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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

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
Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.
JAMES CLEAR

Action Person Type Vote Yourself
Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.
JAMES CLEAR

Best Direction Goal Goodness Progress System
Some people spend their entire lives waiting for the time to be right to make an improvement.
JAMES CLEAR

Change Improvement Live People Right Time Wait
When you can’t win by being better, you can win by being different.
JAMES CLEAR

Better Different Inspirational Win Yourself
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
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
We don’t choose our earliest habits, we imitate them.
JAMES CLEAR

Choice Early Habit Imitation
Motivation is overrated, environment often matters more.
JAMES CLEAR

Environment Motivational Place
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
Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. Find a way to get started in less than two minutes.
JAMES CLEAR

Motion Object Start Stay Time
Once your pride gets involved, you’ll fight tooth and nail to maintain your habits.
JAMES CLEAR

Fight Habit Maintain Pride Yourself
Habits are like the atoms of our lives. Each one is a fundamental unit that contributes to your overall improvement.
JAMES CLEAR

Fundamental Habit Improvement Live Ourselves
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
Perseverance, grit, and willpower are essential to success, but the way to improve these qualities is not by wishing you were a more disciplined person, but by creating a more disciplined environment.
JAMES CLEAR

Creation Discipline Environment Perseverance Person Success Willing
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

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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