How to Become a High Performer

What separates high performers from everyone else, and how can you develop the mindset to create the life you truly want? In this episode, I’m breaking down the mental shifts that will help you take radical ownership, upgrade your self-talk, build powerful habits, and push beyond your comfort zone. If you’re ready to stop making excuses, overcome self-sabotage, and start showing up as the person you know you can become, this episode will show you how to take control of your future. Freedom Live is a 3-day live experience in Austin designed to help you break through what’s keeping you from your next level. Get $100 off your ticket: https://robdial.short.gy/freedomlive The Mindset Mentor™ podcast is designed for anyone desiring motivation, direction, and focus in life. Past guests of The Mindset Mentor include Tony Robbins, Matthew McConaughey, Jay Shetty, Andrew Huberman, Lewis Howes, Gregg Braden, Rich Roll, and Dr. Steven Gundry. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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  Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor Podcast. I am your host, Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so you never miss another episode. And if you're looking to get to your next level, and you realize that it's not found in another strategy or another book, it is only found by you conquering the version of you that is holding yourself back. And you need to be at my live event called Freedom Live this December. We're going to find out exactly where you want to be in life, why you're not there yet, and then the unconscious patterns and fears and limiting beliefs that are capping your success without you knowing it. So if you want to live up to your full potential, but you don't know how to break through, come to my event. Go to FreedomLive2026.com. There's currently a $50 off coupon on that website.

• 2:32Speaker 01

  Once again, it's FreedomLive2026.com. Today, we're going to be talking about how to develop the high-performance mindset. Because most people want to be a high performer, but they still live their lives like everybody else. They wake up reactive, they say yes to everyone, they numb their stress by scrolling on their phone. And I want you to understand that high performers aren't smarter. They're not born different than everybody else. They just refuse to think and act like the average person, even when it's hard. And so this episode is going to give you the exact mental blueprints that high performers use to separate themselves from everybody else that's out there.

• 3:14Speaker 01

  So if you feel like you've been stuck in average, or spinning your wheels, or self-sabotaging, this is for you. So let's talk about, first off, why would you want to develop a mindset of a high performer? Well, let's be honest, like, most people in this world, if you look at most people in this world, they're just kind of surviving. Like, they live in reaction mode. They say things like, oh, I'm too busy, but don't know what they're actually really working towards. They chase dopamine, and they don't go for discipline. And so if you're listening to this episode, you want to be different than everybody else. I want you to understand, you don't want to fit in with everybody else,

• 3:57Speaker 01

  because fitting in with everybody else is going to give you a mediocre life. High performers, though, they have a totally different operating system. They live their lives with intention. They're not reactive, they're proactive. They design their days, they chase mastering themselves, and they don't try to be comfortable. And the part that most people miss is that the mindset of a high performer, it's not going to just change your results in certain aspects of your life. It's going to change your entire experience of life. Like, every single thing, from obviously your body to your bank account, but also your relationships, the people that you attract into your life. Every aspect of your life will be changed.

• 4:42Speaker 01

  And when you become a high performer, you start to move with purpose. You learn to actually start to trust yourself, because you have become the type of person that follows through. Like, you don't have to go into Monday every single week already overwhelmed. You don't have to have external motivation, because when you become somebody who is a high performer, you've got this internal drive that nothing is going to stop you. You stop playing this comparison game with other people, and comparing yourself to this person and that person, because you already know who you are. You're already confident in yourself. You take action, you do what needs to be done, and you get the results that create the life that you've always wanted.

• 5:27Speaker 01

  And so that's what we're after. That's the reason why you want to develop the mindset of a high performer. And the beautiful part is no matter where you are in your life, it's available to every single person. So even if you feel like you're behind, and you haven't been creating the life that you want to for 30 years, you can make a change and start to actually build yourself into a high performer. And so when you look at a high performer, what's the difference between a high performer and just a normal person? Like, lots of people think that they're high performers, because they're a little bit more successful, and they're work out three times a week. But when you like zoom in and take a look at their daily actions,

• 6:09Speaker 01

  there's a huge difference between a real high performer and just a normal person. Like, in the normal mindset, they, people say stuff like, oh, I'll try. A high performer mindset is like, I'm going to figure it out, no matter what. A normal mindset, those types of people will be like, oh, I'll just, I'll wait till I feel ready, or I'm going to wait for inspiration to come through. A high performer will act in the face of fear, will act in the face of their limiting beliefs, will take action regardless of how they feel. Normal mindset is just like, they want change, they want a better life, but they don't want to do anything in order to create that life. A high-performance mindset, they just decide they will not give up

• 6:53Speaker 01

  until change that they want in their life has happened. Normal mindset, they might sit down, and they might write down goals, and kind of be like, oh, it'd be really nice to achieve this goal this year. But like, a high-performance mindset, they develop systems in their life to make taking action easier. And then a normal person, normal mindset, will blame their circumstances. But a high-performance mindset owns everything. They blame everything on themselves. So high performers don't make decisions based off of comfort. They make them off of commitment. I said I was going to do this, I'm going to get it done. They don't negotiate with their mind, they don't negotiate with their goals, they don't negotiate with their feelings.

• 7:35Speaker 01

  They execute, day in, day out, no matter what. And so let's talk about how you can actually adopt the mindset of a high performer, okay? And so the first thing, like, if you think about it, that you really have to do is you have to develop radical ownership over everything in your life. No more like victim mindset, no more blaming other people, no more, oh, this happened to me. Everything from this moment forward, you've got to make the decision, is your responsibility. Like, it might not be your fault, but it is your responsibility. If you've never heard that phrase before, like, what happened to you? Your parents, something might have happened to your parents, and they might have been abusive,

• 8:19Speaker 01

  or they weren't as loving as you wanted them to be, or they weren't the type of parents that you want. That's not your fault, but it is your responsibility. You have been dealt the cards that you've been dealt. Don't wish that you would have gotten a different life, because you're never going to get a different life. You have to go, this is my life. Life, this is what I've gotten and I need to work with this. And so it's not your fault, but it is your responsibility. And we will be right back. I used to take a whole bunch of different supplements every day. And honestly, it was a lot to keep track of. Since starting I am eight, I've simplified my routine so much. I just have one daily drink and I'm done. The problem with supplements is you think you need a cabinet full of them to feel your best, but you don't. I am eight is the way to simplify your supplement routine once and for all.

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• 11:57Speaker 01

  It's not my fault that my father was an alcoholic and my parents got divorced when I was 10 and my father passed away from liver failure when I was 15. That's not my fault, but it's my responsibility. It's what I need to do. Like I need to work with that thing. And so you have to learn to drop the victim mentality. Drop the excuses, drop the blaming, stop saying it's other people's faults, whatever it might be. And if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, I've said this story many times, but the most life changing conversation in my life was when I had a call with my coach when I was 20 years old and I was somebody who gave excuses and I showed up late and I didn't hit the assignments and I was just blaming everybody else and all of that. I was like a professional excuse maker.

• 12:41Speaker 01

  And he's like, Hey man, I've got a question for you. If a business succeeds and gets all 1,000 employees to go towards one goal, whose fault is it? And I was like, 1,000 employees, probably the CEO's fault. Okay. And he goes, if a business fails and doesn't hit their goals and goes out of business, whose fault is that? I was like, it's probably the CEO's fault. He goes, okay. If you get to the end of your life and you have all of the joy and the happiness and the love and experiences that you wanted, whose fault would that be? And I was like, probably be my fault. And he goes, if you get to the end of your life and you're on your deathbed and you don't have the life that you wanted, you don't have the love and the joy and the happiness and experiences and the achievements, whose fault would that be? I was like, that would be my fault. He goes, your problem, Rob, is that you're not living like you're the CEO of your life.

• 13:26Speaker 01

  You're blaming every single other person and all of the circumstances. And your life will not change until you decide that you're the CEO of your life. And if you get the life that you wanted to, it's your fault. But if you don't get the life that you wanted to, it's your fault. And so that's the first thing is that you have to develop radical ownership of your life. The next thing is I really want you to work on is upgrading your internal self talk. Your voice can either be your heckler, which is what it is for most people, or your hype coach. Like high performers don't wait for other people to believe in them. They speak to themselves like somebody that they believe in. They speak to themselves the way that they want other people to speak to them.

• 14:10Speaker 01

  And so what I want you to practice is by noticing your words that you're using and ask yourself, is that really the best phrase? Is that the best thing that I could have said in that moment? So instead of saying like, oh, I'm stuck. Maybe you say something like, I'm figuring it out. I'm gonna get it figured out. Catch every like, I can't, I'm not good enough and reframe it into like, I'm learning, I'm getting better. And use your self talk, use your affirmations, not for like woo woo we magic, but to actually start to reprogram the identity you have for yourself. You know, I've noticed when I went to the gym, I had shoulder issues and I had hip issues and knee issues and all these different issues. And I kept being like, oh, I can't lift heavy enough. And I, I had this weak mentality, I wasn't even noticing it in myself.

• 14:56Speaker 01

  And I was like, oh, I don't know if I can do that. And I was, I was like, I don't know if I can get through this, this might be too heavy. And I noticed when I thought that way, my body responded differently. And it responded like I was weak and I held my body differently and I didn't stand up as straight. But then I started saying to myself, I'm strong and I'm healed. I'm strong and I'm healed. And when I noticed myself talking to myself that way, my body shifted the way that I was. Even just a few weeks ago, I was at the gym and my trainer was kicking my ass. And I was like, I don't know. I was in my head, I was going, I don't know if I'm going to finish in time. I don't know if I'm gonna give me exact time I need to be done by two and a half minutes on the assault bike. And he's like, you're, and I was like, I don't know if I'm gonna make it, I don't know if I'm making it. And I was like, this mindset sucks, this way I'm speaking to myself is bullshit. I need to change it. And so I closed my eyes and I was like, you're strong, you're strong, you're gonna make it.

• 15:41Speaker 01

  You're strong, you're gonna make it, you're stronger, make it. Instead of hitting two minutes and 30 seconds, I hit two minutes and 15 seconds. And so you need to learn to be your hype coach. You have to speak to yourself, the way that you want other people to speak to you, the way that you want other people to believe in you. You have to speak into yourself before you actually see the results outside of you. So that's the next thing. Another thing is to start to build systems so that you don't have to rely on willpower. Willpower is for people who are amateurs. High performers build systems. And so build like, if you want a morning routine, build a morning routine that primes your mind to show up the way that you want to show up for the day versus just reactively going in today and fighting fires.

• 16:25Speaker 01

  So you wake up and you decide this is who I'm going to be. And maybe there's gratitude and maybe there's movement, maybe there's clarity. You don't need 15 things that you need to do in the morning to prime your mind and have a morning routine. It can literally be 10 minutes if you want to. Find time to plan your life and your week, every single week, whether it's Sunday night or Monday morning, set your targets, figure out what you're gonna do. It drives me crazy that some people work at companies and they plan out the month and they plan out the week at the companies and they have no damn plan with their own life. Like plan out your life like your life depends on it because it does. And then start to create daily non-negotiables, not 15 non-negotiables, just like two to three needle moving things that you will get done today.

• 17:08Speaker 01

  Like normal people have a to do list that's like a mile long and they check off the easy things and they don't get anything really done. High performers have a, have a to do list, it's two to three priority items and they just don't stop until it's done. It's the difference between being busy and being productive. You want to be productive. And so ask yourself every morning, like, what is one habit that I can do today to align with the person that I want to be? And then make it automatic, do it no matter what. You don't need motivation, you just need to take action towards that thing. Another thing that you want to do to become a high performer is to embrace your edge. And what I mean by that is that high performers tend to live on the edge of their comfort zone. When you get to the edge of your comfort zone, you feel fear and you feel, oh my gosh,

• 17:52Speaker 01

  I don't know if I can do any of that. I don't know if I could push further. That feeling of fear is the physical manifestation in your body of, hey, I've hit my comfort zone. And you know that if you want to grow yourself, you've got to push past your comfort zone. And so you've probably trained yourself your entire life that when you feel that fear, you back away. And that is keeping you in your comfort zone. So you've got to reprogram yourself to when I feel fear, I'm not gonna die. It's just the physical manifestation, my comfort zone, I need to get on my comfort zone, I'm just gonna lean in a little bit. Like most, that, that feeling of fear, most people run from it, but not you. Like you feel the fear, I'm on the edge of growth. This thing is hard. Okay. Well, this is where the challenge makes me better.

• 18:37Speaker 01

  So don't back away. Lean in whenever you feel that. The next thing that I want you to really get good at is the idea of self-inquiry. Like, most people are completely unaware of themselves. They're completely unaware of their patterns. Most people think, like, listening to this podcast, and I thought this for majority of my life, that I was like a free-thinking human. No, none of us are free-thinking. We think in a set of patterns that we developed in our younger years. Like, on average, you'll have 60,000 to 90,000 thoughts a day, and about 90% to 95% of them are the same thoughts that you had yesterday. You are thinking in a pattern. And so you need to start getting into self-inquiry. You need to start asking yourself more questions.

• 19:19Speaker 01

  You need to start thinking, like, become obsessed with becoming self-aware. Like, learn yourself. So, people always say, like, "Oh, I know myself." Knowing yourself is based in the past. All of your past things. Now, you want to learn yourself, which means that you are in the moment. That's based in the moment. Learning yourself is based in the moment. I'm going to learn who I am as a person. You're going to seek out every single dark spot in your subconscious. That is how you become a high performer. You need to have a daily practice of sitting down and journaling for five minutes. Where am I playing small in my life? Where am I playing small? Get that flashlight. I found those dark spots within your subconscious. Reflect back to yourself. What do I need to do

• 19:59Speaker 01

  to play bigger here? Like, you've got to start to focus on becoming better, becoming dangerous in everything you do. Not dangerous in, like, you can hurt people or, like, killing people or anything like that. Dangerous in the fact that, like, you're a... If you say you're going to do something, you're going to do it. And people can tell in your eyes, "Holy [bleep], this person's driven. Like, I better not get in their way because they are definitely going to accomplish this thing." You know a driven person when you see a driven person. You can see it in their eyes. And so, becoming a high performer is not about doing more at all. It's about doing less, but doing it better. It's about becoming more. And so, you need to stop waiting for permission.

• 20:42Speaker 01

  You need to stop asking if you're good enough. You need to start showing up like somebody who's done tolerating with mediocrity. And so, what you want to do is learn to lead yourself differently. I'm using my words very directly. Lead yourself. Nobody's coming to lead you. You need to lead yourself. Move like somebody who expects to win in their life. And then build habits that match the life that you want. And then, don't do it one day. Don't do it tomorrow. Do it now. Like, you have one life. Don't get to the end of it, and then realize that you live somebody else's versions and somebody else's expectations. Become the type of person who becomes a high

• 21:26Speaker 01

  performer and creates the life that they want. So, that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, once again, like I said, this is exactly what I may be diving into in a much, much, much deeper way over the course of three days at Freedom Live in Austin, Texas. It is going to be live, in person, Austin, Texas, December 3rd, 4th, and 5th. If you want to learn more about it, you can go to freedomlive2026.com. Once again, freedomlive2026.com. And with that, I'm gonna leave you the same way I leave you every single episode. Make it your mission to make somebody else's day better. I appreciate you, and I hope that you have an amazing day.

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