James Clear Quotes

Hype erodes. Quality persists.

Your success depends on the risks you take.

Your survival depends on the risks you avoid.

You are richer than 93 percent of people. Not in money, but in time.

Over 108 billion people have lived throughout history. 93 percent of them are dead.

You have what every king and queen, every pharaoh and ruler, every CEO and celebrity of the past would give all their wealth and power for:

Today.

Working on a problem reduces the fear of it.

It's hard to fear a problem when you are making progress on it—even if progress is imperfect and slow.

Action relieves anxiety.

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

Many frustrations are the result of unspoken expectations. Before you get too annoyed, make sure you are clearly expressing your thoughts.

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.

Chase your desired lifestyle, not your desired title. People are blinded by status and labels. Once you release the need for a specific title, there is almost always an easier path to living your preferred lifestyle.

There are many elements of living a good life, but the first and most foundational is to love yourself and enjoy spending time with yourself.

Go do things on your own so you learn to trust your mind and view it as a welcome companion. If someone declared, "Tomorrow you must spend the day alone" the hope is that you would reply, "That sounds like a good day!"

The person who is at ease within finds every other space larger and more enjoyable."

"As far as I can tell, every great advance — whether in an individual life or the world at large — has come from dreams and attempts.

Devise more dreams. Make more attempts."

A philosophy I heard recently and have found useful:

"We look for reasons to say yes and only say no when we have to.

A gift you can give yourself right now:

Stop what you're doing. Close your eyes.

For the next 60 seconds, just breathe.

When determining the size or complexity of a new habit ask yourself: What can I stick to — even on my worst day?

Start there. Master the art of showing up. Then advance.

It's hard to build momentum if you keep dividing your attention.

In the long-run (and often in the short-run), your willpower will never beat your environment. The more disciplined your environment is, the less disciplined you need to be. Don't swim upstream.

Whatever you're doing, do it well. If you're writing a thank you note, take an extra minute to mention something beyond the typical thank you. If you're exercising, do each set as well as you can. If you're in conversation, really listen and don't just wait for your turn to talk.

Having high standards adds up. You can nearly always find an extra minute to do it better. And most important, you prove to yourself that you're the type of person who does things well.

One easy way to show you care about others is to ask them questions about their life.

• What are they excited about?
• What are they working on?
• What are they hoping for?

Simply asking the question and listening thoughtfully is an act of generosity. You're giving them the gift of attention.