Hey Reader,
Over the past five years, I've analysed hundreds of high performers - from 7-figure entrepreneurs to Olympic athletes, C-suite executives to bestselling authors.
And there are 4 specific traits I've noticed in every single one that played 99% of the role in getting them where they are today.
How do I know this works? Because I implemented them myself.
5 years ago, I was a completely different person.
I was unhealthy, 15kg overweight using food and Netflix as my escape. I had crippling self-doubt and lived entirely for others’ approval.
I did well at school, but I was on the path to a "stable" engineering career that I had absolutely zero interest in pursuing.
And I spent all my time and energy trying desperately to fit in while feeling completely stuck in work-sleep-eat-repeat with this persistent, nagging feeling of "there must be more to life than this".
But these habits? They changed everything.
They had me graduating top of my class in a degree I actually wanted, getting promotions without burning out, moving across the country to start a completely new life in my dream city, and building an audience of thousands around something I'm genuinely passionate about.
If this journey has taught me one thing, it's this: The people who outperform everyone else aren't necessarily smarter.
They just operate on completely different rules.
Today, I'm sharing what those rules are, and the exact AI system I now use to implement them faster than I ever thought possible.
The Default Life Settings Problem
Most of society operates on what I call "Default Life Settings." It's so normalised that once you see it, you won't be able to unsee it.
Default life settings look like:
- Living reactively instead of intentionally - letting bad traffic ruin your day, others' opinions shape your choices, and social media keep you from working on your goals
- Being driven by "shoulds" - pursuing that job because it "looks good," staying in relationships that drain you because you're "supposed to," choosing safety over what actually excites you.
- Vague goals without strategy - saying "I want financial freedom" or "I want a successful business" while having zero plan to get there
- Analysis paralysis - spending weeks researching the perfect morning routine instead of just starting one, planning your life change for months but never taking the first step.
- The "someday" mentality - waiting for the right time, more money, fewer responsibilities, perfect conditions that will never come
Sound familiar? This is exactly where I was five years ago. Great for staying comfortable. Terrible for your happiness and ambitions.
To get where they are today, every single high performer had to consciously reprogram their default settings. They stopped following society's rules and started operating by their own.
The 4 Traits Of High Performers
To change my life so drastically, I literally just copied what I observed in so many successful people. I started embodying these 4 key traits, and once I did, everything shifted.
Trait #1: Strategic Clarity
High performers don't have wishy-washy dreams. They have laser-sharp clarity on exactly what they want.
While most people say "I want financial freedom," high performers define exactly what that means: "I want to earn $200k annually through my own business so I can work 4 days a week and travel 3 months per year."
Sarah Blakely didn't create Spanx by saying "I want to start a business someday." She got clear on exactly what business, who it served, and how it was uniquely positioned.
When you know exactly where you're going, you can:
- Identify which opportunities align with your vision (and which are distractions)
- Make decisions quickly because you have clear criteria
- Take focused action instead of spinning your wheels
You don't need to figure out every little detail, but you do need enough clarity to make a real plan and take real action.
Trait #2: Bias for Action
The time between "I have an idea" and taking real action is measured in hours or days, not weeks or months.
You probably know the cycle:
Get excited about an idea → announce it to the world → get the dopamine hit → procrastinate → lose motivation → never follow through.
High performers skip the announcement phase. They start taking action quietly, build momentum, and only share once they have results to show.
The reality is, clarity comes through action, not before it.
Making a decision and adjusting course will always take you further than waiting for perfect information that will never come.
Trait #3: Systems Over Motivation
High performers never rely on feeling motivated or "being in the mood." They build systems that keep them moving even when excitement fades.
James Clear doesn't write because he's inspired every day.
He has a system: write 1,000 words every Monday and Thursday, period.
That system has produced multiple bestselling books and a multi-million dollar business.
For me, I finally lost the weight when I stopped relying on motivation and started meal prepping every Sunday.
I got those work promotions by consistently demonstrating results week after week, not by waiting for the perfect opportunity.
Motivation gets you started, but systems keep you going:
- Design your environment for success
- Build routines, structure, and accountability
- Rely on habits and weekly targets rather than willpower
These are the things that make success inevitable rather than dependent on willpower.
Trait #4: Strategic Advisors
High performers don't make big decisions alone. They have people who can see blind spots, challenge assumptions, and offer expertise they don't have.
Mark Zuckerberg had advisors like Peter Thiel.
Oprah credits mentors like Maya Angelou for helping navigate major career decisions.
Michael Jordan had a team of physios, nutritionists, specialist coaches and performance specialists.
Default life settings tell us to figure everything out ourselves. That asking for help makes us weak. That we should be "independent thinkers."
But our brains have cognitive biases, limiting beliefs, blind spots. We don't know everything.
High performers understand this, which is why they never go alone.
The Big Problem
Now, I know what you're thinking.
These traits sound great in theory, but how do you actually develop them?
How do you reset your default life settings?
Strategic clarity requires stepping back to see the big picture (nearly impossible when you're drowning in daily responsibilities)
Bias for action is tough when you don't know which actions are worth taking. How do you move fast when you're not sure you're moving in the right direction?
Building systems requires understanding what actually works for your specific situation
And finding strategic advisors? That's the hardest one. Not everyone has access to successful mentors or an aligned group of friends.
I was stuck on all four points.
- I had ideas but no clarity on execution.
- I'd get excited about projects but spend hours overthinking as I tried to break things down into a clear plan.
- I'd start strong but lose momentum.
- And I was making decisions in isolation, missing opportunities and walking into avoidable mistakes.
Previously, I solved these problems manually.
It worked - it’s how I made real change in my life - but it took hours of consuming content, learning the right ideas to pursue (usually after investing weeks into the wrong ones), and manually planning just to overthink it and start from scratch again.
But something has changed in the past 2 years.
And that something is AI.
The 3-Step AI Planning System
Over the past 6 months, I've created an AI system that gives me:
- The strategic clarity of a top consultant
- The action-oriented structure of a successful project manager
- The systematic approach of a high-performance coach
- The wisdom of multiple expert advisors
All accessible anytime I have a new idea or project.
This is how I take my initial, chaotic mess of thoughts and turn them into a clear, logical, actionable plan that I actually feel excited about tackling.
This system has 3 AI assistants:
- Assistant A: a prompting expert
- Assistant B: a research expert
- Assistant C: a planning expert
You can use it for life goals, work projects or business initiatives. I’m going to use an example task that I regularly use this system to complete - creating a presentation, webinar, workshop or other similar project from scratch.
Let's go through the steps.
Step 1: The Master Prompt Generation
This is where we lay an incredibly strong foundation for the success of your entire project.
To start, we're going to ask one AI (Assistant A) to write two perfect prompts:
- One for your research assistant (Assistant B) to conduct research about your project - this helps it access relevant information and expertise
- One for your planning assistant (Assistant C) to help you strategise, plan out and execute the project
This might sound a bit meta - prompting AI to help you prompt AI - but believe me when I say, AI writes far better prompts than you ever could (in way less time).
Open ChatGPT (o3 if available), Gemini 2.5, or your preferred Generative AI tool, and use this prompt:
You are a specialist in prompt engineering and strategic project planning.
Your goal is to create two detailed prompts I can give my AI research assistant (Assistant B) and AI planning assistant (Assistant C) to help me research, strategise, plan and start executing on a new project.
1. Identify the specific types of research a subject-matter expert would conduct before plan this project.
2. Write one specific prompt that covers all of these identified research areas that I can provide to my AI deep research assistant (Assistant B) to conduct this research.
3. Craft the main prompt for my AI planning assistant (Assistant C). This main prompt must clearly instruct Assistant C to create a detailed strategy and project plan for the project, and it must explicitly instruct Assistant C to integrate the research materials that will be gathered using the research prompts you just designed.
4. Ensure that this main prompt also asks Assistant C to identify any additional information, context, or constraints it might require from me to perform its planning task optimally.
Context:
[Insert all the information you have about the project. This could include:
- The brief from your manager
- Your goal or key objectives for the project
- Your initial, unorganised brain dump of ideas and notes about the project]
Assistant C needs to act like a smart, collaborative teammate throughout this whole planning process. It should be instructed to build the plan step-by-step, not all at once. It needs to ask clarifying questions, seek confirmation from me on key decisions, and avoid delivering the entire plan in one massive, overwhelming block. It needs to think critically, offer realistic assessments of ideas, challenge me constructively if an idea seems misaligned with the objectives or has a low probability of success, and anticipate potential obstacles, suggesting viable contingency plans where appropriate.
Before you proceed to generate this prompt, if you require any further clarification or information from me to execute your task to the highest standard and create the most effective possible prompt, please ask me now.
Step 2: Deep Research & Smart Synthesis
Take the custom research prompt and run it through a deep research tool (ChatGPT or Gemini in deep research mode).
The goal here is to gather highly relevant background information the AI can use when planning your project.
Just like you'd research different diets before picking one, or industry trends before starting a side hustle, Assistant B searches hundreds of articles and synthesises the most relevant information for your specific project.
In 10-20 minutes, you'll have an extremely useful, up-to-date research report synthesised from hundreds of sources.
Save this as a PDF - you'll need it for the final step.
Step 3: Collaborative Planning
Open a new, clean session with your main AI planning assistant (I highly recommend Gemini 2.5 Pro or ChatGPT o3 here).
In this new chat:
- Paste in your planner prompt from Step 1
- Attach your research report from Step 2 and any other relevant documents
- Let the AI ask clarifying questions and work WITH you to build your strategy
Now, if you read through the prompt in Step 1, you would have noticed that we explicitly instructed our AI planning assistant to be collaborative.
The AI won't just dump a complete plan on you. It'll be collaborative, asking questions and helping you think through each piece step by step.
You're still in the driver's seat - you provide the vision and make the key decisions.
But the AI takes on a huge amount of the mental load of structuring, organising, and making sure all bases are covered.
That initial paralysis when facing a massive project? It disappears. Because now you have a clear path forward, broken into manageable, actionable pieces.
From Default Mode to CEO Mode
Default Life Settings convince you that big ideas should stay ideas.
That execution is hard.
That you need to "think about it more" or wait for the perfect moment.
But top performers know that clarity comes through action, not before it.
They know that waiting for the "right time" is just procrastination in disguise.
This AI system gives you the same advantages the most successful people have: strategic thinking, expert guidance, research capabilities, and bias toward action.
The difference is, now you don't need the right connections or expensive consultants.
You already have everything you need to be successful.
You have good ideas, ambition, and capability.
The only thing missing has been a system that bridges the gap between idea and execution.
Now you have that system.
You just need to be willing to step out of default mode and start operating like the person you're capable of becoming.
Tayla
Looking for more?
You'll find all my AI resources, Notion templates and other free resources here.
Have feedback or a resource request?
Share it here. (I'm constantly looking for opportunities to serve you better. Your feedback influences my weekly content and free resources so I can give you exactly what you need).
Have feedback or a resource request?
Share it here. (I'm constantly looking for opportunities to serve you better. Your feedback influences my weekly content and free resources so I can give you exactly what you need).
