"Winning isn't what makes you feel good. Growth makes you feel good.
Sometimes they are the same thing. When you achieve something for the first time, it's growth. You've reached a new level. The win feels satisfying. But when you do it for the tenth time (or the hundredth time), it can feel stale. You're still winning, but you're not necessarily growing.
The secret is not to worry about winning, but rather to focus on growing. And the most straightforward way to grow is to learn something. If you're ever feeling stuck, go learn something new. Read, write, think, learn, repeat.
When you're learning, you're growing."
- James Clear
"Modern life is largely spent in three positions: sitting, standing, and lying down.
Try to break the mold. Spend more time this week doing something besides sitting, standing, or lying down. Go for a walk, stretch in the grass, swim in the pool, kneel in the garden, climb a hill. Or you can sit or stand, but add something to it. Paint while you stand. Bike while you sit.
Our physical abilities rarely vanish overnight. They usually fade away from disuse. The body trains for tomorrow based on what it is asked to do today."
- James Clear
"You can't start last week, but you can start now. Stop dwelling on what you should have done or ruminating on the mistakes you made. Channel that energy into the next good choice. You have today and you can try again."
- James Clear
"One sign of mental toughness is being larger than the situation.
Do the circumstances dictate your mood and emotions? Or do you choose your mood and emotions, and the situation is simply something you respond to?
The less your mood depends on your circumstances, the more mentally tough you are."
- James Clear
"There is no path to greatness without hard work. And the only person who feels like working hard for years is someone who is excited about the task.
You only get one life and you’re going to burn the days either way, so the real question is: What excites you and interests you? What makes you feel curious and alive, perhaps even joyful? What is so "worth it" that you're not worried about the tradeoffs, the hard work, the hassle?
Follow your enthusiasm."
- James Clear
"Everyone wants to be happy now, but it might be better to optimize for being satisfied later.
Perhaps the key to happiness is to not worry about being happy today, but rather to make choices that will leave your future self feeling satisfied with how you chose to live. Do you feel a sense of satisfaction with the choices you made? With the way you lived today? With the things you chose to focus on over the last year? Are you "happy" with the impact you are making?
Momentary happiness is hard to predict, but deep satisfaction is easier to control. It is on the other side of good choices, good habits, and meaningful impact."
- James Clear
"Your life is simply your days, accumulated. Did today's habits contribute to the life you want to build?"
- James Clear
"Delaying a conversation doesn't make it easier."
- James Clear
"Who is initiating the items on your to-do list?
When I'm most productive, I decide what I want to create and work on the task that will help build my vision.
When I am less productive, I spend my day responding to what someone else sends to me — emails, texts, etc. — and often that means I end up building someone else's vision."
- James Clear
"You can't get lucky if you don't take action. The best opportunity in the world is just a missed opportunity if you don't grab it."
- James Clear
"When you're on a good path: It's only a failure if you stop. It's a lesson if you keep going.
When you're on a bad path: It's only a failure if you keep going. It's a lesson if you stop."
- James Clear
"Whether you have ten years left or a hundred years left, your life is an incredibly brief moment. We know for sure you won't be here in a century.
But today? Today you are in the Great Game. And this moment you have right now might as well be the most important moment in the universe. Your time is thin. Go out and live fully now."
- James Clear
"Achievements are great. It is satisfying to accomplish something. It feels good to win. And many achievements make the world a better place, too.
But also remember to ask, "What am I really trying to accomplish here?" You may realize the goal is not to write a best-selling book or earn that promotion or get into medical school, but rather to build a life you enjoy. And there are many versions of a life you enjoy.
It is often the case that if you can release the narrative of "I have to do this" to be happy, then a different (but equally lovely) life is waiting for you."
- James Clear
"It's hard to learn when you feel defensive.
Relax. You are capable and you can recover from whatever you face.
You can accept feedback without taking it personally. What is this moment teaching you?"
- James Clear
"Chase your dreams. It's unlikely they will play out exactly as you expect, but they know the way. No vision is perfect, but it points in the right direction. Let the energy of your soul lead you."
- James Clear
"Talent is a gift. Reliability is a choice.
But every family, team, and organization needs reliability just as much as they need talent."
- James Clear
"What we call luck is often not purely random, but rather the delayed byproduct of consistently putting yourself in good positions."
- James Clear
"One of the more effective ways to force yourself to have better ideas is to create an artificial constraint.
For many years, I wrote two articles per week and it would often take me over 20 hours to complete each article. Then I said, "If I only had 2 to 4 hours per week to write my newsletter, what would I do?"
That artificial constraint led to the creation of the 3-2-1 newsletter, which has become an incredibly popular format. Sometimes you can improve by cutting your options off."
- James Clear
"Your first attempt might not be very good, but nobody's early work is good. There will always be a gap between where you are and where you want to be. And the bridge between that gap is courage. The courage to look foolish in the beginning. The courage to show up again when your early work is criticized. The courage to look yourself in the mirror and say, "I realize I'm not good enough yet, but the only way to get better is to keep working on it."
- James Clear
"Getting what you want out of life largely boils down to (1) the story you tell yourself and (2) where you direct your attention.
What story do you tell yourself about what has happened to you, what you're capable of, and what you hope to achieve? Is the conversation in your head each day empowering and encouraging you, or holding you back?
And are you taking control and directing your attention toward what matters or merely letting inertia pull you along? Most things don't matter and most actions won't deliver a result. Focus.
Master your internal monologue and master your daily attention. Most tips, tricks, and tactics ultimately come back to these two things."
- James Clear
"Darkness is preparation for light.
Sadness is preparation for joy.
Failure is preparation for success.
But only if you keep going and remain open to what comes next."
- James Clear
"If you choose not to find joy in the snow, you will have less joy in your life but still the same amount of snow."
- James Clear
"If you are bummed by the state of the world, go build something."
- James Clear
"You don't need to solve every problem right now, only those that stand in your way."
- James Clear
"I recently found this note to myself:
"No sense in thinking small. Don't water down your vision. A remarkable amount can be accomplished if you are willing to think longer term than most and work hard each day."
- James Clear
"You will rarely outperform your self-image."
- James Clear
"Luck flows through people and travels by conversation. The people you talk to determine the opportunities you find.
Keep talking to the same people, keep finding the same opportunities. Start talking to new people, start finding new opportunities.
If you want different luck, start walking into different rooms."
- James Clear
"The best view of the game is probably from the stands. But that's not where the action is. And so you have to decide, do you want a nice view or do you want to be in the thick of it and playing the game?"
- James Clear
"The disciplined life looks impressive, but the well-designed life lasts longer. Before you try to find more willpower, design your environment and arrange your day so you're more likely to follow through."
- James Clear
"You can take things seriously without taking them personally.
Our tendency is to turn any criticism or complaint into a personal attack. We reply to it, defend against it, build a counter-argument, lose sleep over it.
You don't have to eat everything that is served to you. You can respond to criticism without digesting criticism. Take what's useful, do your best to improve, and leave the rest."
- James Clear
"With a bow and arrow, you aim before you shoot. But in most areas of life, aiming is something you can do throughout the process.
You can always adjust: your career path, your business strategy, your relationships, your workout program, your plans for next Wednesday. It's all adjustable along the way.
So, pick a direction and get moving. Once you start, you learn along the way and there are plenty of opportunities to refine your plan."
- James Clear
"You must be willing to let go of the last action and pour yourself fully into the next action."
- James Clear
"So much of what we believe is the residue of someone else's thinking.
Pause and question things for a moment. Is this really how it has to be? Is this really what you want?"
- James Clear
"Observation is a skill, and like any skill, it can be trained and honed.
Even if you're not a negative person, you may be skilled at noticing negative things. Sometimes people are good at noticing the reason things won't work out or have a tendency to fixate on the latest distressing story.
But you can train your eye toward the opportunities each day quietly presents. You can become competent at noticing your good luck: the little moments of joy, the stranger who helped, the small things that went right, the opportunity in front of you right now.
What are you competent in observing? And which types of observations seem to serve your life best?"
- James Clear
"Challenge yourself when life is easy, so you'll be ready when life is hard."
- James Clear
"Comparison is useful as a point and destructive as a loop.
When you compare for a point in time, you can identify a gap in your approach and then shift your attention back to what you can control.
When you compare on a repeated a loop, you can get locked into a cycle of envy and disappointment."
- James Clear
"One of my hopes is to age into a better mindset.
The general trend seems to become less open minded, less resilient, less capable of handling change with ease and flexibility as the years roll by.
I hope to grow in the opposite direction. How can my mindset be better today than it was yesterday?"
- James Clear
"The mindset:
Confident enough to start. Humble enough to keep learning.
The trap:
Too humble to start. Or too confident to keep learning."
- James Clear
"It's rare to find your purpose for life, so instead look for your purpose for this season.
What lights you up right now? What's a good thing to dedicate this season of your life to? Perhaps more importantly, what purpose served you well in your previous season, but you have outgrown?
Life is always changing. It's okay to pick a new North Star."
- James Clear
"You are not your grand plans. You are your daily patterns."
- James Clear
"The modern world is optimized for convenience, not improvement.
The default path is usually the more convenient path. And I get it. Who wants their days to be a pain in the neck? I like sitting in air conditioned rooms and watching my favorite shows too.
But the body and mind only grow when placed under a stimulus. If you want improvement, you have to choose something different than convenience.
It can be lovely to have a day where you do not push yourself, but it rarely works out well if you have a life where you do not push yourself."
- James Clear
"Questions are answered as you move, not before you move. Moving forward with an answer that is partially correct will usually fill in the gaps faster than waiting until you come up with a plan that is perfectly correct."
- James Clear
"The negative examples always spread farther and faster than the positive examples. In a world this big, you'll find at least one negative example every day.
Don't let the existence of a bad example ruin your faith in the world. Good news is always quieter than bad news. Good behavior rarely stirs the pot or ignites emotion.
But no matter. We need role models all the same. Continue living the best way you know how."
- James Clear
"Trust in yourself is not only built through successful repetitions, but also through failed ones.
When you have worked through failures in the past, you fear them less in the future. You know you can bounce back.
Successful repetitions build competence. Failed repetitions build resilience."
- James Clear
"One of the best positions to be in: young, talented, and the underdog.
That's like a cocktail for making something great. You're hungry to prove yourself. You're young enough to not care about how it's previously been done. And, usually, you have fewer responsibilities to pull you away from the work."
- James Clear
"If the path is crowded, differentiate.
If the path is empty, validate."
- James Clear
"Speed creates opportunity. Patience compounds it.
Moving fast will generate more chances. But if you quickly jump from thing to thing, growth will stall.
Get moving and find what works, then do it for decades."
- James Clear
"Environment can multiply (or divide) your effort.
Before you plant the garden, study the soil. After you plant the garden, tend the weeds.
First, selection. Think carefully about the right person to marry or business to pursue or city to live in.
Then, cultivation. Once you choose, care for it lovingly and nurture it into the best it can be."
- James Clear
"The loser has more in common with the winner than with the person sitting on the sidelines.
The winner and the loser each had the courage to try. Both risked embarrassment. Both were willing to face uncertainty. Both were stubborn enough to continue.
Success is endurance in disguise. It belongs to the person who can absorb the losses without absorbing the identity of "loser." It's the courage to start — and to stick with it — that is the real separator. Results tend to find the person who stays in the game.
The sidelines are safe, but sterile. Nothing grows there."
- James Clear
"You can be authentic and hardworking and still struggle to find your footing if you’re in the wrong environment.
-A fun person trapped in the wrong city.
-A loving partner in a relationship that won’t reciprocate.
-A great entrepreneur stuck in the wrong business.
Think about your placement as much as your performance. Plant yourself where you can thrive."
- James Clear