1% worse every day for one year. 0.99365 = 00.03
1% better every day for one year. 1.01365 = 37.78 This can be explained as Positive Compounding.
We often expect progress to be linear. At the very least, we hope it will come quickly. In reality, the results of our efforts are often delayed. It is not until months or years later that we realize the true value of the previous work we have done.
FORGET ABOUT GOALS, FOCUS ON SYSTEMS INSTEAD
- Problem #1: Winners and losers have the same goals.
- Problem #2: Achieving a goal is only a momentary change.
- Problem #3: Goals restrict your happiness.
- Problem #4: Goals are at odds with long-term progress.
problem isn’t you. The problem is your system.
THREE LAYERS OF BEHAVIOUR CHANGE
- Outcomes
- Process
- Identity
With outcome-based habits, the focus is on what you want to achieve. With identity-based habits, the focus is on who you wish to become.
Identity based habit processing is better
Ex. The goal is not to learn an instrument, the goal is to become a musician.
- repeated beingness
- Each time you write a page, you are a writer.
How to Build Better Habits in 4 Simple Steps
cue, craving, response, and reward
Problem phase
- Cue
- Craving
Solution phase
- Response
- Reward
Ex.
Problem phase
- Cue: Your phone buzzes with a new text message.
- Craving: You want to learn the contents of the message.
Solution phase
- Response: You grab your phone and read the text.
- Reward: You satisfy your craving to read the message. Grabbing your phone becomes associated with your phone buzzing.
How to Create a Good Habit
Cue: Make it obvious.
- Fill out the Habits Scorecard. Write down your current habits to become aware of them.
- Use implementation intentions: “I will [BEHAVIOUR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].”
- Use habit stacking: “After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].”
- Design your environment. Make the cues of good habits obvious and visible.
Craving: Make it attractive.
- Use temptation bundling. Pair an action you want to do with an action you need to do.
- Join a culture where your desired behaviour is the normal behaviour.
- Create a motivation ritual. Do something you enjoy immediately before a difficult habit.
Response: Make it easy.
- Reduce friction. Decrease the number of steps between you and your good habits.
- Prime the environment. Prepare your environment to make future actions easier.
- Master the decisive moment. Optimise the small choices that deliver outsized impact.
- Use the Two-Minute Rule. Downscale your habits until they can be done in two minutes or less.
- Automate your habits. Invest in technology and onetime purchases that lock in future behaviour.
Reward: Make it satisfying.
- Use reinforcement. Give yourself an immediate reward when you complete your habit.
- Make “doing nothing” enjoyable. When avoiding a bad habit, design a way to see the benefits.
- Use a habit tracker. Keep track of your habit streak and “don’t break the chain.”
- Never miss twice. When you forget to do a habit, make sure you get back on track immediately.
How to Break a Bad Habit
Cue: Make it invisible.
- Reduce exposure. Remove the cues of your bad habits from your environment.
Craving: Make it unattractive.
- Reframe your mindset. Highlight the benefits of avoiding your bad habits.
Response: Make it difficult.
- Increase friction. Increase the number of steps between you and your bad habits.
- Use a commitment device. Restrict your future choices to the ones that benefit you.
Reward: Make it unsatisfying.
- Get an accountability partner. Ask someone to watch your behaviour.
- Create a habit contract. Make the costs of your bad habits public and painful.
ADVANCED TACTICS
explore different options
- What feels like fun to me, but work to others?
- What makes me lose track of time?
- Where do I get greater returns than the average person?
- Play a game that favours your strengths. If you can’t find a game that favours you, create one.
Maximum motivation occurs when facing a challenge of just manageable difficulty.
Mastery requires practice. But the more you practice something, the more boring and routine it becomes.
Anyone can work hard when they feel motivated. It’s the ability to keep going when work isn’t exciting that makes the difference.
The process of mastery requires that you progressively layer improvements on top of one another, each habit building upon the last until a new level of performance has been reached and a higher range of skills has been internalised.
Review and adjustments
- What went well this year?
- What didn’t go so well this year?
- What did I learn?
- What are the core values that drive my life and work?
- How am I living and working with integrity right now?
- How can I set a higher standard in the future?
avoid making any single aspect of your identity an overwhelming portion of who you are.
- “I’m the CEO” translates to “I’m the type of person who builds and creates things.”
- The tighter we cling to an identity, the harder it becomes to grow beyond it.
Little Lessons
- Awareness comes before desire.
- Happiness is simply the absence of desire.
- It is the idea of pleasure that we chase.
- Peace occurs when you don’t turn your observations into problems
- With a big enough why you can overcome any how.
- Being curious is better than being smart.
- Emotions drive behaviour.
- We can only be rational and logical after we have been emotional.
- Your response tends to follow your emotions.
- Suffering drives progress.
- Your actions reveal how badly you want something.
- Reward is on the other side of sacrifice.
- Self-control is difficult because it is not satisfying.
- The pain of failure correlates to the height of expectation.
- Desire initiates. Pleasure sustains.
