Micro Habits: Lando Norris' Secret Weapon + Adam Peaty's Comeback Formula (Exclusive Audiobook Preview)

Summary

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The High Performance Podcast

Episode: Micro Habits: Lando Norris' Secret Weapon + Adam Peaty's Comeback Formula (Audiobook Preview)
Hosts: Jake Humphrey & Damien Hughes
Date: February 25, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode provides an exclusive preview of two powerful chapters from Jake and Damien's new audiobook, "Microhabits." Drawing on years of interviews with elite performers, they focus on how life-changing results come from the smallest, often invisible actions—what they call "microhabits." The episode dives into two remarkable guests: Formula One Champion Lando Norris, who reveals how building strong microhabits and viewing his work as a calling enabled his ascent, and Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty, whose use of a psychological "Odysseus contract" helped him return from burnout. The lessons shared aim to motivate listeners to rethink habit formation, motivation, and the true meaning of commitment.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Power of Microhabits and Small Decisions

• Theme Introduction (02:05-04:03):
  Damien emphasizes that true high performance isn't about grand gestures or overhauling your life, but about "tiny, horrible, almost invisible behaviors"—small 5-minute decisions that, when compounded, completely transform capability.

  “The answer, more often than not, comes down to tiny, horrible, almost invisible behaviors.” – Damien (02:08)

• Microhabits are the backbone of lasting success, not flashy, headline-grabbing actions.

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2. Lando Norris: Finding a Calling in the Smallest Tasks

Background (04:03-05:36):

• When meeting Lando Norris, the expectation was to talk about his racing achievements. Instead, he focused on his early days in the McLaren garages, staying late with mechanics, packing up after races, and forming a bond with his team.

Key Insights:

• Enjoyment in Hard Work:
  He chose to spend extra hours working with his team, not just for career advancement but for genuine enjoyment and relationship-building.

  “There was enjoyment in it and there's the bonus of working with the team more...I didn't know at the time, but I guess more likely to be in the racing seat a couple years later.” – Lando Norris (05:36)

• Work Orientation Theory:
  The hosts reference Dr. Amy Wrzesniewski’s research on work orientation—seeing work as a job, career, or calling.
• Job Crafting:
  Listeners are encouraged to reframe menial tasks for greater meaning, using the example of a hospital cleaner who saw her job as “a healer.”

Memorable Quote:

“The overall lesson: Don’t get a job, create a calling.” – Narrator (09:44)

Takeaway:

• Whether you're a race car driver or a cleaner, the depth of connection and meaning you bring to your work is a choice—an act of framing and mindset.

Timestamps:

• Story intro & Lando’s habits: 04:03-05:54
• Work orientation/job crafting discussion: 05:54-09:44

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3. Adam Peaty: The Odysseus Contract & Overcoming Burnout

Background (09:57-11:06):

• Olympic champion Adam Peaty shares how his apparent invincibility gave way to a period of deep struggle and breakdown before the 2024 Olympics.

Key Insights:

• Reaching Breaking Point: Peaty describes physical and emotional breakdown after intense training—culminating in admitting, for the first time to his coach, "No, I'm not okay."

  “My goggles are filled with tears...I was like, no. And that's the first time I've ever said no.” – Adam Peaty (11:50 & 11:58)

• Stepping Away & Seeking Perspective:
  Taking time off from the sport allowed him to confront whether he truly wanted to continue, questioning if pursuing the Olympics was still worthwhile.

• The Odysseus Contract:
  Drawing on Greek mythology, Adam constructed his own “Odysseus contract” to combat temptation and doubt—setting clear boundaries and commitments, and binding himself to them.

  “It draws on this story's acknowledgment that we're all weak and human and often, when faced with temptation, likely to fall if we create a constraint.” – Narrator (12:30)

The Three Contract Questions:

1. What is the cost?
2. Do you want to pay the cost?
3. What will you regret if you don’t?

• Not Just Sacrifice, but Choice: Adam reframed sacrifice as a personal choice.

  “Everyone throws around the word sacrifice. I don't believe it is a sacrifice, because it's my choice to be there.” – Adam Peaty (14:20)

• Seeking Counsel:
  He consults Michael Phelps about coming back from retirement:

  “Basically, forget all the bullshit. What does your heart tell you?” – Michael Phelps, quoted by Adam Peaty (15:39)

• Defining Success: Ultimately, Peaty embraces that success is about internal effort and the journey, not medals.

  “I'm not crying because I've come second...I'm crying because it took so much to get here.” – Adam Peaty (16:46)

Timestamps:

• Peaty’s crisis & breakdown: 10:34-12:12
• Odysseus contract & three questions: 12:30-14:20
• Counsel with Phelps & deeper meaning: 15:14-17:07
• Commitment contracts science: 17:27-19:00

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4. The Science Behind Commitment Contracts

• Effective habit change requires three elements: a clear goal, accountability (a referee), and a meaningful incentive.
• Data show that combining both accountability and financial stakes raises success rates of habit formation to nearly 80%.
• These microhabits and contracts aren't just for elite athletes—listeners are encouraged to apply them in personal, professional, or family life.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Microhabits:

  “It's not the headline grabbing moment, but the small, deliberate choices that precede them.” – Damien (19:15)

• On Olympic Pressure:

  "People do see, especially Olympic games, the 1% of what it takes... They don't see the 99.9% in the dark. And those are the dark moments that are going to make or break you." – Adam Peaty (18:28)

• Key Microhabit Challenge:

  “Once a week, just once, find some time to sit down and ask yourself the three questions that Adam Peaty's coach put to him. What's the cost? Am I willing to pay it? And if I don't, what will I regret?” – Damien (19:15)

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Important Timestamps

| Segment | Timestamp | |-------------------------------------------|--------------| | Episode theme/setup & microhabits intro | 01:34–04:03 | | Lando Norris’ story & job crafting | 04:03–09:57 | | Adam Peaty’s breakdown & comeback | 09:57–19:00 | | Science of commitment contracts | 17:27–19:00 | | Closing reflections & microhabit tip | 19:00–21:11 |

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Episode Flow and Useful Takeaways

• The episode maintains an honest, motivational tone—emphasizing quiet discipline and personal agency over quick fixes.
• Both Norris and Peaty illuminate that elite performance is rooted not in extraordinary events, but in a deep commitment to the process: reframing everyday effort as meaningful, and using contracts or microhabits to get through adversity.
• The actionable takeaway: Routinely reflect on what you’re willing to pay for your goals, and create your own "Odysseus contracts"—even if the stakes are personal, not Olympic.

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Transcript

[Sean Linda]

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[Narrator / Interviewer]

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[Damien]

Hey, it's Damien here. I want to bring you another little exclusive today. Over the last six years on this podcast, Jake and I have sat across from some of the most remarkable human beings on the planet. Olympic champions, elite coaches, successful business leaders, and so many more. The question we always ask ourselves after we've done the interview is what is it that the very best actually do differently and consistently? The answer, it turns out, is much

[Narrator / Author]

smaller than you might think.

[Damien]

It's not in the grand gestures. It's not in five hour morning routines or in some magic formula that requires a complete reinvention of your life. The answer, more often than not comes down to tiny, horrible, almost invisible behaviors. Those decisions that take less than five minutes, but that when they compound over time, completely transform what a person is capable of. We've started calling them microhabits. And today we're going to give you something a little bit different. Jake and I have spent the last year writing our new book, Microhabits. These are five minute changes that actually transform your life and it's out right now. In it, we've distilled 48 of the most powerful lessons from this show into something that you can actually pick up and use immediately. Today, we want to let the book speak for itself. So what you're about to hear are two of our favorite chapters from the microhabits audiobook read by Jake and me, that bring to life stories from two phenomenal guests who've been among the most memorable of all all the people we've spoken to here on High Performance. The first one is Lando Norris, the current Formula One World Champion and someone with a relationship to his work that I think will genuinely reframe how you think about yours. The second one is Olympic champion Adam Peaty, a man who's faced the kind of darkness that most of us will hopefully never have to experience, but who found a way through it with the help of an ancient Greek myth and the honest advice of Michael Phelps. These chapters are all about motivation and commitment, about what it really takes to get yourself to show up day after day, especially when there's a part of you that's screaming that you don't really want to. So can I suggest that you find a quiet 15 minutes somewhere? Press play and let's go.

[Narrator / Interviewer]

When we sat down with Lando Norris, the lead driver for Formula One team McLaren, we thought we would want to talk about his recent success. In the driver's seat that he's occupied since the age of 19, he was on the cusp of helping McLaren win their first constructors championship since 1998, whilst also finishing as a runner up in the Drivers Championship. But nothing seemed further from his mind. Instead, he embarked upon an intriguing series of reminisces about his early days in the sport when he first joined the team. When he started out, he'd spent countless hours working in the garages, helping the team pack prepare and assemble the caravan of materials needed to get the fastest possible car on the track. As he explained to us before, I

[Sean Linda]

was the driver race driver for McLaren, then I would stay with the mechanics, I would pack up the garage and take the car apart after the races and stuff.

[Narrator / Interviewer]

At first, we were slightly taken aback. Why did a man who was at the top of Formula One want to spend all this time dwelling on his past? But eventually we came to understand he was showing us that the things that motivated him when he started out were, on some level, the same as the things that were motivating him today.

[Sean Linda]

As he explained further, there's no downside from doing it. There's no negative. Like, what else are you going to. You're going to go home and play on the Xbox in the hotel for a bit or just go and grab dinner a couple hours earlier. Like it doesn't for me. That's not. Like there's no gain for me in doing that.

[Narrator / Interviewer]

Why? Because he truly, genuinely enjoyed his work in the garages. It transcended just being a job to become something dramatically more important.

[Sean Linda]

There was enjoyment in it and there's the bonus of working with the team more, you know, and our relationships improving and so on, and knowing that I'm. I didn't know at the time, but I guess more likely to be in the racing seat a couple years later. It's only going to be a good thing for me that we have that relationship and bond together.

[Narrator / Interviewer]

Many of the high performers we've spoken to exhibit this kind of monomaniacal commitment to their job. Their thinking can be understood when we view it through the lens of research led by Dr. Amy Reznevsky, a professor at Yale School of Management who spent much of her career researching how individuals think about their work and how this affects performance. She's found that people tend to have one of three work orientations or ways in which they think about their work. She summarizes it as either a job, a career, or a calling. A job provides you with pay, benefits and perhaps a few social perks, but it's essentially about the monthly pay packet that lands in your bank account. People in this category tend to value their lives outside of the office more than their lives inside. Work is how they pay for the things they actually love, be it their friendships, hobbies or family life. People who view their job as a career work not only out of necessity, but also to advance and succeed. They tend to be more driven to seek out opportunities, strive for the next promotion, embrace training and development. People with a career orientation tend to prioritize their long term professional future, using goals and healthy competition at work to get ahead. Finally, those who experience their work as a calling tend to view work as an end in itself. They feel a deep emotional connection to their work, believing it contributes to the greater good, allows them to use their strengths, and gives a sense of purpose to their lives. Unsurprisingly, people with a calling orientation not only find work more rewarding, but they tend to work harder and and longer because of their commitment to it, and in turn get better results.

[Narrator / Author]

Lando Norris, it seemed to us, exhibited all the hallmarks of the third approach. He wasn't just working for the sake of working, he was working because he had a deep unwavering passion for what he was doing. Now you might be thinking, oh, good for Lando. But not everyone can have that kind of relationship with their work. If your job is cleaning toilets, then you might struggle to find a deep, unwavering passion. But what if, in fact, you can? Reznevsky's findings suggest that it doesn't really matter what job you have, because a calling orientation is as much to do with your mindset as the actual work you do. The trick lies in what organizational psychologists call job crafting, which essentially requires you to adjust the way you think about work and reframing what you are doing so it aligns more closely with the sense of what matters to you. In her most famous example, Reznevsky describes a cleaner at a hospital who defined her role not as cleaning up other people's mess or scrubbing floors, but as being a healer who maintained the standards in the hospital and so in turn contributed to the recovery of everyone inside. Defining her role as a healer meant she paid additional attention to to the tasks that might help people recover and leave the hospital more quickly, revzniewski wrote. She also formed relationships with patients and their families, getting to know them as people, not just temporary patients. By reframing what her work actually was, the cleaner was able to find dramatically more value in doing it. This is quite similar to the way Lando Norris described his grueling work in the garage. He was not just fixing the odd bit of metal, he told us. Instead, he got to know the values of people and how much of a difference that can make. Even the tasks that felt most menial were making a difference to making the car go faster. Lando's experience shows the value that job crafting can have for any of us. Think about the tasks you have to do and consider how you could rewrite them in a way that would appeal to someone who is applying for the job. What additional meaning could you find in the tasks before you if you framed them in the right terms? And what could it teach you about motivating yourself? The overall lesson don't get a job, create a calling.

[Narrator / Interviewer]

The first time we met Adam Peaty, he had his bags packed and his ticket ready to head to the Tokyo Olympic Games. And he confidently described to us how he planned to dominate his rivals and bring gold medals back to his Derbyshire home weeks later. That's exactly what he did. This series of events was entirely consistent with his whole career. Indeed, everything about Peatie's record seemed perfect. With a knack for hoovering up swimming world records and Gold medals with metronomic efficiency. He once described himself as possessing a gladiator mindset. And yet, just a year after our conversation, everything had changed.

[Adam Peaty]

It was 14 months from that interview that I had a breakdown, basically.

[Narrator / Interviewer]

Here's what he told us in his second appearance on High Performance.

[Adam Peaty]

You know, this sport of swimming, any sport, is incredibly hard. Life's incredibly hard, right?

[Narrator / Interviewer]

His troubles began when he started recording strangely pedestrian times in training. Then, as he began his preparation to become the first person to win the men's 100 meter breaststroke title in three Olympic Games in a row during the summer of 2024, everything went off the rails.

[Adam Peaty]

You know, I got to a place after coming off a training camp for 10 weeks, missing my son, missing home, and I kept getting ill, so my body kept telling me, you know, you don't want to do this, you can't do this. And I went to Edinburgh to race, and my times were about ridiculous, like ridiculously slow to what they normally would. And three days later after that, I was already contemplating, I don't want to do this anymore. But we got to keep going. I had that thought a lot of times. And I got back home three days later and I did 400 meters warm up, as I always do. Then I did 25 meters breaststroke, and I did the breaststroke and I just felt weak, I just felt tired, I felt broken. And I finished. I touched a wall and I was just. My goggles are filled with tears.

[Narrator / Interviewer]

Mel Marshall, his loyal coach and mentor, was waiting by the poolside and she asked him if he was okay. This is how Adam replied.

[Adam Peaty]

I was like, no. And that's the first time I've ever said no.

[Narrator / Interviewer]

Petey described the feelings of desolation that threatened to engulf him as he stood in the shower.

[Adam Peaty]

So I got into the shower just crying. Mel was there, and I said to myself, I don't want to do this anymore.

[Narrator / Interviewer]

He agreed to step away from the relentless demands of swimming for a week, which was soon extended to a second week, then a third. During this period, he began to question if Paris was even on the agenda. The solution to Adam's problem came from an unlikely source. Homer's Odyssey.

[Narrator / Author]

In Homer's ancient story, the hero Odysseus encounters the Sirens, mythical creatures with beautiful voices who lure sailors to their deaths by singing and chanting songs. To avoid this fate, Odysseus had his crew plug their ears with beeswax and tied himself to the ship's mast, allowing him to hear the siren's song while while being prevented from steering towards them, thus successfully passing the island and escaping their deadly charm. An Odysseus contract fulfils a similar function. It draws on this story's acknowledgment that we're all weak and human and often, when faced with temptation, likely to fall if we create a constraint, the equivalent of tying ourselves to the mast and find a way to ensure it can't later be overruled. It. Even if we're faced with temptation or are of unsound mind, it can help us achieve our objectives without the risk of distraction. Mel Marshall suggested that Petey try this for himself when he felt ready. Petey was invited to a meeting with the head coach of aquatics gb, where this contract idea was presented to him in the form of three simple questions.

[Adam Peaty]

What is the cost? And do you want to pay the cost? Do you want to pay the price?

[Narrator / Author]

Knowing the price was the important question.

[Adam Peaty]

You will have a receipt when you stand up at the Olympic Games in lane four. Hopefully you will have to show your receipt of hard work, because if you don't, that mindset will play tricks on you, that you don't deserve to be there. You haven't done the work.

[Narrator / Author]

Like the sirens called in Odysseus, Petey knew he had to prepare by answering the questions. He said, it comes back to do I want to do it and am I willing to pay the price? What, we wondered, was the cost?

[Adam Peaty]

Everyone throws around the word sacrifice. I don't believe it is a sacrifice because it's my choice to be there.

[Narrator / Author]

He then offered an itemised account of what the contract demanded from him should he choose to accept the deal.

[Adam Peaty]

So we're probably covering 10 to 12,000 meters, always about 10 to 12,000 meters a day, plus all the gym work. But that doesn't bother me. It's the time I lose doing that and the energy I lose because you will be broken physically and mentally, that you can't even operate, you can't even get up in the morning and get to work with a stable mind, because all these things are at play. So you've got that on the table, you've got the time away from your family, time away from the son that I see him grow without even being there, which I feel guilt. The constant effort of human excellence is a high price.

[Narrator / Author]

He.

[Adam Peaty]

To constantly find a pathway to human excellence, you know, is probably one of the hardest things ever to do.

[Narrator / Author]

Before he finally committed, he chose to call upon the council of one of the greatest swimmers of all time.

[Adam Peaty]

I spoke to Michael phelps for about 20, 30 minutes I just saw him and I goes, you've retired two times, and what did it take to bring you back?

[Narrator / Author]

Phelps, who had twice retired from the sport he in which he amassed an astonishing 23 Olympic gold medals, had a succinct response.

[Adam Peaty]

Basically, forget all the bullshit. What does your heart tell you?

[Narrator / Author]

Eventually, Petey was able to find his answer.

[Adam Peaty]

I knew that the pain of regret would be greater than pain of loss. So it was never about medals this time. It was about the opportunity and not regretting the opportunity.

[Narrator / Author]

The strategy worked. On a balmy Parisian night, an emotional pity was denied his historic treble by the narrowest of margins, coming joint second to Italy's Niccolo Martinghi by only 0.02 of a second. Less time than the blink of an eye. But he gave a tearful poolside interview where he offered millions of television viewers a small glimpse into the torments he'd overcome to be there. It's been a very long way back. I gave my absolute all out there, he said. I executed it as well as I could. It's not about the end goal. It's about the process. And it doesn't matter what the time says on the score, because in my heart, I've already won. I'm not crying because I've come second, Petey said. I'm crying because it took so much to get here. When he looked back at this raw footage, he was unequivocal.

[Adam Peaty]

I gave my absolute best in that environment. Obviously, some cards were dealt with me that, you know, I had Covid at the time when I was racing, my lungs literally couldn't work and I touched a wall. And I think that was my most favorite race because what it took to get to that moment.

[Narrator / Author]

He smiled as he recalled.

[Adam Peaty]

My son was in the crowd, my fiance Holly, and my mum and all the people I care about. It's just incredible that sport can give you so much in success, but also so many failures and so many moments of testing yourself. So, yeah, Paris was a very good one in terms of what I expected out myself.

[Narrator / Author]

While we may not be planning to compete at an Olympic Games, the method of using a commitment contract is a powerful tool for anyone. It seems there are three component parts to designing your a clear goal, a referee to hold you to account, and a suitable incentive as a reward. In one analysis of over 125,000 commitment contracts, it was found that those who wrote one but failed to appoint a referee that is someone to hold them to account or didn't set themselves a financial penalty, succeeded only 29% of the time. This rate sharply rose to 59% when a referee was used and to 71.5% when there was money at stake. Best of all, when a commitment contract included both a referee and financial stakes, the success rate increased to nearly 80%. PT would recognise the effectiveness of this approach and the ensuing positive results.

[Adam Peaty]

People do see, especially olympic games, the 1% of what it takes or 0.1% in the light. They don't see the 99.9% in the dark. And those are the dark moments that are going to make or break you. And I think everyone in life has those moments. Whether your 7 year old kid, you know, wanting to go to olympics, or a 40 year old picking up sport again, or having troubles in their career, you have to go through those moments to really define, you know, who you are, what values are you setting yourself, but also where do you want to be, you know, next week, or where you want to be in two years time.

[Damien]

So there you go. Two chapters from our audiobook, Don't Get a Job, Create a Calling and the Odysseus Contract. These are microhabits that I genuinely think about more than almost anything else we've covered on the show.

[Narrator / Author]

Neither of those moments are dramatic.

[Damien]

What they are is quiet, private and almost invisible. And yet they're the moments that made almost everything else possible. That's what microhabits is really about. It's not the headline grabbing moment, but the small, deliberate choices that precede them. So here's a microhabit I'd like to leave you with from these two chapters. Once a week, just once, find some time to sit down and ask yourself the three questions that Adam Peaty's coach put to him. What's the cost? Am I willing to pay it? And if I don't, what will I regret? Now, you don't have to be chasing a spot on an Olympic podium for those questions to matter, but they work at every level. It might be the business you're trying to build, the relationship you're looking to invest in, or the version of yourself that you're trying to become. Now, if these chapters that you've heard today resonated with you, I genuinely believe that the book will be one of the most useful things you can pick up this year. Jake and I have poured everything we've learned from five years and 400 interviews into these 48 short chapters. Each one is validated by science and designed to give you something that you can act on today. As always, I want to say thank you to you for being part of our high performance community. It really does matter. Keep working on those habits, the small ones, because what we've discovered is that your dreams don't determine where you go, your habits do. I look forward to seeing you next week.

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[Narrator / Interviewer]

Can I make my site firmer? Can we sleep cooler?

[Stamps.com / Sleep Number Advertiser]

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