James Clear Quotes

The best business ideas have yet to be tried. The best books have yet to be written. The best relationships have yet to be formed.

It's not too late. The space of possibilities is endless. The most interesting terrain remains unexplored.

The list of mistakes you can never recover from is very short.

But you likely realize your life will not be destroyed if your book doesn't sell or if a potential date turns you down or if your startup goes bust. It's not the failed outcome that paralyzes us. It's the possibility of looking stupid, feeling humiliated, or dealing with embarrassment that prevents us from getting started at all.

The first step to being courageous is being willing to look foolish.

At some point it comes down to who can handle the boredom of training every day, doing the same lifts over and over and over.

The 4 qualities of a great career:

1. I enjoy it
2. I'm good at it
3. I make good money
4. I'm around fascinating people

Answer in reverse order:

1. Where are fascinating people?
2. In what ways can I make money with them?
3. Which ones am I good at?
4. Which ones do I enjoy?

You have to work hard to discover how to work smart. You won't know the best solutions until you've made nearly all the mistakes.

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.

A small habit—when repeated consistently—grows into something significant.

You're more likely to unlock a big leap in performance by trying differently than by trying harder. You might be able to work 10% harder, but a different approach might work 10x better. Remain focused on the core problem, but explore a new line of attack. Persistence is not just about effort, but also strategy. Don't merely try harder, try differently.

A simple rule for life that rarely fails:

Optimize for enthusiasm. Make as many choices as you can that leave you feeling energetic and interested. Pay attention to when you have the urge to pursue or participate in something and do more of it.

When making plans, think big.

When making progress, think small.

The challenge for anyone interested in making progress is to simultaneously have
(1) the confidence to go after what you want and
(2) the humility to accept who you are right now and
(3) the willingness to build skills that bridge the gap between 1 and 2.

It is a simple two-step process: Decide the type of person you want to be. Prove it to yourself with small wins.

Some people spend their entire lives waiting for the time to be right to make an improvement.

You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.

When you're doing something hard, focus on the fun part.

Many people make a subtle mistake, which is they emphasize how difficult it is to do something. They tell themselves writing is hard or running is hard or math is hard. And so on. The dominant thought in their mind is that this is hard to do.

And it is true these things (and many others in life) can be challenging.

Meanwhile, people who thrive in a given area are often emphasizing a completely different aspect of the experience. They are thinking about how it feels good to move their body rather than telling themselves exercise is hard. Or, perhaps, they aren't really thinking much at all. They may slip into a trance during their run, a meditative rhythm.

But what they are almost certainly not doing is repeating a mental story about how hard it is to do the thing. Their dominant thought is about some element of the experience they enjoy. They are working hard, but with the fun part in mind.

But the point is not to do one thing. The point is to master the habit of showing up. The truth is, a habit must be established before it can be improved. If you can’t learn the basic skill of showing up, then you have little hope of mastering the finer details. Instead of trying to engineer a perfect habit from the start, do the easy thing on a more consistent basis. You have to standardize before you can optimize. As you master the art of showing up, the first two minutes simply become a ritual at the beginning of a larger routine. This is not merely a hack to make habits easier but actually the ideal way to master a difficult skill. The more you ritualize the beginning of a process, the more likely it becomes that you can slip into the state of deep focus that is required to do great things. By doing the same warm-up before every workout, you make it easier to get into a state of peak performance. By following the same creative ritual, you make it easier to get into the hard work of creating. By developing a consistent power-down habit, you make it easier to get to bed at a reasonable time each night.