James Clear Quotes

Limiting your options now will expand your opportunities in the long run because you can remain focused enough to master something.

Keeping your options open now will reduce your opportunities in the long run because you divide your attention and end up doing an average job on seven different things.

Are you falling into the pattern of always mastering one thing or always chasing the next thing?

How to clarify a concept you can't articulate:

1. Change mediums. Draw it. Photograph it. Sing it.
2. Change levels. Explain what is one level up (bigger picture) or one level down (finer details).
3. Change fields. What would this concept look like in different fields?

It's not that hard on any given day, but the trick is you can't skip days. Your workouts can be reasonable and still deliver results—if you don't skip days. Your writing sessions can be short and the work will still accumulate—if you don't skip days. As long as you're working, you'll get there.

Some things are a job, others are a craft. The primary difference is not the task, but the enthusiasm and curiosity put into the task. The more engaged and interested you are, the more it becomes a craft.

You can attract luck simply by telling people what you are working on.

There are two ways to live a longer life:

1) Biologically. Extend the timeline between your birth and your death.

2) Psychologically. Fit more lives into whatever time you are given.

Make each decade rich with experiences and perhaps you can live a handful of lives before you are done.

One filter I use for making decisions: How much can I influence the outcome after the initial choice is made?

When I can do a lot to influence the outcome, I'm less worried about risk. Even if the choice appears risky on the surface, I can likely create a good outcome with effort.

When I can't do much to influence the outcome, I'm more risk averse. Even my best effort won't move the needle. Your ability to influence the outcome after a decision is made is a crucial thing to consider.

The fact that you go to the gym even though you don't "need" to… is why you don't need to.

The fact that you save when you could spend… is why you have money to spend.

Your habits create your strength.

The hard way is rarely harder in terms of daily effort, but it is often harder psychologically.

It requires:

– thinking long-term
– removing limiting beliefs
– avoiding the lure of status and approval
– trusting that small things will lead to big things

It's a mental battle.

Friendship happens on the way to something else.

If you “try to meet new people” it feels weird and forced. The more you aim for friendship, the more it eludes you.

But if you aim to learn or achieve something with others, friendship happens naturally during the shared pursuit.

Create your life rather than live it.

You can often learn more from peers who are 2 years ahead of you than mentors who are 20 years ahead of you.

Life evolves and most insights get outdated.

Money plays an important role in life, but it can't be the only filter for how you decide to spend your time. Nobody will ever pay you to go on a date with your spouse or take your kids to the park or grab coffee with your parents.

Take great care to avoid mistakes when the decision is hard to reverse.

But! If you make a mistake that is hard to reverse, there is no sense beating yourself up about it. Your responsibility is to make the best next choice given your current position. You must always make the most of the situation you are in.

Next play mentality.

If you want to be rich, then be kind.

It's hard to create wealth unless you work well with others, and it's hard to work well with others if you are unlikable.

Even if you can build wealth without kindness, rich jerks end up poor in friendship. You can buy friends, but not good ones.