James Clear Quotes

Read, but don't just read. Read the best book you can find.

Write, but don't just write. Write the best idea you can conceive.

We don’t choose our earliest habits, we imitate them.

The grass is only greener if you're obsessed.

It's easy to talk yourself into a new opportunity because everyone else is excited about it or the upside seems high, but the energy that comes from hype is different than the energy you need to make something part of your daily lifestyle.

It might be a good opportunity on paper, but if it isn't the type of thing you want to spend all day working on, then you probably won't stick with it. And if you won't stick with it, then it's not a good opportunity for you.

Not everything blooms in spring. Your season might be autumn.

Keep going.

Many people begin the process of changing their habits by focusing on what they want to achieve. This leads us to outcome-based habits. The alternative is to build identity-based habits. With this approach, we start by focusing on who we wish to become

When you ignore a problem that is small enough to handle, it often grows into a problem too big to manage.

If you look for evidence that people are conspiring to hold you back and the world is working against you, then it will take you no time at all to find precisely that.

If you expect to encounter helpful people and experience a world that is working with you, then you find plenty of evidence to support that view as well.

The raw material for a sweet life or a bitter life is always there. The story you emphasize is the one you notice.

The first mistake is never the one that ruins you. It is the spiral of repeated mistakes that follows. Missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit.

How long does it take to build a habit?

21 days? 30 days? 66 days?

The honest answer is: forever. Because once you stop doing it, it is no longer a habit.

A habit is a lifestyle to be lived, not a finish line to be crossed. Make small, sustainable changes you can stick with.

Don't let a title become a trap.

• "I have to be a doctor."
• "I need to get into that school."
• "I can't quit this job—it's Google."

There are many ways to live an amazing life. Stop thinking about the status of this particular title and focus on the substance of what you want. You'll often find there are many ways to get similar amounts of joy, purpose, or freedom.

If you attach your happiness to a single path, you'll become blind to other wonderful opportunities around you. And many of them might be a better fit for you or deliver a similar result with less struggle.

The most useful form of patience is persistence.

Patience implies waiting for things to improve on their own.

Persistence implies keeping your head down and continuing to work when things take longer than you expect.

Big wins tend to be accompanied by some combination of bigger decisions, more uncertainty, and greater risk.

If you want to play at a higher level, you need to be comfortable with greater swings of highs and lows: mentally, emotionally, financially.

You can avoid the swings, but you might be forced to play at a lower level.

Earning more money increases freedom.

Spending less than you earn reduces stress.

Entrepreneur's mind.
Athlete's body.
Artist's soul.

Live the Pareto Principle lifestyle:

Relationships. Who are the few people that have the most positive impact on my life? Spend more time with them.

Priorities. What are the few actions that have the most positive impact on my day? Prioritize them.

Learning. What are the few information sources I learn the most from? Focus on them.

Stress. What are the few sources that cause most of the stress and friction in my life? Eliminate them.