Put another way, the costs of your good habits are in the present. The costs of your bad habits are in the future.
Each book you read not only teaches you something new, but also opens up different ways of thinking about old ideas. As Warren Buffet says ‘That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest’.
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.
At some point, everyone faces the same challenge on the journey of self-improvement: you have to fall in love with boredom.
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.
Bamboo can barely be seen for the first five years as it builds extensive root systems underground before exploding ninety feet into the air within six weeks.
Whenever you feel authentic and genuine, you are headed in the right direction.
The work that hurts you less than it hurts others is the work you were made to do.
Your behaviors are usually a reflection of your identity.
If you find yourself struggling to build a good habit or break a bad one, it is not because you have lost your ability to improve. It is often because you have not yet crossed what James calls, “Plateau of Latent Potential.” When you finally break through the Plateau of Latent Potential, people will call it an overnight success.
And if you’re really hard-core, move the television out of the living room and into a closet after each use. You can be sure you’ll only take it out when you really want to watch something. The greater the friction, the less likely the habit.
I didn’t start out as a writer. I became one through my habits.
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.
When you make your bed each day, you embody the identity of an organized person. When you write each day, you embody the identity of a creative person. When you train each day, you embody the identity of an athletic person.
When the consequences are severe, people learn quickly.
WHY IS IT so easy to repeat bad habits and so hard to form good ones?
Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. Find a way to get started in less than two minutes.
There will never be a perfect time to do something that stretches you. If you were ready for it, it wouldn’t be growth.
Redesign your life so the actions that matter most are also the actions that are easiest to do.
Here’s the powerful part: there are many different ways to address the same underlying motive. One person might learn to reduce stress by smoking a cigarette. Another person learns to ease their anxiety by going for a run. Your current habits are not necessarily the best way to solve the problems you face; they are just the methods you learned to use. Once you associate a solution with the problem you need to solve, you keep coming back to it.