My Standards of Performance, My Guiding Principles

Bill Walsh is one of the greatest football coaches of all time. When he joined the 49ers in 1979, they were the worst team in the league. Within two years, he rebuilt the franchise to win the Super Bowl.

His core philosophy was his standards of performance. Standards of performance are a set of principles that guide his team’s behaviors and attitudes. If his team could execute against his principles effectively, then the score would take care of itself. He didn’t worry about winning, he worried about executing against his standards. If he did this, the wins will be there. You can see his standards of performance here.

This got me thinking about my own standards of performance. By clarifying a set of standards/principles to measure myself against, this gives me a personal score as to how I’m performing in different areas of my life.

As long as I perform well against my standards, the outcomes (money, love, happiness, etc) will be there. I’ve added links to people/examples I’ve stolen these principles from:

Life

Excellence/Greatness

Excellence comes from being good repeatedly, rather than being great once. See Steph Smith and Kevin Durant
Never worry about competition. Set the bar so high for yourself so competition becomes irrelevant.
Have unshakeable belief in yourself. Brainwash yourself into believing it's possible. See Rose Namajunas.
Remove “impossible” from your vocabulary. Everything can be figured out. See Marie Forleo.
Overcoming suffering callous’ the mind. Intentionally seek suffering. See David Goggins.
Always have a challenge. When there is none, create a challenge for yourself. See Kobe Bryant.
Better to strive for greatness and lose, than to not strive at all. See Israel Adesanya.
90% of success is quality of process. 10% is outcome, outcome is icing on the cake. See Bob Bowman.
Always be learning or developing a skill. See Scott Young.
Failure is just information. Absorb it and try again.
Pressure situations are opportunities. Stay cool in the pocket and embrace the opportunity. See Tom Brady.
Follow and cultivate irrational obsessions. Don't just do what's "trendy." See Naval Ravikant.
Go all-in on your gifts.
Jump into the deep end of the pool. Sink or Swim.
Life defining education or experiences have an unlimited budget.
Always capitalize on opportunities for positive serendipity. See Ben Casnocha.

Happiness

Happiness does not come from achievement. Happiness comes from relationships.
Fulfillment does not come from achievement. Fulfillment comes from giving and helping others.

Self-Expression

Smile while you still have teeth. See Dan Hooker.
Don't stop trolling.
Be who you really are and turn it up 1000%. See Colby Covington.
Regret comes from not doing something you had an instinct to do. Better to take action than do nothing at all.
Intentionally embarrass yourself. Never allow fear of embarrassment or judgment to hinder my full self-expression. See Sara Blakely.

Relationships (General)

Find genuine positive qualities in others and praise them for it.
Always express appreciation to others.
Give without expectation of anything in return. Never see a relationship as a transaction.
Express your true, honest thoughts. Don’t just agree with everyone.
Go first. Introduce yourself first. Start the first conversation. Invite them first. See Gabby Reece.
Have the difficult conversation.
If I have an instinct to meet someone, I must approach them within 5 seconds. See Mel Robbins.
Even if I disagree, I must at least understand the perspective of the other person.
Believe in others. Give them the confidence to take on the world. See Mark Jackson for Steph Curry.
Help others realize their dreams.

Relationships (Dating/Romantic)

Don’t get into a relationship due to FOMO or pressure from family/others. See Mark Manson.
Resentment is like cancer. Address it early before it festers, grows. See Mark Manson.
Accept the other person’s flaws/insecurities. Nobody is a perfect being.
Have quality fights and arguments. See Mark Manson.
Core values determine compatibility.
Never ghost. See Logan Ury.
No matter how great the other person is, if they aren’t excited/interested in you, you must let them go.
Tell the truth. Or at least, don’t lie. See Jordan Peterson.
Truly care about the other person’s happiness and fulfillment. Even if that means, you have to let them go.
Find a best friend.

Health/Fitness

Don't workout. Train.
Compete.
Eat mostly vegetables. Eat some meat. But enjoy yourself as well. See Tom Brady.
Avoid sugar mostly.
Train in some form everyday.
Focus on being healthy over looking good. Looks will deteriorate.
Be functional over being static. Better to have less muscle, but do more with it than to have more muscle but do little with it.
Take periodic breaks from alcohol.
Meditate or do breathwork. See Wim Hof.
By default you’re only operating at 40%. You have so much more in you.

Career

Cultivate your competitive advantage by developing skills that are difficult for others but easy for you. See Erik Torenberg.
Every project I take on must be done with excellence and craftsmanship. Therefore, I cannot take on too many projects. See Cal Newport.
Learn to sell. Learn to build. Knowing both will make you lethal. See Naval Ravikant.
Understand the problem first. Build the solution second.
Set a ridiculously high aspirational hourly rate, build your life/career around this hourly rate. See Naval Ravikant.
Develop specific knowledge. Become the only person that can do what you do. See Naval Ravikant.
Always be soliciting feedback. Always be giving feedback. See Reed Hastings.
Embody the entrepreneurial spirit, whether it's within a large company or side projects.
Amplify your strengths and shore up your weakness'.
Be generous sharing/teaching knowledge to others.
Over-communicate.
Under-promise. Over-deliver.
Iteratively deliver value, rather than deliver value all at once.
Do things that compound. See Naval Ravikant.
Continuously keep pulse on your market value.
Start with the end in mind. Know exactly what you want to get out of a job/experience. - Drunk guy at a party
There’s a cap on trading time for money. Find opportunities to scale impact, without the cap of time. See Naval Ravikant.
Specific knowledge combined with leverage, will get you what you deserve. - Naval
The best brand is being yourself. See Nate Diaz.
100% completion is better than 5 80% completions.
Nothing is actually impossible, if we had unlimited resources.

By no means am I living all of these. These principles represent my northstar in becoming the person I want to be. I’ll continue to update this list with new standards/principles as I develop myself.

To implement everything, I will be grading myself across these principles in my yearly and mid-year reviews. Each review, I’ll focus on a few principles to develop.