you don’t have to be the victim of your
environment you can also be the
architect of it when life doesn’t
challenge you I think it’s important to
challenge yourself the other the
ultimate meta habit is reading because
if you build a habit of reading you can
solve pretty much any other problem need
motivation watch a top ten with believe
nation
what’s that believe nation it’s Evan I
believe in you and this channel is
designed to be a part of your daily
success routine so let’s get your
motivation to attend and get you
believing in you grab a snack and chew
in today’s lessons from a man who went
from being a star athlete in high school
to failing his first venture as an
entrepreneur to now being an expert on
habits and self-development he’s James
clear and here’s my take on his top ten
let’s kick it off with rule number one
build good habits one of the phrases I
use I have us in the book is that habits
of the compound interests of
self-improvement so it’s like the same
way that it’s part a compound interest
you know cruise through finance you’re
the effects of your habits multiply over
time and so often these choices that you
make they’re these little 1%
improvements for you or against you each
day and they’re very easy to overlook on
a daily basis right like what what
really is the difference between eating
a burger and fries or a salad and
that’s actually a crucial point that I
cover in the book which is that habits
that are immediately satisfying or more
likely to be repeated and so pretty much
any behavior produces multiple outcomes
across time right like if you eat a
doughnut right now it’s tasty and sugar
good but in the long run you gain weight
and so the the immediate outcome is
favorable the long-term outcome is
unfavorable with good habits just off on
the reverse I’d like you go to the gym
right now and it takes effort you sweat
you have to work hard it’s not your time
for Netflix and chill to go train the
immediate outcomes unfavorable but the
ultimate outcome you’re in shape and you
you know a year or month or whatever
right is favorable and so the challenge
for building good habits and breaking
bad ones is often finding a way to pull
the long-term consequences of your bad
habits in the immediate moment so you
feel a little to the pain right now and
want to avoid it and the long-term
rewards of your good habits into the
immediate moment so you have a reason to
repeat it again in the future each
behavior casts a vote for the type of
person that you want to become and if
you cast enough votes for that type of
identity you start to believe that about
yourself right like if you go to church
for 20 years you believe that you’re
religious you study Spanish every
Tuesday for 30 minutes you believe that
you were studious so in that way your
habits provide evidence of your desired
identity and I think that that is
probably the ultimate reason that habits
are so importantly it’s true like how
this can help you earn more money or be
more productive or lose weight and all
that stuff is great but in addition to
the external results that habits provide
they also shape your sense of self they
like are the at the engine or
Avenue through which you learn to
believe things about yourself like
sometimes people will say stuff like
fake it till you make it but fake it
till you make it
is asking yourself to believe something
without evidence for it and you can do
that for a little while you could do it
for a day or week but eventually I mean
there’s a word for beliefs that don’t
have evidence behind though it’s a
delusion right and if you’re deluding
yourself then eventually you give up on
that but the power of doing a better
habit each day or casting one little
vote for that type of person is that now
you have evidence to root your belief in
so now last months Yeah right like yeah
I mean now you have a lot of evidence
that you’re a podcaster or a good
interviewer you know like you do this
over and over again each time you cast a
vote for believing that about yourself
and you don’t just yarn delusionally
believing that you’re good interviewer
it’s because you’ve shown up and done it
hundreds of times right and so I think
that that’s true for any habit large or
small that they provide evidence of the
desired identity or the the type of
person that you are
rule number two put in the reps there’s
this professor at the University of
Florida he’s retired now he was a
photography professor his name is Jerry
Koosman and at the beginning of the
semester he would have this film
photography class named bring the class
in and he would split him into two
groups instead everybody on this side of
the room you were going to be graded on
the quantity of work that you do this
semester and everybody on this side of
the room you were gonna be graded on the
quality of work that you do this
semester and he’s further explained it
by saying that for your film photography
you’re gonna be responsible for having a
hundred pictures if you do a hundred
photos over the course of the semester
that’ll be an A if you do ninety it’ll
be a B if you do a TW C and so on so
it’s quantity for this group you only
have to produce one photo but it has to
be the most perfect photo that you can
make the best photo that you can make an
interesting an interesting thing
happened at the end of the term all the
best grades came from the quantity group
not from the quality group and what
ended up happening was that while people
were busy experimenting making mistakes
learning how to you know play with
composition and so on they would come
across a really great photo and while
the quality group is busy theorizing
about what perfection would look like
and how to take the perfect photo and
not actually honing their skills they
ended up only making something mediocre
or average and the important insight
here especially for habits
in the beginning the most important
thing is just to shut up and put your
reps in just make sure that you hone the
skill right and you can start to think
of it the way that I like to think of it
is that any outcome that you wish to
achieve is just a point along the
spectrum of repetitions so if you have
few reps two more reps and you can
imagine an easy goal moderate goal a
hard goal the more reps that you put in
the more that you more like you you are
to achieve that goal so maybe a point a
is you know a stake fitness squatting a
hundred pounds point B is squatting 200
points C is clotting 300 maybe you need
to put in a hundred reps or a thousand
reps to get to point A maybe it’s five
thousand to get to point B maybe was ten
thousand to get to point to see rule
number three challenge yourself so
occasionally and this is true for
everybody if you live long enough life
will come for you at some point right
like something’s going to happen so
occasionally life will stress you but
when life doesn’t challenge you I think
it’s important to challenge yourself
because otherwise you’re just living in
this optimal environment air
conditioning and you know everything
else is super easy you can get all the
information in the world at your
fingertips you never have to like if you
think about how crazy just eating is in
the modern world so previously when we
lived in tribes you you had to expend
energy to get calories at a minimum you
were foraging for berries but otherwise
you probably had like run something down
and kill it or part of a group hunt or
all kinds of other things now you can
get calories without expending any all
you have to do is just tap like ubereats
on your phone or something it’ll show up
at your door and you can just sit on the
couch which is of course like a recipe
for poor health but also just it’s the
game has completely changed now we’ve
transcended a lot of our evolutionary
programming and natural situations and
so you need to be careful about
designing that to serve you rather than
to work against you because it can very
easily nudge you in the other direction
rule number four exercise and read I
think there are a few core habits that
are gonna serve everybody and certainly
serve me well so exercise is a huge one
I don’t do it daily but I exercise I
train four times a week yeah and I feel
like if I didn’t exercise I don’t know
that I would be an entrepreneur like I
don’t know if I could handle the
psychological rollercoaster without the
physical yeah the release the you
probably feel that it’s like an athlete
too you know like I
for being an athlete for so many years I
feel like I need to push myself
physically in addition to mentally a
visit just mental it doesn’t do it for
me I don’t have a physical outlet so
exercise exercise is one the other the
ultimate Metta habit is reading because
if you build a habit of reading you can
solve pretty much any other problem you
know you won’t learn how to be a better
podcaster you can read about that you
want to write how to meditate you can
read about that you want to learn how to
make more money you can read about that
and so what you need is to develop a
habit of reading and then whatever
problem you’re facing at the time you
can you have a method for solving them
rule number five have a plan one of my
favorite studies is about exercise and
they had three cohorts in this study so
they have first cohort they said I just
want you to track how often you work out
over the next few weeks right so that’s
the the standard cohort the control
group second group is that we want to
track off and you exercise we’re also
gonna give you a motivation motivational
speech presentation talk about the
benefits of heart health why habits are
good for you and so on so this is a
motivated group alright the third group
they got the same presentation so
they’re equally motivated and then they
did one thing differently and that one
thing was they filled out this sentence
they said during the next week I will
particular least 20 minutes of vigorous
exercise on this day in this – at this
time in this place right they
specifically stated their intention to
implement the behavior so implementation
intention here’s what happened first
group one out of three of them worked
out second group motivation did nothing
as soon as they left the researchers
facility the next day they were
motivated it’s like reading a book or
watching a YouTube or listening to a
motivational speaker and then you forget
all about it twenty minutes later but
the third group the group that has a
specific plan for how they were gonna
implement the behavior nine out of ten
of them worked out so you can increase
your odds of success two to three acts
just by having a specific plan and this
is the insight many people think that
they lack motivation when what they
really lack is clarity they think that
they need to get more motivated that
they need willpower in order to execute
on a habit if I just felt like writing
if I just felt like meditating I felt
like working out then I would do it but
in fact they don’t have a plan for it so
they wake up each day thinking I wonder
if I’ll feel motivated to write today
wonder if I’ll feel motivate to workout
today but instead you can take the
decision-making out of it by explicitly
stating when where and how
you want to implement the habit it
sounds easy to say let’s just start a
plan let’s you know write down exactly
what you should do and then maybe you’ll
fall through on it but of course we all
know that there are challenges that
arise it’s not quite that easy so here’s
a little strategy that I like to use to
make sure you can come up with a better
plan of action and it’s called a failure
pre-mortem so the way that it works is
you think about the habit the project
the goal whatever the most important
thing is that you want to work on and I
want you to imagine fast forward six
months from now and you failed and then
tell the story of why you failed what
happened what challenges did you
encounter what was it that took you off
course when I do this with businesses
sometimes we’re called to kill the
company exercises everybody just sits
around thinks about ways to kill the
company in the next six months and once
you have all that stuff laid out on the
table in front of you you can start to
make better choices about how to develop
a plan you can start to have if-then
plans so not only do I want to exercise
for 20 minutes on Monday at 5 p.m. but
also if I do not exercise because I have
to take my kid to practice or whatever
then it’s Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. I
will go in right you’re gonna have ways
to adjust for these challenges rule
number 6 get rid of bad habits I think
we actually have like three options for
breaking bad habits so the first option
is to reduce exposure so something like
you know if you want to stop spending so
much money on electronics then don’t
follow all the latest tech review blogs
you know like your if you want to lose
weight don’t follow a bunch of food
bloggers on Instagram you’re constantly
being triggered by that and having like
overcome the Proms now that doesn’t
always work but if you can cut a habit
off at the source then a lot of the time
like the craving won’t arise naturally
so in atomic habits in the book I talked
a little bit about this woman who she
smoked while she was in college and she
would always smoke while riding horses
with a friend and so eventually at some
point she quit smoking and she’s also
stopped seeing I like seeing that friend
and graduated in college and so on and
wasn’t riding horses and then like 10
years later she got back on a horse for
the first time and suddenly craved a
cigarette and she was like what is going
on here and it’s your habits are often
tied to a context they’re tied to a
situation or some kind of cue and so if
you can reduce exposure to that cue then
in many cases the craving won’t arise so
that’s the first option for breaking bad
habit the second option which kind of
sucks but is
like to sit with the craving long enough
to like let this wave a desire ride
itself out and so you basically just
resist temptation it’s possible it’s
easier if if your hand is forced if you
use what I call a commitment device so
brief story real quick Victor Hugo
famous authors were like Hunchback of
Notre Dame and a bunch of other things
well when he got the book deal for
Hunchback of Notre Dom he just
procrastinating for like a year he hosts
a bunch of house parties has friends
over he went traveling for a little
while yeah he got the book deal he did
nothing no work and eventually his
publisher got pissed off they were like
you know can you please like actually
work on this and so they set this all to
made him for him and they said we’re
gonna we’re gonna cancel the book in six
months if you don’t have it done by then
and so he he got his assistant to come
in put all his clothes into a chest and
they locked him up and took him out of
the house and the only thing he was left
with was like this the shawl this like
large robe so basically he had no
clothes that were suitable for hosting
guests or for leaving the house or like
going on trips or anything else so more
or less put himself on house arrest and
what ended up happening was each time
procrastination arose he was able to
kind of sit with that feeling and let it
ride because he didn’t really have many
other options they can get back to work
on the book and it ended up working he
got the book done like two weeks early
but things like that where you can lock
in your future action and it becomes
really hard to go to your friends party
or go out to you know travel to a
different place or whatever just because
you don’t have the option if you can
increase the friction then sometimes you
can sit with the craving of a bad habit
and let it ride out so that’s your
second choice and then the third choice
is the one that you just mentioned which
is you take the solution that the bad
habit is providing the way that it’s
serving you and you find a new behavior
that delivers that same outcome rule
number seven develop expertise what
makes you an expert on habits oh hey
ston lots of other people that are
talking about habits I think that and
I’ve said this many times before I’m
just going through this with everybody
else I consider my readers my peers in
the sense that we’re all just trying
things out the only differences I write
about what I learned and shared each
week and but we’re all just learning
along the way early on I had a feeling
like that I was like who might have you
know I’m just a guy who might about this
and I had a friend tell me the way you
develop expertise is by writing about it
every week so I wrote a new article
about habits every Monday and Thursday
for three years and that was how I
developed the expertise on the topic by
writing about it did research you said
here’s what I found here’s what I tried
his what worked what didn’t work it’s a
combination of me reading the scientific
literature and reading the research and
then trying to distill the practical
insights from that and testing things
out in my own life as a weightlifter a
Travel Photographer a writer an
entrepreneur and seeing what that looks
like and then the two together
and I think you need both like I don’t
want to be some new-age version of an
academic who’s in an ivory tower just
like theorizing about ideas is different
what it looks like to put ideas into
practice right like imagine you’re a
peak performance coach and you show up
to coach like an NBA team these guys
like dude you need to step on the court
if you know it right to see what it’s
actually like rule number eight change
your environment you don’t have to be
the victim of your environment you can
also be the architect of it you can
decide to design something to make your
good behaviors easier and your bad
behaviors harder so when it comes to
habits you want to practice your guitar
more frequently put it right in the
middle of your living room so you run
across this all the time if you want to
read more when you make your bed in the
morning take the book you want to read
put it on top of the pillow when you
come back that night pick it up read a
few pages go to sleep for me I used to
buy apples all the time and then I would
put them in the crisper at the bottom of
the fridge and they would sit there for
three weeks and go bad and I’d finally
open it up and see them again
you get mad and then eventually I bought
a bowl and put it right in the middle of
the counter and so then when I buy
apples I put them there I see them every
day and now I eat them all the time
many of our desires are simply shaped
because we have an environment that
shapes us in that way so the moral of
the stories I’ve never seen someone
stick to positive habits in a consistent
fashion in a negative environment maybe
you can overpower once or twice maybe
you can have the willpower to do the
right thing on one day but if you’re
constantly fighting against those forces
it’s gonna be very hard to fall through
rule number nine change your identity I
think true behavior changes identity
change and it’s this shifting of your
self-image your beliefs or the way you
look at yourself because it’s one thing
to say that I want this and something
very different to say I am this so
people walk around with beliefs like
that all the time
not a language learner I’m not good at
math I’m terrible with directions and
not good at remembering someone’s name
yeah and once you have those type of
once you adopt that identity it becomes
very easy to just reinforce that over
and over again and so these three levels
that you mentioned outcomes process and
identity all three matter but I think
the key is that you want the direction
of change to be in the right way through
the right arrow so if you start with the
outcomes if you start with the result
then you’re like oh I really want this
thing and here’s my plan for getting it
and most people just never think about
the identity that comes underneath that
like they think I want to lose weight or
I want to be skinny and if I follow this
diet then I’ll be skinny and then they
they don’t really give any thought to
the beliefs behind their behavior but if
you start the other way around
if you start at the identity and you say
all right who’s the type of person that
could lose weight well maybe it’s the
type of person who doesn’t miss workouts
then you faucet you start with that
identity say okay I want to become the
type person who doesn’t miss workouts
here are the habits I need to build and
then whatever results come just come
naturally so most people focus on the
results and build a plan and let the
identity come naturally but that rarely
works because their beliefs like
conflict
with your actions but if you start with
the identity and you build the habits to
reinforce that then the results just
could come on their own and rule number
10 the last one before a very special
bonus clip is be systems oriented most
people are familiar with the story The
Good Samaritan stopping along the side
of the road to help help a fallen person
help someone in need
well Princeton their theology school
decided to run this experiment they
brought in a bunch of theology students
they said all right we’re all familiar
with the story of the Good Samaritan
we’re gonna break you up into groups and
you’re gonna go teach in different rooms
across campus you’re gonna teach this
story and so they started talking about
you know how they’re gonna deliver the
presentation and so on they had a couple
different cohorts the one cohort they
said all right just go ahead and you
know go off and and deliver the
presentation so they went off to their
rooms the second one though they did
something interesting they sent the
group off but on their way to the well
they sent the group off and they said by
the way we’re running a little bit
behind right you you don’t have very
long to get there it takes about ten
minutes you only got five so we kind of
need to hurry you’re probably already
gonna be late so they’re in a rush they
know they’re gonna go give this
presentation on the way they planted an
actor on the on the campus and this
actor is laying on the grounds hurts
moaning in pain
and so they screamed twice and then they
cry out and every single group went
right past the person in need to go give
a presentation about helping a person in
need right the one person even stepped
over the guy who was in pain in order to
get there now the point of this and what
I’d like to start talking about now is
the danger of being goal focused and
goal oriented these people had a goal
right to deliver a presentation and they
were so one-sided so narrow minded so
focused on that goal that they miss the
bigger picture in the perspective of
what they should have been doing in the
first place and I think that this can be
a danger of goals often and so instead I
would like to encourage us to focus on
systems systems rather than goals here
are some examples if you’re a coach your
goal is to win a championship but your
system is what your team does a practice
each day if you’re a writer your goal
might be to write a book maybe even
write a best-selling book but your
system is how you write each week the
schedule that you follow if you’re an
entrepreneur your goal could be to build
million-dollar business or a 10 million
dollar business but the system is the
sales and marketing process that you
have the systems are what actually make
the difference there would drive the
results and what I’ve seen having goals
is great having a vision having a dream
is nice it’s important to know where
you’re going and where you’re headed
it’s important to have some clarity of
focus to know that we’re moving in this
direction but once you know that having
to go on paper makes very little
difference and committing to the system
and showing up every day drives a lot of
now I’ve got a really special bonus clip
from James on how to change the way that
you think that I think you’re gonna
really enjoy but before that it’s time
for the three point landing questions
time to move from just watching another
video to actually taking action in your
life or your business and if you’re
feeling bold leave your answers in the
comments below here we go question
number one what will you change in your
environment to better serve you number
two what will you change to your
identity to better serve you and number
three what bad habit will you eliminate
myth of how many days it takes to set a
habit because there’s 14 days 28 days 60
days here right if you do something
every single day and maybe it changes
for each person but what’s the science
or the the statistics say about how long
it takes to form a positive or negative
habit I guess
so 21 days is the thing you hear all the
time 30 days hundred days there right
now 66 days is making the rounds as the
latest saw in another book what was that
book well there was one study done that
found that 66 days was the average for
how long it takes and as a rule of thumb
I don’t think it’s terrible like you
should remind yourself yeah this is
gonna be months of work it’s not just
going something quick but even within
that study the range is quite wide so if
you did something simple like drink a
glass of water at lunch each day it
would take like three weeks if you did
something more difficult like go for a
run after work every day that would be
like seven or eight months but I think
actually that question to begin with is
sort of a there’s like a broken
mentality the wrong question yeah it is
because if you ask that question the
implicit assumption is when do I have to
stop working or when is this done and is
it automatic after a certain period of
time well the honest answer to how long
it takes to build a new habit is forever
because of you to stop then it’s no
longer habit it’s a constant choice and
a decision right I think people often
look at habits as like a finish line to
be crossed but it’s actually a lifestyle
to be lived and if you look at it as a
lifestyle change then you’re saying okay
okay what’s something small and
sustainable I can stick to right what’s
something that can actually last over
time raise your standard Apple at the
core is core values
is that movie that people have passion
and change the way people now one drop
of myself work depends on your
if you like this video check out the top
10 I did on Tim Ferriss the link is
right there next to me I think you’ll
enjoy it continue to believe and I’ll
see you there
you have to I believe let small bad
things happen constantly to have any agenda of your own
environment you can also be the
architect of it when life doesn’t
challenge you I think it’s important to
challenge yourself the other the
ultimate meta habit is reading because
if you build a habit of reading you can
solve pretty much any other problem need
motivation watch a top ten with believe
nation
what’s that believe nation it’s Evan I
believe in you and this channel is
designed to be a part of your daily
success routine so let’s get your
motivation to attend and get you
believing in you grab a snack and chew
in today’s lessons from a man who went
from being a star athlete in high school
to failing his first venture as an
entrepreneur to now being an expert on
habits and self-development he’s James
clear and here’s my take on his top ten
let’s kick it off with rule number one
build good habits one of the phrases I
use I have us in the book is that habits
of the compound interests of
self-improvement so it’s like the same
way that it’s part a compound interest
you know cruise through finance you’re
the effects of your habits multiply over
time and so often these choices that you
make they’re these little 1%
improvements for you or against you each
day and they’re very easy to overlook on
a daily basis right like what what
really is the difference between eating
a burger and fries or a salad and
that’s actually a crucial point that I
cover in the book which is that habits
that are immediately satisfying or more
likely to be repeated and so pretty much
any behavior produces multiple outcomes
across time right like if you eat a
doughnut right now it’s tasty and sugar
good but in the long run you gain weight
and so the the immediate outcome is
favorable the long-term outcome is
unfavorable with good habits just off on
the reverse I’d like you go to the gym
right now and it takes effort you sweat
you have to work hard it’s not your time
for Netflix and chill to go train the
immediate outcomes unfavorable but the
ultimate outcome you’re in shape and you
you know a year or month or whatever
right is favorable and so the challenge
for building good habits and breaking
bad ones is often finding a way to pull
the long-term consequences of your bad
habits in the immediate moment so you
feel a little to the pain right now and
want to avoid it and the long-term
rewards of your good habits into the
immediate moment so you have a reason to
repeat it again in the future each
behavior casts a vote for the type of
person that you want to become and if
you cast enough votes for that type of
identity you start to believe that about
yourself right like if you go to church
for 20 years you believe that you’re
religious you study Spanish every
Tuesday for 30 minutes you believe that
you were studious so in that way your
habits provide evidence of your desired
identity and I think that that is
probably the ultimate reason that habits
are so importantly it’s true like how
this can help you earn more money or be
more productive or lose weight and all
that stuff is great but in addition to
the external results that habits provide
they also shape your sense of self they
like are the at the engine or
Avenue through which you learn to
believe things about yourself like
sometimes people will say stuff like
fake it till you make it but fake it
till you make it
is asking yourself to believe something
without evidence for it and you can do
that for a little while you could do it
for a day or week but eventually I mean
there’s a word for beliefs that don’t
have evidence behind though it’s a
delusion right and if you’re deluding
yourself then eventually you give up on
that but the power of doing a better
habit each day or casting one little
vote for that type of person is that now
you have evidence to root your belief in
so now last months Yeah right like yeah
I mean now you have a lot of evidence
that you’re a podcaster or a good
interviewer you know like you do this
over and over again each time you cast a
vote for believing that about yourself
and you don’t just yarn delusionally
believing that you’re good interviewer
it’s because you’ve shown up and done it
hundreds of times right and so I think
that that’s true for any habit large or
small that they provide evidence of the
desired identity or the the type of
person that you are
rule number two put in the reps there’s
this professor at the University of
Florida he’s retired now he was a
photography professor his name is Jerry
Koosman and at the beginning of the
semester he would have this film
photography class named bring the class
in and he would split him into two
groups instead everybody on this side of
the room you were going to be graded on
the quantity of work that you do this
semester and everybody on this side of
the room you were gonna be graded on the
quality of work that you do this
semester and he’s further explained it
by saying that for your film photography
you’re gonna be responsible for having a
hundred pictures if you do a hundred
photos over the course of the semester
that’ll be an A if you do ninety it’ll
be a B if you do a TW C and so on so
it’s quantity for this group you only
have to produce one photo but it has to
be the most perfect photo that you can
make the best photo that you can make an
interesting an interesting thing
happened at the end of the term all the
best grades came from the quantity group
not from the quality group and what
ended up happening was that while people
were busy experimenting making mistakes
learning how to you know play with
composition and so on they would come
across a really great photo and while
the quality group is busy theorizing
about what perfection would look like
and how to take the perfect photo and
not actually honing their skills they
ended up only making something mediocre
or average and the important insight
here especially for habits
in the beginning the most important
thing is just to shut up and put your
reps in just make sure that you hone the
skill right and you can start to think
of it the way that I like to think of it
is that any outcome that you wish to
achieve is just a point along the
spectrum of repetitions so if you have
few reps two more reps and you can
imagine an easy goal moderate goal a
hard goal the more reps that you put in
the more that you more like you you are
to achieve that goal so maybe a point a
is you know a stake fitness squatting a
hundred pounds point B is squatting 200
points C is clotting 300 maybe you need
to put in a hundred reps or a thousand
reps to get to point A maybe it’s five
thousand to get to point B maybe was ten
thousand to get to point to see rule
number three challenge yourself so
occasionally and this is true for
everybody if you live long enough life
will come for you at some point right
like something’s going to happen so
occasionally life will stress you but
when life doesn’t challenge you I think
it’s important to challenge yourself
because otherwise you’re just living in
this optimal environment air
conditioning and you know everything
else is super easy you can get all the
information in the world at your
fingertips you never have to like if you
think about how crazy just eating is in
the modern world so previously when we
lived in tribes you you had to expend
energy to get calories at a minimum you
were foraging for berries but otherwise
you probably had like run something down
and kill it or part of a group hunt or
all kinds of other things now you can
get calories without expending any all
you have to do is just tap like ubereats
on your phone or something it’ll show up
at your door and you can just sit on the
couch which is of course like a recipe
for poor health but also just it’s the
game has completely changed now we’ve
transcended a lot of our evolutionary
programming and natural situations and
so you need to be careful about
designing that to serve you rather than
to work against you because it can very
easily nudge you in the other direction
rule number four exercise and read I
think there are a few core habits that
are gonna serve everybody and certainly
serve me well so exercise is a huge one
I don’t do it daily but I exercise I
train four times a week yeah and I feel
like if I didn’t exercise I don’t know
that I would be an entrepreneur like I
don’t know if I could handle the
psychological rollercoaster without the
physical yeah the release the you
probably feel that it’s like an athlete
too you know like I
for being an athlete for so many years I
feel like I need to push myself
physically in addition to mentally a
visit just mental it doesn’t do it for
me I don’t have a physical outlet so
exercise exercise is one the other the
ultimate Metta habit is reading because
if you build a habit of reading you can
solve pretty much any other problem you
know you won’t learn how to be a better
podcaster you can read about that you
want to write how to meditate you can
read about that you want to learn how to
make more money you can read about that
and so what you need is to develop a
habit of reading and then whatever
problem you’re facing at the time you
can you have a method for solving them
rule number five have a plan one of my
favorite studies is about exercise and
they had three cohorts in this study so
they have first cohort they said I just
want you to track how often you work out
over the next few weeks right so that’s
the the standard cohort the control
group second group is that we want to
track off and you exercise we’re also
gonna give you a motivation motivational
speech presentation talk about the
benefits of heart health why habits are
good for you and so on so this is a
motivated group alright the third group
they got the same presentation so
they’re equally motivated and then they
did one thing differently and that one
thing was they filled out this sentence
they said during the next week I will
particular least 20 minutes of vigorous
exercise on this day in this – at this
time in this place right they
specifically stated their intention to
implement the behavior so implementation
intention here’s what happened first
group one out of three of them worked
out second group motivation did nothing
as soon as they left the researchers
facility the next day they were
motivated it’s like reading a book or
watching a YouTube or listening to a
motivational speaker and then you forget
all about it twenty minutes later but
the third group the group that has a
specific plan for how they were gonna
implement the behavior nine out of ten
of them worked out so you can increase
your odds of success two to three acts
just by having a specific plan and this
is the insight many people think that
they lack motivation when what they
really lack is clarity they think that
they need to get more motivated that
they need willpower in order to execute
on a habit if I just felt like writing
if I just felt like meditating I felt
like working out then I would do it but
in fact they don’t have a plan for it so
they wake up each day thinking I wonder
if I’ll feel motivated to write today
wonder if I’ll feel motivate to workout
today but instead you can take the
decision-making out of it by explicitly
stating when where and how
you want to implement the habit it
sounds easy to say let’s just start a
plan let’s you know write down exactly
what you should do and then maybe you’ll
fall through on it but of course we all
know that there are challenges that
arise it’s not quite that easy so here’s
a little strategy that I like to use to
make sure you can come up with a better
plan of action and it’s called a failure
pre-mortem so the way that it works is
you think about the habit the project
the goal whatever the most important
thing is that you want to work on and I
want you to imagine fast forward six
months from now and you failed and then
tell the story of why you failed what
happened what challenges did you
encounter what was it that took you off
course when I do this with businesses
sometimes we’re called to kill the
company exercises everybody just sits
around thinks about ways to kill the
company in the next six months and once
you have all that stuff laid out on the
table in front of you you can start to
make better choices about how to develop
a plan you can start to have if-then
plans so not only do I want to exercise
for 20 minutes on Monday at 5 p.m. but
also if I do not exercise because I have
to take my kid to practice or whatever
then it’s Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. I
will go in right you’re gonna have ways
to adjust for these challenges rule
number 6 get rid of bad habits I think
we actually have like three options for
breaking bad habits so the first option
is to reduce exposure so something like
you know if you want to stop spending so
much money on electronics then don’t
follow all the latest tech review blogs
you know like your if you want to lose
weight don’t follow a bunch of food
bloggers on Instagram you’re constantly
being triggered by that and having like
overcome the Proms now that doesn’t
always work but if you can cut a habit
off at the source then a lot of the time
like the craving won’t arise naturally
so in atomic habits in the book I talked
a little bit about this woman who she
smoked while she was in college and she
would always smoke while riding horses
with a friend and so eventually at some
point she quit smoking and she’s also
stopped seeing I like seeing that friend
and graduated in college and so on and
wasn’t riding horses and then like 10
years later she got back on a horse for
the first time and suddenly craved a
cigarette and she was like what is going
on here and it’s your habits are often
tied to a context they’re tied to a
situation or some kind of cue and so if
you can reduce exposure to that cue then
in many cases the craving won’t arise so
that’s the first option for breaking bad
habit the second option which kind of
sucks but is
like to sit with the craving long enough
to like let this wave a desire ride
itself out and so you basically just
resist temptation it’s possible it’s
easier if if your hand is forced if you
use what I call a commitment device so
brief story real quick Victor Hugo
famous authors were like Hunchback of
Notre Dame and a bunch of other things
well when he got the book deal for
Hunchback of Notre Dom he just
procrastinating for like a year he hosts
a bunch of house parties has friends
over he went traveling for a little
while yeah he got the book deal he did
nothing no work and eventually his
publisher got pissed off they were like
you know can you please like actually
work on this and so they set this all to
made him for him and they said we’re
gonna we’re gonna cancel the book in six
months if you don’t have it done by then
and so he he got his assistant to come
in put all his clothes into a chest and
they locked him up and took him out of
the house and the only thing he was left
with was like this the shawl this like
large robe so basically he had no
clothes that were suitable for hosting
guests or for leaving the house or like
going on trips or anything else so more
or less put himself on house arrest and
what ended up happening was each time
procrastination arose he was able to
kind of sit with that feeling and let it
ride because he didn’t really have many
other options they can get back to work
on the book and it ended up working he
got the book done like two weeks early
but things like that where you can lock
in your future action and it becomes
really hard to go to your friends party
or go out to you know travel to a
different place or whatever just because
you don’t have the option if you can
increase the friction then sometimes you
can sit with the craving of a bad habit
and let it ride out so that’s your
second choice and then the third choice
is the one that you just mentioned which
is you take the solution that the bad
habit is providing the way that it’s
serving you and you find a new behavior
that delivers that same outcome rule
number seven develop expertise what
makes you an expert on habits oh hey
ston lots of other people that are
talking about habits I think that and
I’ve said this many times before I’m
just going through this with everybody
else I consider my readers my peers in
the sense that we’re all just trying
things out the only differences I write
about what I learned and shared each
week and but we’re all just learning
along the way early on I had a feeling
like that I was like who might have you
know I’m just a guy who might about this
and I had a friend tell me the way you
develop expertise is by writing about it
every week so I wrote a new article
about habits every Monday and Thursday
for three years and that was how I
developed the expertise on the topic by
writing about it did research you said
here’s what I found here’s what I tried
his what worked what didn’t work it’s a
combination of me reading the scientific
literature and reading the research and
then trying to distill the practical
insights from that and testing things
out in my own life as a weightlifter a
Travel Photographer a writer an
entrepreneur and seeing what that looks
like and then the two together
and I think you need both like I don’t
want to be some new-age version of an
academic who’s in an ivory tower just
like theorizing about ideas is different
what it looks like to put ideas into
practice right like imagine you’re a
peak performance coach and you show up
to coach like an NBA team these guys
like dude you need to step on the court
if you know it right to see what it’s
actually like rule number eight change
your environment you don’t have to be
the victim of your environment you can
also be the architect of it you can
decide to design something to make your
good behaviors easier and your bad
behaviors harder so when it comes to
habits you want to practice your guitar
more frequently put it right in the
middle of your living room so you run
across this all the time if you want to
read more when you make your bed in the
morning take the book you want to read
put it on top of the pillow when you
come back that night pick it up read a
few pages go to sleep for me I used to
buy apples all the time and then I would
put them in the crisper at the bottom of
the fridge and they would sit there for
three weeks and go bad and I’d finally
open it up and see them again
you get mad and then eventually I bought
a bowl and put it right in the middle of
the counter and so then when I buy
apples I put them there I see them every
day and now I eat them all the time
many of our desires are simply shaped
because we have an environment that
shapes us in that way so the moral of
the stories I’ve never seen someone
stick to positive habits in a consistent
fashion in a negative environment maybe
you can overpower once or twice maybe
you can have the willpower to do the
right thing on one day but if you’re
constantly fighting against those forces
it’s gonna be very hard to fall through
rule number nine change your identity I
think true behavior changes identity
change and it’s this shifting of your
self-image your beliefs or the way you
look at yourself because it’s one thing
to say that I want this and something
very different to say I am this so
people walk around with beliefs like
that all the time
not a language learner I’m not good at
math I’m terrible with directions and
not good at remembering someone’s name
yeah and once you have those type of
once you adopt that identity it becomes
very easy to just reinforce that over
and over again and so these three levels
that you mentioned outcomes process and
identity all three matter but I think
the key is that you want the direction
of change to be in the right way through
the right arrow so if you start with the
outcomes if you start with the result
then you’re like oh I really want this
thing and here’s my plan for getting it
and most people just never think about
the identity that comes underneath that
like they think I want to lose weight or
I want to be skinny and if I follow this
diet then I’ll be skinny and then they
they don’t really give any thought to
the beliefs behind their behavior but if
you start the other way around
if you start at the identity and you say
all right who’s the type of person that
could lose weight well maybe it’s the
type of person who doesn’t miss workouts
then you faucet you start with that
identity say okay I want to become the
type person who doesn’t miss workouts
here are the habits I need to build and
then whatever results come just come
naturally so most people focus on the
results and build a plan and let the
identity come naturally but that rarely
works because their beliefs like
conflict
with your actions but if you start with
the identity and you build the habits to
reinforce that then the results just
could come on their own and rule number
10 the last one before a very special
bonus clip is be systems oriented most
people are familiar with the story The
Good Samaritan stopping along the side
of the road to help help a fallen person
help someone in need
well Princeton their theology school
decided to run this experiment they
brought in a bunch of theology students
they said all right we’re all familiar
with the story of the Good Samaritan
we’re gonna break you up into groups and
you’re gonna go teach in different rooms
across campus you’re gonna teach this
story and so they started talking about
you know how they’re gonna deliver the
presentation and so on they had a couple
different cohorts the one cohort they
said all right just go ahead and you
know go off and and deliver the
presentation so they went off to their
rooms the second one though they did
something interesting they sent the
group off but on their way to the well
they sent the group off and they said by
the way we’re running a little bit
behind right you you don’t have very
long to get there it takes about ten
minutes you only got five so we kind of
need to hurry you’re probably already
gonna be late so they’re in a rush they
know they’re gonna go give this
presentation on the way they planted an
actor on the on the campus and this
actor is laying on the grounds hurts
moaning in pain
and so they screamed twice and then they
cry out and every single group went
right past the person in need to go give
a presentation about helping a person in
need right the one person even stepped
over the guy who was in pain in order to
get there now the point of this and what
I’d like to start talking about now is
the danger of being goal focused and
goal oriented these people had a goal
right to deliver a presentation and they
were so one-sided so narrow minded so
focused on that goal that they miss the
bigger picture in the perspective of
what they should have been doing in the
first place and I think that this can be
a danger of goals often and so instead I
would like to encourage us to focus on
systems systems rather than goals here
are some examples if you’re a coach your
goal is to win a championship but your
system is what your team does a practice
each day if you’re a writer your goal
might be to write a book maybe even
write a best-selling book but your
system is how you write each week the
schedule that you follow if you’re an
entrepreneur your goal could be to build
million-dollar business or a 10 million
dollar business but the system is the
sales and marketing process that you
have the systems are what actually make
the difference there would drive the
results and what I’ve seen having goals
is great having a vision having a dream
is nice it’s important to know where
you’re going and where you’re headed
it’s important to have some clarity of
focus to know that we’re moving in this
direction but once you know that having
to go on paper makes very little
difference and committing to the system
and showing up every day drives a lot of
now I’ve got a really special bonus clip
from James on how to change the way that
you think that I think you’re gonna
really enjoy but before that it’s time
for the three point landing questions
time to move from just watching another
video to actually taking action in your
life or your business and if you’re
feeling bold leave your answers in the
comments below here we go question
number one what will you change in your
environment to better serve you number
two what will you change to your
identity to better serve you and number
three what bad habit will you eliminate
myth of how many days it takes to set a
habit because there’s 14 days 28 days 60
days here right if you do something
every single day and maybe it changes
for each person but what’s the science
or the the statistics say about how long
it takes to form a positive or negative
habit I guess
so 21 days is the thing you hear all the
time 30 days hundred days there right
now 66 days is making the rounds as the
latest saw in another book what was that
book well there was one study done that
found that 66 days was the average for
how long it takes and as a rule of thumb
I don’t think it’s terrible like you
should remind yourself yeah this is
gonna be months of work it’s not just
going something quick but even within
that study the range is quite wide so if
you did something simple like drink a
glass of water at lunch each day it
would take like three weeks if you did
something more difficult like go for a
run after work every day that would be
like seven or eight months but I think
actually that question to begin with is
sort of a there’s like a broken
mentality the wrong question yeah it is
because if you ask that question the
implicit assumption is when do I have to
stop working or when is this done and is
it automatic after a certain period of
time well the honest answer to how long
it takes to build a new habit is forever
because of you to stop then it’s no
longer habit it’s a constant choice and
a decision right I think people often
look at habits as like a finish line to
be crossed but it’s actually a lifestyle
to be lived and if you look at it as a
lifestyle change then you’re saying okay
okay what’s something small and
sustainable I can stick to right what’s
something that can actually last over
time raise your standard Apple at the
core is core values
is that movie that people have passion
and change the way people now one drop
of myself work depends on your
if you like this video check out the top
10 I did on Tim Ferriss the link is
right there next to me I think you’ll
enjoy it continue to believe and I’ll
see you there
you have to I believe let small bad
things happen constantly to have any agenda of your own
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