Looking to supercharge your performance? Try these simple changes that transformed my life

I recently posted a video on YouTube where I detailed my daily habits for the last few years while building my business and achieving a net worth of over £1 million.

Firstly, money isn’t everything.

That’s something I’ve learned in the process of making it. I used to think money would solve all of my problems, it didn’t.

In my experience, money doesn’t create happiness, at least not directly. Sure, there is the fleeting thrill of seeing a big chunk of money in your account, but that thrill comes and goes very quickly.

What money unlocks is freedom.

When I feel free, I feel happy. Most months I have anywhere from £50k — £60k flowing into my account with a further £1 million plus sat in assets, property, stocks, cash, etc. My property portfolio alone could provide enough passive income to live a comfortable life. This creates freedom. Knowing that I can do what I want, when I want.

Buying things, going on vacations, making investments — that is all fleeting, however, the feeling of freedom remains constant. I now realize that my goal all along was not to get rich, it was to get free.

When you focus on getting rich, you take shortcuts. You cut corners. You get complacent. When you focus on the process and the actions needed to reach your goal, you become the person you need to be to make it happen more effortlessly.

With that out of the way, I want to talk about habits. Habits are in my opinion, the building blocks of success in any endeavour. Aristotle said “we are what we repeatedly do, excellence is not an act, but a habit”. This is timeless wisdom.

The process of achieving a goal, especially a financial goal related to building a business is literally about repeating the same small habits day in and day out, when you do that for long enough — success is almost inevitable.

Habits are what shape my days, I believe they allow me to get more done with more focus and perform at a higher level. In the disciplined act of following habits, I found freedom. I believe each of the 10 habits that I have developed contributed in some way to the realization of financial freedom. So here they are…

Read also: 4 soft skills that payoff forever (must read)

1) Braving The Cold First Thing

Cold showers are a bit of a buzz topic at the moment in the health, fitness & productivity space. There are those that swear by them, and those that say they’re BS. For a while I was in the latter camp, why would standing in a freezing cold shower improve me in any way?

That was until I actually started to look into the research behind them. Andrew Huberman has documented research that cold showers measurably increase dopamine and adrenaline for several hours after the matter — these are chemicals in your brain that tell you to get shit done.

That alone is enough for me to view a morning cold shower as a competitive advantage. I notice an increased sharpness & alertness after having a cold shower, it’s like taking a shot of espresso & meditating in one go. It’s energizing, yet creates a sense of calm focus .

But what I like most about cold showers is they build mental resilience. I wake up and am immediately confronted with something I DO NOT want to do. There’s a voice in my head (my inner bitch) every morning, telling me to skip the cold shower and get myself a nice hot cup of coffee. That’s me seeking comfort, growth does not occur in the comfort zone.

To be successful in any area of life we must embrace discomfort at times. My morning cold shower ritual is a way of getting reps in for this mental muscle.

2) Daily Morning Meditation

I started meditating when I was 19. I just started University and the overwhelm of new experiences was causing some anxiety, which eventually put me onto meditation as a way to manage my mind more effectively.

Over the last 9 years, I’ve meditated on and off. I’ve gone weeks, sometimes months meditating daily and then weeks or months not meditating.

I can say with certainty over this almost decade-long ‘split test’ of meditating on and off is that my mind works better, I’m less stressed and more focused when I meditate. I think is a byproduct of being ‘outside of my head’ more often and less consumed with thought — a key skill that meditation develops.

Normally I’ll ‘stack’ my meditation directly after my cold shower which has created a somewhat pavlovian effect, I shower, and then go into my meditation (if you haven’t heard of habit stacking, check out Atomic Habits, which I consider to be the best book written on sticking to habits).

3) Drinking Coffee

This is by far the easiest habit on my list. Coffee is a staple for me and one of my daily joys. Good quality, fresh coffee (not the instant crap) actually has a number of health benefits. It should be considered a nutritional powerhouse.

However, when you combine this with the proven effects that caffeine has on mental performance and physical performance, it’s easy to see why it’s the worlds most popular drug.

4) Consuming Sea Salt (combine with coffee)

Contrary to popular belief, good quality salt is actually super healthy for your body and mind.

The body cannot survive without salt, it’s an essential mineral. A couple of years ago, I started adding more high-quality sea salt to my routine. Minerals are a crucial component of mental & physical performance, when we’re deficient in them, we’re more likely to become dehydrated, which significantly reduces brain performance and energy.

Disclaimer, I’m no doctor. All I know is that since I started adding small amounts of sea salt (pink Himalayan salt is good too), I have more energy day to day. I add a healthy dose to my morning coffee first thing and then liberally on food throughout the day.

A quick google search on the power of salt, minerals and electrolytes should give you all of the information you need here. Avoid regular table salt, that stuff is BS. Get proper sea salt.

5) High-Quality Reading (and Implementation)

I believe the best investment you can make is in books. A good book can contain hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars of revenue if you can action the information. Same goes for good podcasts, articles, etc.

Almost everything I know about business can be attributed to two things: learning and practical application. I’ve read hundreds of books on sales, marketing, business, self-development and productivity. This has given me ideas that I’ve then gone and tested in the real world to find what works for me.

I make it a rule for myself to always be reading something, I generally try to carve out 30 minutes per day for reading. If that doesn’t happen then I’ll try to read a blog article, listen to a podcast or watch educational content.

I will never stop educating myself. All the information we need to be successful is already out there, it’s just a case of consuming it and of course, putting it into action.

6) 10,000 Steps in Nature

A high percentage of business activities and careers are now sedentary. This means we sit at computers, on zoom calls, etc for a large part of the day. That can become a problem if we’re not moving regularly.

The best way I’ve found to counteract this is to make sure I’m walking a minimum of 10k steps each day. 10,000 steps may sound like a lot, but it’s very achievable with some planning. For example, a 20-minute walk in the morning (walking in sunlight in the morning has a ton of benefits when it comes to setting the circadian rhythm, being more alert in the day and sleeping better), a 20-minute walk over lunch and a 30-minute walk after work will do the job.

The mental benefits I find are huge. Walking, especially in nature can be super reflective, many of my best ideas have come from walking.

I sometimes use my time walking to process thoughts, listen to podcasts, music, audiobooks or simply practice being present. Walking with a significant other or a friend always results in good conversations. Walking is underrated.

7) Deep Work Blocks

Deep work means working without distraction for sustained blocks of time. In a world full of distraction this is becoming harder and harder. I’m certainly not perfect, just 2 minutes into writing this article I received a WhatsApp from a team member that derailed my progress.

Purposely finding time to get shit done without distraction is absolutely key if you want to build something.

Every day, I aim to block at least 2 hours where I can sit with no distractions and work. This means putting my phone out of sight or in airplane mode, shutting off email and notifications and focusing on a key task.

Out of all the habits I will list, this is the one that is most directly correlated with success in business or creating anything of value. Make time for deep work daily.

8) Focused Strength Training (No F*ckarounditis)

I’ve been lifting weights for over 10 years, it’s therapy. Building a solid level of muscle has countless benefits. Not only does it make you stronger and harder to kill — it means you’re able to eat more calories (just having muscle increases your metabolism) which keeps you in shape in a stealth way.

These things are great, however, a benefit of lifting weights that is even greater for me is the stress relief it provides. Business can be stressful, so finding ways to relieve stress is key. The feeling after smashing a heavy lifting session is one of the best feelings on the planet.

As Arnold Schwarzenegger famously said: “To me, the pump kind of feels like having sex with a beautiful woman and coming. You know? It just feels fantastic. I am coming all the time, you know!”

I don’t know if I’m on Arnold’s level yet, but I do know that a good lifting session feels great in the moment, almost primal yet meditative, then afterwards I get a wave of relaxed confidence that seems to last for hours. Some people like to run, that’s cool too. For me, lifting weights (I generally stick to compound movements like squats, pulls ups, bench press, etc) is my choice of exercise and a habit that I stick to religiously.

9) Winning The Morning

I make a conscious effort every single day to win my morning. Every evening, I write down 1–3 key tasks that I need to get done for the next day. Then after I’ve completed my morning routine (shower, meditate, drink coffee, etc) I get straight to work on those tasks. No calls, no meetings, no social media — just key tasks.

This means, that by lunchtime, I’ve basically done what I need to get done that day. I could stop there and then and it’s still been a productive day. Then I use the afternoon to have calls and meetings with clients, team members and prospects.

I’m a lot more task orientated in the morning and can zone in, whereas in the afternoon I feel more social. So this schedule works great for me.

10) High Performance Foods for High Performance Business

I recently bought a Jaguar F Type R. It’s over $100k worth of sports car and a lot of fun. When I bought the car, the salesman said it’s crucial that I use premium fuel to run it, otherwise it won’t perform nearly as well, “The engine will eventually start to fail if you put the regular, cheap crap in it” were his exact words.

This is exactly how I view the human body. If you want it to perform well, then don’t put the regular cheap crap in it.

I’m not a nutritionist, I just try to follow common sense — if I eat good, whole foods and a balance of quality meats, healthy fats, fruits, vegetables, plenty of water, etc — I’m going to be fuelling my body with good energy multiple times a day. Put simply, if you put real food into your body, it will perform better than if you put processed crap in it.

As a general rule of thumb, if my great grandparents wouldn’t recognize something as a viable food, I tend to avoid it.

Of course, have fun every now and again — go enjoy a nice meal out on the weekends. If 90% of your diet is good stuff, I can more or less guarantee you’ll have more energy.

Read also: 10 habits that made me sharper & smarter (must read)

Final Thoughts

Have my habits made me more successful?

They’ve certainly increased my capacity to perform at a higher level.

Some may resonate with you, others may not. It’s also completely possible that my habits will evolve over time, but these 10 have stayed pretty constant for me over the past few years and I don’t see myself changing any of them any time soon.

Contributed by Cameron

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