Maintain a margin of safety. If your life is designed only to handle the expected challenges, then it will fall apart as soon as something unexpected… - James Clear

Keeping the habit alive is a powerful act. It's easier to stay in shape than to get in shape. It's easier to keep a house clean than to get it clean.

Many days it may feel like you are treading water, but maintaining your progress saves your future self a great deal of work.

One solution is to avoid making any single aspect of your identity an overwhelming portion of who you are. In the words of investor Paul Graham, “keep your identity small.” The more you let a single belief define you, the less capable you are of adapting when life challenges you. If you tie everything up in being the point guard or the partner at the firm or whatever else, then the loss of that facet of your life will wreck you. If you’re a vegan and then develop a health condition that forces you to change your diet, you’ll have an identity crisis on your hands. When you cling too tightly to one identity, you become brittle. Lose that one thing and you lose yourself.

Remove the branches of a thorn bush today and you'll avoid a scrape this year. But next year, you'll face the same problem again.

Remove the root of the bush today, and the entire plant will die.

Are you solving problems at the branch level or the root level?