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As a general rule, the more immediate pleasure you get from an action, the more strongly you should question whether it aligns with your long-term goals.

James Clear

Good habits can make rational sense, but if they conflict with your identity, you will fail to put them into action.
JAMES CLEAR

Action Failure Goodness Habit Identity Yourself
I didn’t start out as a writer. I became one through my habits.
JAMES CLEAR

Habit Oneself Start Writing
Being specific about what you want and how you will achieve it helps you say no to things that derail progress, distract your attention, and pull you off course.
JAMES CLEAR

Achievement Attention Course Distract Help Specific Yourself
With outcome-based habits, the focus is on what you want to achieve. With identity-based habits, the focus is on who you wish to become.
JAMES CLEAR

Achievement Focus Habit Identity Result
A genius is not born, but is educated and trained.
JAMES CLEAR

Born Education Genius Training
Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement
JAMES CLEAR

Habit Improvement Interest
As a general rule, the more immediate pleasure you get from an action, the more strongly you should question whether it aligns with your long-term goals.
JAMES CLEAR

Action Goal Happiness Rule Strong Yourself
The work that hurts you less than it hurts others is the work you were made to do.
JAMES CLEAR

Hurt Work Yourself
Research has shown that once a person believes in a particular aspect of their identity, they are more likely to act in alignment with that belief.
JAMES CLEAR

Act Belief Believe Identity Person Research
If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.
JAMES CLEAR

Better Goal Improvement Result System Yourself
Your culture sets your expectation for what is normal. Surround yourself with people who have the habits you want to have yourself.
JAMES CLEAR

Culture Expectation Habit Normal People Surround Yourself
Put another way, the costs of your good habits are in the present. The costs of your bad habits are in the future.
JAMES CLEAR

Bad Cost Future Goodness Habit Present
You don’t have to build the habits everyone tells you to build. Choose the habit that best suits you, not the one that is most popular.
JAMES CLEAR

Best Build Choice Habit Popular Yourself
Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.
JAMES CLEAR

Action Belief Build Evidence Identity Person Transformation Type Vote Yourself
Men are born soft and supple; dead, they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death.
JAMES CLEAR

Born Death Discipline Man Soft
In short: genes do not determine your destiny. They determine your areas of opportunity.
JAMES CLEAR

Areas Destiny Determination Opportunity

As a general rule, the more immediate pleasure you get from an action, the more strongly you should question whether it aligns with your long-term goals.

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As a general rule, the more immediate pleasure you get from an action, the more strongly you should question whether it aligns with your long-term goals.

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Popular Authors

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