James Clear
@JamesClear
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Author of the #1 NYT bestseller Atomic Habits (https://t.co/aWrO9DWkH5). I write about building good habits. Over 3 million people read my 3-2-1 newsletter.
Joined December 2010
Most people need consistency more than they need intensity. Intensity:.-run a marathon.-write a book in 30 days.-silent meditation retreat. Consistency:.-don't miss a workout for 2 years.-write every week.-daily silence. Intensity makes a good story. Consistency makes progress.
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There are 4 types of wealth:. 1. Financial wealth (money).2. Social wealth (status).3. Time wealth (freedom).4. Physical wealth (health). Be wary of jobs that lure you in with 1 and 2, but rob you of 3 and 4.
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Habits that have a high rate of return in life:. - sleep 8+ hours each day.- lift weights 3x week.- go for a walk each day.- save at least 10 percent of your income.- read every day.- drink more water and less of everything else.- leave your phone in another room while you work.
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Just start. Start slow if you have to. Start small if you have to. Start privately if you have to. Just start.
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The ultimate list of biohacks and smart drugs:. -Drink more water.-Get 8 hours of sleep.-Walk outside in the sun.-Leave your phone on silent.-Read a few pages each day.-Eat more vegetables and greens.-Don’t hang out with toxic people.-Work on projects you care about.
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When making plans, think big. When making progress, think small.
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3 ideas to start your year:. 1) You don't rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. 2) Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. 3) Decide the type of person you want to be. Prove it to yourself with small wins.
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Strangely, life gets harder when you try to make it easy. Exercising might be hard, but never moving makes life harder. Uncomfortable conversations are hard, but avoiding every conflict is harder. Mastering your craft is hard, but having no skills is harder. Easy has a cost.
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Working on a problem reduces the fear of it. It’s hard to fear a problem when you are making progress on it—even if progress is imperfect and slow. Action relieves anxiety.
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Real wealth is not about money. Real wealth is:.-not having to go to meetings.-not having to spend time with jerks.-not being locked into status games.-not feeling like you have to say “yes”.-not worrying about others claiming your time and energy. Real wealth is about freedom.
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Goals are for people who care about winning once. Systems are for people who care about winning repeatedly.
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1) Do less. Stop dividing your attention. 2) Do it right now. Once you have identified the essential, go fast. Maintain a bias toward action. 3) Do it the right way. Acting quickly doesn't mean acting carelessly. Get to work right away, but keep working on it until it's right.
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Goals are for people who care about winning once. Systems are for people who care about winning repeatedly.
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It only takes five minutes to break the cycle. Five minutes of exercise and you are back on the path. Five minutes of writing and the manuscript is moving forward again. Five minutes of conversation and the relationship is restored. It doesn't take much to feel good again.
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When you choose who to follow on Twitter, you are choosing your future thoughts.
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What can you do with 5 good minutes?. 5 good minutes of:. -pushups is a solid workout.-sprints will leave you winded.-writing can deliver 1 good page.-reading can finish an insightful article.-meditation can reset your mood. You don’t need more time—just a little focused action.
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We often avoid taking action because we think "I need to learn more," but the best way to learn is often by taking action.
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Aim to be great in 10 years. Build health habits today that lead to a great body in 10 years. Build social habits today that lead to great relationships in 10 years. Build learning habits today that lead to great knowledge in 10 years. Long-term thinking is a secret weapon.
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Just start. Start slow if you have to. Start small if you have to. Start privately if you have to. Just start.
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Possibly the biggest accomplishment of my career thus far: . Atomic Habits is the #1 best-selling book of the year on Amazon. All books. All categories. Unbelievable! Happy New Year everyone! 🥳.
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Lack of confidence kills more dreams than lack of ability. Talent matters—especially at elite levels—but people talk themselves out of giving their best effort long before talent becomes the limiting factor. You're capable of more than you know. Don't be your own bottleneck.
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Goals are for people who care about winning once. Systems are for people who care about winning repeatedly.
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Habits that have a high rate of return in life:. - sleeping 8+ hours each day.- lifting weights 3x week.- going for a walk each day.- saving at least 10 percent of your income.- reading every day.- drinking more water and less of everything else.- leaving your phone in another.
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We need to redefine "hard work" to include "hard thinking.". The person who outsmarts you is out working you. The person who finds shortcuts is out working you. The person with a better strategy is out working you. Usually, the hardest work is thinking of a better way to do it.
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It took me. 200+ articles before I got a book deal. 250+ articles before I got major media coverage (NYT). 100+ interviews before my book hit the bestseller list. You need a lot of shots on goal. Not everything will work, but some of it will. Keep shooting.
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Your 1st blog post will be bad, but your 1000th will be great. Your 1st workout will be weak, but your 1000th will be strong. Your 1st meditation will be scattered, but your 1000th will be focused. Put in your reps.
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I have a suspicion that most adults (75%+) could pick any skill—excluding sports—and work their way into the top 10% in the world simply by working exclusively on it every day for two years. But almost nobody displays that degree of focus, so we will never know.
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Looking back, most of the excuses I made. not enough time.not enough money.not enough knowledge.not the right connections. were just ways to avoid the real bottleneck. Not enough courage. There was always a small step I could have taken—if I had the guts to take it.
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Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.
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There are 3 primary drivers of results in life:. 1) Your luck (randomness). 2) Your strategy (choices). 3) Your actions (habits). Only 2 of the 3 are under your control. But if you master those 2, you can improve the odds that luck will work for you rather than against you.
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Be “selectively ignorant.”. Ignore topics that drain your attention. Unfollow people that drain your energy. Abandon projects that drain your time. Do not keep up with it all. The more selectively ignorant you become, the more broadly knowledgable you can be.
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Nearly everything awesome takes longer than you think. Get started and don't worry about the clock.
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The more comfortable I am with myself, the less I feel a need to win arguments with other people.
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The teacher learns more than the student. The author learns more than the reader. The speaker learns more than the attendee. The way to learn is by doing.
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Goals are for people who care about winning once. Systems are for people who care about winning repeatedly.
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Rome wasn’t built in a day, but they were laying bricks every hour. You don’t have to do it all today. Just lay a brick. That’s how you build an empire.
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The ultimate form of preparation is not planning for a specific scenario, but a mindset that can handle uncertainty.
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How to Be Unhappy:. -stay inside all day.-move as little as possible.-spend more than you earn.-take yourself (and life) too seriously.-look for reasons why things won’t work.-always consume, never contribute.-resent the lucky and successful.-never say hello first.-be unreliable.
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Bottom right đź‘€.
i’m going to see this Holyfield Vs. Belford fight. who you like? • #bransoncognac #lecheminduroi
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The more you create, the more powerful you become. The more you consume, the more powerful others become.
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It doesn’t make sense to continue wanting something if you’re not willing to do what it takes to get it. If you don’t want to live the lifestyle, then release yourself from the desire. To crave the result but not the process, is to guarantee disappointment.
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All the tech companies want to become banks. All the banks want to become tech companies.
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How I run my business. 2020 was my 10th year as an entrepreneur. Here are some "rules" I try to follow after a decade of stumbling around building my company. (Not rules for all businesses. Just how I choose to run mine.). A thread 👇👇👇.
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Nearly everything awesome takes longer than you think. Get started and don't worry about the clock.
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Atomic Habits came out 5 years ago today! . What a wild ride. Thank you to all the readers! To celebrate, I'm asking for stories from anyone who was helped by the book. If you found it useful, leave a comment below and share how it made a difference for you.
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A simple question that often changes my behavior:. Does the amount of attention I’m giving this match its importance?.
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Anyone planning to read (or re-read) Atomic Habits to start the new year?
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Maintain a margin of safety—even when it’s going well. Rich people go bankrupt chasing even more wealth. Fit people get injured chasing personal records. Productive people become ineffective taking on too many projects. Don’t let your ambition ruin your position.
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Highly focused people do not leave their options open. They select their priorities and are comfortable ignoring the rest. If you commit to nothing, you’ll be distracted by everything.
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What looks like talent is often careful preparation. What looks like skill is often persistent revision.
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A simple rule for life and work:. Don’t rush, but don’t wait. Thoughtful action.
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An expert is someone who, over many years, manages to remain confident enough to keep trying and humble enough to keep learning.
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Consistency before intensity. Start small and become the kind of person who shows up every day. Build a new identity. Then increase the intensity.
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Start now. Optimize later. Imperfect starts can always be improved. Obsessing over a perfect plan will never take you anywhere on its own.
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Just start. Start slow if you have to. Start small if you have to. Start privately if you have to. Just start.
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Most people think they lack motivation when they really lack clarity.
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Nearly everything awesome takes longer than you think. Get started and don't worry about the clock.
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Life is short. And if life is short, then moving quickly matters. Launch the product. Write the book. Ask the question. Take the chance. Be thoughtful, but get moving.
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Consistency before intensity. Start small and become the kind of person who shows up every day. Build a new identity. Then increase the intensity.
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Where to focus:. For the beginner, execution. For the intermediate, strategy. For the expert, mindset.
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Do you actually need more information or do you simply need to act on the information you already have?.
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Many situations in life are similar to going on a hike: the view changes once you start walking. You don't need all the answers right now. New paths will reveal themselves if you have the courage to get started.
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“You’re probably right” is becoming one of my favorite phrases. Whenever someone disagrees with you on a small matter (read: most things), you can just shrug, say “you’re probably right” and move on. Not caring about winning trivial arguments saves so much time and energy.
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The person who learns the most in any classroom is the teacher. Lesson:. If you really want to learn a topic, then “teach” it. Write a book. Teach a class. Build a product. Start a company. The act of making something will force you to learn more deeply than reading ever will.
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The ultimate form of preparation is not planning for a specific scenario, but a mindset that can handle uncertainty.
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Mental toughness is often portrayed as determination and persistence, but it can also be flexibility and adaptability. - I can be happy anywhere.- I can work with what I have.- I can have a good day with anyone. You are tough when your mood is not dependent on your conditions.
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Consistency before intensity. Start small and become the kind of person who shows up every day. Build a new identity. Then increase the intensity.
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When making plans, think big. When making progress, think small.
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Don't spend too much time around someone whose primary way of engaging with life is as a martyr. When suffering becomes your identity, you only see the hard parts of life.
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A strategy for thinking clearly:. Rather than trying to be right, assume you are wrong and try to be less wrong. Trying to be right has a tendency to devolve into protecting your beliefs. Trying to be less wrong has a tendency to prompt more questions and intellectual humility.
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Before you try to increase your willpower, try to decrease the friction in your environment.
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Solve big problems early. Rebound after one missed workout, not a decade of inactivity. Repair a strained relationship the next day, not years later. Fix overspending before it becomes a lifestyle. Problems with simple solutions at first become difficult to unwind over time.
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Many situations in life are similar to going on a hike: the view changes once you start walking. You don't need all the answers right now. New paths will reveal themselves if you have the courage to get started.
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Go smaller. Can't learn an exercise? Reduce the range of motion. Struggling to grasp a new concept? Break it down. Failing to stick with a habit? Make it easy. Master stage one, then advance.
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The more you move, the easier it is to keep moving. Maintain the momentum.
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I can’t tell you how many times I don’t feel like training and tell myself, “I’ll just do one set and see how I feel.”. You would think it would stop working at some point, but I almost always end up doing the whole workout. Just start. Do something and see what happens.
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Success is largely the failures you avoid. Health is the injuries you don't sustain. Wealth is the purchases you don't make. Happiness is the objects you don't desire. Peace of mind is the arguments you don't engage. Avoid the bad to protect the good.
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If you think you can learn a lot from reading books, try writing one.
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Life is harder when you expect a lot of the world and little of yourself. Life is easier when you expect a lot of yourself and little of the world. High standards, low expectations.
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Good marketing can sell once, but only a good product can sell twice. In the long run, your performance reverts to the value you provide.
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You can practice social distancing on social media too. Stay away from people who are infected with negativity, a lack of generosity, an unwillingness to seek truth, etc.
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If you do not actively choose a better way, then society, culture, and the general inertia of life will push you into a worse way. The default is distraction, not improvement.
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It doesn’t make sense to continue wanting something if you’re not willing to do what it takes to get it. If you don’t want to live the lifestyle, then release yourself from the desire. To crave the result but not the process, is to guarantee disappointment.
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Maturity is learning how to start when you feel like procrastinating and learning how to listen when you feel like talking.
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When you need to learn quickly, learn from others. When you need to learn deeply, learn from experience.
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New goals don't deliver new results. New lifestyles do. And a lifestyle is a process, not an outcome. For this reason, all of your energy should go into building better habits, not chasing better results.
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The interior of an atom is 99.9999999999996% empty space, which means everything—literally everything and anything of physical substance in the universe—is, somehow, mostly nothing.
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It doesn’t make sense to continue wanting something if you’re not willing to do what it takes to get it. If you don’t want to live the lifestyle, then release yourself from the desire. To crave the result but not the process, is to guarantee disappointment.
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