purpose, whatever the case is.
So any tips or tricks around habits that might protect us against ourselves, I guess, and I, I guess you sort of talked about how you do that yourself, but what else could you share in that regard? There's two very, very important things. I want the listener to think about here. The first is
Purpose and meaning as burnout prevention
leading their life on purpose.
Hmm. So whatever that might be, the work that they do. It could be a job, it could be someone they care for, even a pet, whatever their sense of purpose is. Get clear on what gets you outta bed in the morning. We all need that. When we lose a sense of meaning, we start doing things for other reasons. It could be for attention, it could be for fame.
It could be to feed a habit or an addiction, but people who have purpose, the science shows this have better lives in terms of joy. They have better connection and they live longer. So that's the first thing is get clear what gives me meaning. And it doesn't have to be changing the world. If it is awesome, but it doesn't.
Have to be that. So just to jump in there, what's your, you know, sense of purpose, what purpose drives you and is there any other simple examples you can give listeners? 'cause sometimes you feel like, what purpose? Well, it's such a wide genre, where do I start? How do I define that? So can you share anything there that might help the listeners sort of understand or distill what that might look like?
Yeah, absolutely. So two things there. You know, passion is for you, purpose is for others, it's what you do for others. So I've got two sense of purpose. One is personal, and that is as a dad and as a partner. And if I get to 90 and Finn's, you know, 60 years of age, and he says to someone without me there says my dad was a good dad, I will be ecstatic.
Job done tick. Yeah, that's awesome. I don't need him to say world's best dad. I don't need him even to say excellent dad. If he can say. He was a good dad. Awesome. Like just thinking about that now makes me feel like overwhelmed with joy. That's it. That's my purpose. Same with Caroline. When I get to my last day, if I die before her, I want her to go.
He was a good partner. That's it. Not the best, not perfect, but he was good. That's it. That's personal purpose. Professional purpose. I, this is way bigger than me. It's way bigger than my company. It's way bigger than my podcast. I wanna see a world where thinking is the go-to. So when we have these big problems, these challenges, people running into countries and kidnapping people and threatening up.
When those things come up, I want people to turn to Possibilitarian thing. Mm-hmm. For a personal person listening right now, it might be if I get in a car crash and the, I'm not injured, but the car is wrecked and I'm late, how could I be a, for the person that just got dumped or divorced and is going through a tough time?
What's possible? That's my purpose, is to try and help people unlock that level of thinking. Yeah. So for the person listening, just get clear on, uh, what keeps me up at night. Mm-hmm. What makes me cry? What angers me? What brings me joy, those questions will help you find your purpose. Yeah, no, fantastic mate.
I love it how you sort of just break down and, and sort of make that simple. And I guess, you know, once you're clear on those two very simple purposes for you, I guess that helps distill your priorities and what you say yes to and, and all the rest of it and the actions and behaviors that sort of follow.
So I think, you know, a really good example on that, but I guess this was sort of drawn to a close. And for those that want to encapsulate some of the stuff we've talked about today, there's a bunch of habits in there. There's a bunch of things we can do. Sometimes that can be a bit overwhelming, but if you are only to choose, say, three habits to sort of kick off 2026 and and all that might be possible, what would you sort of recommend people, you know, really honing in on?
Yeah, great question. Let's get tactical there. First habit is
Three habits for 2026: routine, standards, reading
having a really high performance routine. Now, a daily routine. What I'm not gonna say is you have to join the 5:00 AM club. I'm not gonna say that. What I'm gonna say is you need a structured day, and if you're a shift worker, this could be more challenging.
I get that, but a go to bedtime. Wake time. And with that, having a routine when you wake up, take this bad boy. And for those that are listening, I'm holding up my phone, take that phone and put it in a different room. Wake up with a really simple routine, the routine that I, I wake up with. Wake up, meditate journal.
Read three to five pages. Get up and move my body. Hydrate. That's it. Yeah. 30 minutes to an hour. And it's a whole different version of James go to bed. I've got a 3, 2, 1 routine. Three hours before bed, no work two hours before. No food or, or water, uh, anything. One hour before bed, no screens. Yeah. Love it.
That's it. That's a really a daily routine for me, but everyone can work out what works for them. That's first habit. Second habit, walking into this year, know what you don't want. Get clear on what you don't want. And the big thing I fight for is like mediocrity is something that we accept into our lives very passively.
Let's be standing at the the fortress of our mind and go, no, no, no. I will not accept that. I'm not gonna call it in and be weak. And what I mean by that is saying you're gonna go to the gym saying that you're gonna write the book, saying that you're gonna resign and go to the new. Weakness is not doing those things.
Strength is the courage to be afraid as hell. And doing it anyway. Yeah, so that's the second thing I want people to do. Get clear on what you don't want and guard your mind. Number three, I think the greatest solution to almost all of our problems comes in the form of slowing things down and reading books.
Reading books. So I'm gonna recommend a couple of books that people should read. The Alchemist. By Paulo Qualo. Everyone should read that in their lives. Think and Grow Rich. Mm-hmm. Sounds like a money book. It's a mindset book. Yeah. Yeah. Napoleon Hill. Yep. Napoleon Hill. It's phenomenal. Uh, 4,000 Weeks, which is all, it's the typical length of time a human lives for.
Hmm. It's about how we use our time and how we respect it. If we can slow down and read, we get time to reflect on ourselves. We get time to add value to others. To me, that's one of the greatest habits, and that has arguably changed my life the most. Even more so than coaches, reading has been the biggest impact in my life.
It's awesome, mate. There's some huge takeaways there and looking forward to maybe, uh, checking out or revisiting some of those books that you mentioned. But again, really simple mate, and I think there's real beauty and there's simplicity. It's not overly complex when you're boil down some of the things you've talked about today, which is great.
Easy to grapple. And I guess just getting those habits in play. A couple quick things before we wrap up. Firstly, your experience around creating. Habits that su uh, sustainable. So some people talk about 30 days, 60 days, 90 days. In your experience, you know, what is your recommended timeframe to persevere before it becomes ingrained in, in so on?
Yeah, so
How long habits take to stick (66 days on average)
research from University College of London shows that on average it takes a habit, uh, 66 days to become a habit to the point of automaticity. That's the point at which you do it without friction, and you do it without really thinking. However, when you look at the reality of it. If I said to you, Shaun, I'd love you to read three pages a day of a book, you could probably make that habit in 20 days.
Mm. Yeah. Where if I said, Shaun, I want you to do 4 45 minute high intensity interval trainings a day. Mm-hmm. It might take you two years. Yeah, yeah, yeah. To make that a habit. 'cause you'll burn out, you'll get injured, you'll get bored, you'll get tired. It does depend on the habit. But on average, 66 days, so two months we're looking at.
Mm-hmm. Okay, now that's good. Good to know, mate. You've been very kind with your time. Again, I know you've got a lot on your plate For those that wanna find out a little bit about more about you and what you're doing and all the rest of it, you've got amazing podcasts. Obviously you've got this fantastic book.
You've got these cool, you know, retreats that we were talking about before. So if I wanna sort of follow or track what's going on in your world to help me, how would I do? Yeah, super simple. So
Where to find James and what's coming next
if they wanna get the book, they can go to Amazon in Australia there and, uh, get the book. Or if they're anywhere in the globe, go to Amazon and look for habits of high performers if they wanna follow along.
I do obviously lots of interviews and share lots of insights on Instagram and LinkedIn. And they just look for James Lachlan and, uh, yeah, if they wanna come to an event, we run an event once a year in Christchurch, New Zealand. We're actually looking at doing one in Australia, maybe at some point, uh, midyear.
So Shaun, we should, uh, awesome. Yeah. Keep them in the loop on that one. So come and say a look. Yeah. That it, and your website is, and your podcast is. Yeah. So jj lachlan.com and our podcast is Habits of High Performers. It was the Lead on Purpose podcast for 450 episodes. Changing as of early February. So, uh, when this podcast you're listening to is live, I'm sure it will be Habits of High Performance Podcast.
Excellent, mate. Well keep, hope you great work. All the best to yourself, Finn and Carolyn for what's your head mate and really looking forward to getting together, all going well in June. But yeah, you're inspiring a ton of people. You're doing great work. Uh, what on, on living your life on purpose and such a pleasure to catch up today.
Ah, so good to see you mate. All the best for a grit 2026. Thanks mate.
So much for tuning in means the world to me. Uh, if you've got something of value outta the podcast, I would love you to pay it forward and share it with anyone that might benefit. Thanks again for tuning in.