How Ordinary People Become High Performers: 10 Key Habits

5 min readMay 28, 2025

“I used to think high performers were just ‘lucky’ — until I spent a month shadowing a CEO, a pro athlete, and a bestselling author. Turns out, their secret wasn’t talent. It was these 10 habits.”

1. The 5–4–3–2–1 Morning Hack

(How to beat procrastination before your brain wakes up)

My first morning with the CEO:

5 AM: She was already dressed (no “just 5 more minutes”)
Trick? “If it takes less than 2 minutes, do it immediately”
Make bed → Triggers productivity
Chug water → Wakes up brain
Open blinds → Signals “day has started”

“You don’t need motivation when you have momentum.”

Want to take your morning to the next level? Here’s a shortcut to that CEO routine, must check out this for actionable tricks.

This is a must read, do check this out:

The 2-minute task has another nice bonus: once you started doing a minor thing, you're in it and start making another little thing, and then another... And then you're doing all you have to do for the day.
It's perfect to beat procrastination forever.

The Inner Shift

How Ordinary People Become High Performers: 10 Key Habits

1. The 5–4–3–2–1 Morning Hack

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Written by NidoDesigns

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