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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
James Clear
Read between
January 1 - January 4, 2023
A reward that is certain right now is typically worth more than one that is merely possible in the future. But occasionally, our bias toward instant gratification causes problems.
Put another way, the costs of your good habits are in the present. The costs of your bad habits are in the future.
As a general rule, the more immediate pleasure you get from an action, the more strongly you should question whether it aligns with your long-term goals.
What is immediately rewarded is repeated. What is immediately punished is avoided.
because of how we are wired, most people will spend all day chasing quick hits of satisfaction.
People who are better at delaying gratification have higher SAT scores, lower levels of substance abuse, lower likelihood of obesity, better responses to stress, and superior social skills.
At some point, success in nearly every field requires you to ignore an immediate reward in favor of a delayed reward.
it’s possible to train yourself to delay gratification—but you need to work with the grain of human nature, not against it.
The ending of any experience is vital because we tend to remember it more than other phases. You want the ending of your habit to be satisfying.
It is worth noting that it is important to select short-term rewards that reinforce your identity rather than ones that conflict with it. Buying a new jacket is fine if you’re trying to lose weight or read more books, but it doesn’t work if you’re trying to budget and save money. Instead, taking a bubble bath or going on a leisurely walk are good examples of rewarding yourself with free time, which aligns with your ultimate goal of more freedom and financial independence. Similarly, if your reward for exercising is eating a bowl of ice cream, then you’re casting votes for conflicting
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Eventually, as intrinsic rewards like a better mood, more energy, and reduced stress kick in, you’ll become less concerned with chasing the secondary reward. The identity itself becomes the reinforcer. You do it because it’s who you are and it feels good to be you.
The 4th Law of Behavior Change is make it satisfying. ■ We are more likely to repeat a behavior when the experience is satisfying. ■ The human brain evolved to prioritize immediate rewards over delayed rewards. ■ The Cardinal Rule of Behavior Change: What is immediately rewarded is repeated. What is immediately punished is avoided. ■ To get a habit to stick you need to feel immediately successful—even if it’s in a small way. ■ The first three laws of behavior change—make it obvious, make it attractive, and make it easy—increase the odds that a behavior will be performed this time. The fourth
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Paper Clip Strategy
Making progress is satisfying, and visual measures—like moving paper clips or hairpins or marbles—provide clear evidence of your progress.
Visual measurement comes in many forms: food journals, workout logs, loyalty punch cards, the progress bar on a software download, even the page numbers in a book. But perhaps the best way to measure your progress is with a habit tracker.
he is not focused on how good or bad a particular joke is or how inspired he feels. He is simply focused on showing up and adding to his streak.
Recording your last action creates a trigger that can initiate your next one. Habit tracking naturally builds a series of visual cues like the streak of X’s on your calendar or the list of meals in your food log.
The mere act of tracking a behavior can spark the urge to change it.
Most of us have a distorted view of our own behavior. We think we act better than we do. Measurement offers one way to overcome our blindness to our own behavior and notice what’s really going on each day. One glance at the paper clips in the container and you immediately know how much work you have (or haven’t) been putting in. When the evidence is right in front of you, you’re less likely to lie to yourself.
This can be particularly powerful on a bad day. When you’re feeling down, it’s easy to forget about all the progress you have already made.
Habit tracking also helps keep your eye on the ball: you’re focused on the process rather than the result.
No matter how consistent you are with your habits, it is inevitable that life will interrupt you at some point.
Whenever this happens to me, I try to remind myself of a simple rule: never miss twice.
The first mistake is never the one that ruins you.7 It is the spiral of repeated mistakes that follows. Missing once is an accident.
when successful people fail, they rebound quickly.
You don’t realize how valuable it is to just show up on your bad (or busy) days. Lost days hurt you more than successful days help you. If you start with $100, then a 50 percent gain will take you to $150. But you only need a 33 percent loss to take you back to $100. In other words, avoiding a 33 percent loss is just as valuable as achieving a 50 percent gain.
This is why the “bad” workouts are often the most important ones. Sluggish days and bad workouts maintain the compound gains you accrued from previous good days. Simply doing something—ten squats, five sprints, a push-up, anything really—is huge. Don’t put up a zero. Don’t let losses eat into your compounding.
Going to the gym for five minutes may not improve your performance, but it reaffirms your identity.
If your success is measured by a lower number on the scale, you will optimize for a lower number on the scale, even if that means embracing crash diets, juice cleanses, and fat-loss pills. The human mind wants to “win” whatever game is being played. This pitfall is evident in many areas of life. We focus on working long hours instead of getting meaningful work done. We care more about getting ten thousand steps than we do about being healthy.
Goodhart’s Law. Named after the economist Charles Goodhart, the principle states, “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”9 Measurement is only useful when it guides you and adds context to a larger picture, not when it consumes you.
the measurement is not the only thing that matters. Furthermore, there are many ways to measure progress, and sometimes it helps to shift your focus to something entirely different.
One of the most satisfying feelings is the feeling of making progress. ■ A habit tracker is a simple way to measure whether you did a habit—like marking an X on a calendar. ■ Habit trackers and other visual forms of measurement can make your habits satisfying by providing clear evidence of your progress. ■ Don’t break the chain. Try to keep your habit streak alive. ■ Never miss twice. If you miss one day, try to get back on track as quickly as possible. ■ Just because you can measure something doesn’t mean it’s the most important thing.
When the consequences are severe, people learn quickly.
There can’t be a gap between the action and the consequences.
To be productive, the cost of procrastination must be greater than the cost of action.
Laws and regulations are an example of how government can change our habits by creating a social contract.
Whenever a new piece of legislation impacts behavior—seat belt laws, banning smoking inside restaurants, mandatory recycling—it is an example
The inversion of the 4th Law of Behavior Change is make it unsatisfying. ■ We are less likely to repeat a bad habit if it is painful or unsatisfying. ■ An accountability partner can create an immediate cost to inaction. We care deeply about what others think of us, and we do not want others to have a lesser opinion of us. ■ A habit contract can be used to add a social cost to any behavior. It makes the costs of violating your promises public and painful. ■ Knowing that someone else is watching you can be a powerful motivator.
Habits are easier to perform, and more satisfying to stick with, when they align with your natural inclinations and abilities.
When our environment changes, so do the qualities that determine success.
Competence is highly dependent on context.
if you want to be truly great, selecting the right place to focus is crucial.
Our deeply rooted preferences make certain behaviors easier for some people than for others.15 You don’t have to apologize for these differences or feel guilty about them, but you do have to work with them.
The takeaway is that you should build habits that work for your personality.
You don’t have to build the habits everyone tells you to build. Choose the habit that best suits you, not the one that is most popular.
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?
What comes naturally to me?
We all have limited time on this planet, and the truly great among us are the ones who not only work hard but also have the good fortune to be exposed to opportunities that favor us.
