- A brief guide to building good habits: Make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, make it satisfying
- A brief guide to breaking bad habits: Make it invisible, make it unattractive, make it difficult, make it unsatisfying
- When you struggle moving from thought to action, it’s because you don’t actually want the thing. You’re not enthusiastic. When you think « I approve it intellectualités, I should do it, how do I put it in practice? » you delay the action. It means you don’t want it. There is still something in the current state of things that is more valuable for you (I prefer eating sugar than getting healthy). See the truth in things, don’t think how you should act. You act when you know. If someone tried to stab you, you will defend yourself. You know you need to. Truly know - the former desire will disappear and action will follow.
- When you are used to something, your mind is already dying.
- We don’t notice tiny changes, because their immediate impact is negligible. If you are out of shape today, and go for a 20-minute jog, you’ll still be out of shape tomorrow. Conversely, if you eat a family-size pizza for dinner, it won’t make you overweight overnight. But if we repeat small behaviors day after day, our choices compound into major results.
- The key to making big changes in your life doesn’t have to involve major upheaval; you don’t need to revolutionize your behavior or reinvent yourself. Rather, you can make tiny changes to your behavior, which, when repeated time and time again, will become habits that may lead to big results.
- Don’t just say, I’ll run more often. Say, On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, when the alarm goes off, the first thing I’ll do is don my running gear and clock two miles. Then leave your running shoes out where you’ll see them. You’ll be giving yourself both a clear plan and an obvious cue.
- We simply anticipate those pleasurable activities. It’s the brain’s way of driving us onward and encouraging us to actually do things. In the brain’s reward system, desiring something is on par with getting something, which goes a long way toward explaining why kids enjoy the anticipation of Christmas so much.
- If we make a habit something we look forward to, we’ll be much more likely to follow through and actually do it. A great technique for this is temptation bundling. That’s when you take a behavior that you think of as important but unappealing and link it to a behavior that you’re drawn to – one that will generate that motivating dopamine hit.
- Making behaviors as easy as possible is key to turning them into habits.
- Increase friction for bad habits. If you want to waste less time in front of the TV, unplug it and take the batteries out of the remote. Doing so will introduce enough friction to ensure you only watch when you really want to.
- We live in a delayed-return environment. You turn up at the office today, but the return – a paycheck – doesn’t come until the end of the month. You go to the gym in the morning, but you don’t lose weight overnight. Our brains, though, evolved to cope with the immediate-return environment of earlier humans, who weren’t thinking about long-term returns like saving for retirement or sticking to a diet. They were focused on immediate concerns like finding their next meal, seeking shelter and staying alert enough to escape any nearby lions. When you are pursuing habits with a delayed return, try to attach some immediate gratification to them.
- Humans are social animals. We care about the opinions of those around us, so simply knowing that someone is watching you can be a powerful motivator for success.
- If you want to build a new habit, you could try stacking it on top of an existing habit. Let’s say you want to start meditating, but you’re struggling to find the time. Try thinking about those things you do effortlessly each day, like drinking coffee in the morning. Then just stack the new habit on top. Commit to meditating each morning when you’ve finished your coffee, and build on the natural momentum that comes from a habit you already have.
- When building habits, choose consistency over content. The best book is the one you can’t put down. The best exercise is the one you enjoy doing every day. The best health food is the one you find tasty. The best work is the work you’d do for free.
- The mind gets asleep in the habits. When you brush your teeth you mind wanders. The mind doesn’t want to be bothered, doesn’t pay attention anymore, doesn’t observe.
- “I’m up and getting after it by 4:45. I like to have the psychological win over the enemy.”
- It can take anywhere between 3 weeks and 8 months to form a new habit. And people will need on average 2 months to build a new behaviour into their lives.