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Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.

James Clear

How can I make it obvious? How can I make it attractive? How can I make it easy? How can I make it satisfying?
JAMES CLEAR

Attraction Easy Myself Satisfaction Work
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
JAMES CLEAR

Fall Goal Level Rise System 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
We don’t choose our earliest habits, we imitate them.
JAMES CLEAR

Choice Early Habit Imitation
The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game.
JAMES CLEAR

Game Goal Play Purpose Win
Be the designer of your world and not merely the consumer of it.
JAMES CLEAR

Consumption Design World Yourself
True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. It’s not about any single accomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement.
JAMES CLEAR

Accomplishment End Goal Improvement Thinking True
The only way to become excellent is to be endlessly fascinated by doing the same thing over and over. You have to fall in love with boredom.
JAMES CLEAR

Boredom End Excellence Fall In Love Fascinate Yourself
Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.
JAMES CLEAR

Action Person Type Vote Yourself
Your behaviors are usually a reflection of your identity.
JAMES CLEAR

Identity Reflection Yourself
Professionals stick to the schedule; amateurs let life get in the way.
JAMES CLEAR

Inspirational Life Professional Schedule
The problem with a goals-first mentality is that you’re continually putting happiness off until the next milestone.
JAMES CLEAR

Goal Happiness Mentality Problem Yourself
Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.
JAMES CLEAR

Best Direction Goal Goodness Progress System
It’s hard to change your habits if you never change the underlying beliefs that led to your past behavior. You have a new goal and a new plan, but you haven’t changed who you are.
JAMES CLEAR

Belief Change Goal Habit Hard Planning Yourself
You do it because it’s who you are and it feels good to be you. The more a habit becomes part of your life, the less you need outside encouragement to follow through.
JAMES CLEAR

Encouragement Feeling Habit Need Yourself
You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.
JAMES CLEAR

Current Result Tragedy Worth Yourself
Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity.
JAMES CLEAR

Belief Best Expand Identity Version Yourself
When you can’t win by being better, you can win by being different.
JAMES CLEAR

Better Different Inspirational Win Yourself
You don’t have to be the victim of your environment. You can also be the architect of it.
JAMES CLEAR

Architect Choice Environment Inspirational Job Victim Yourself
Being motivated and curious counts for more than being smart because it leads to action.
JAMES CLEAR

Action Count Leadership Motivational Smart
The most practical way to change who you are is to change what you do.
JAMES CLEAR

Action Change Practice Way Work Yourself
We all deal with setbacks but in the long run, the quality of our lives often depends on the quality of our habits
JAMES CLEAR

Deal Habit Live Ourselves Quality Run
A genius is not born, but is educated and trained.
JAMES CLEAR

Born Education Genius Training
When preparation becomes a form of procrastination, you need to change something. You don’t want to merely be planning. You want to be practicing.
JAMES CLEAR

Change Form Practice Preparation 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
Small changes often appear to make no difference until you cross a critical threshold. The most powerful outcomes of any compounding process are delayed. You need to be patient.
JAMES CLEAR

Appearance Change Need Patience Process Small 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

Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.

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Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.

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