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Book Quotes from Atomic Habits by James Clear
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Insight
Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
It is easy to get bogged down trying to find the optimal plan for change: the fastest way to lose weight, the best program to build muscle, the perfect idea for a side hustle. We are so focused on figuring out the best approach that we never get around to taking action. As Voltaire once wrote, “The best is the enemy of the good.
Insight
Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
Over the long run, however, the real reason you fail to stick with habits is that your self-image gets in the way. This is why you can't get too attached to one version of your identity. Progress requires unlearning. Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity.
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Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
The only way to become excellent is to be endlessly fascinated by doing the same thing over and over. You have to fall in love with boredom.
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Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom. We get bored with habits because they stop delighting us. The outcome becomes expected. And as our habits become ordinary, we start derailing our progress to seek novelty.
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Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
When scientists analyze people who appear to have tremendous self-control, it turns out those individuals aren’t all that different from those who are struggling. Instead, “disciplined” people are better at structuring their lives in a way that does not require heroic willpower and self-control. In other words, they spend less time in tempting situations.
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Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
We imitate the habits of three groups in particular: The close. The many. The powerful.
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Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity. It’s one thing to say I’m the type of person who wants this. It’s something very different to say I’m the type of person who is this.
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Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
In fact, the tendency for one purchase to lead to another one has a name: the Diderot Effect. The Diderot Effect states that obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of consumption
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Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.
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Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
Your actions reveal how badly you want something. If you keep saying something is a priority but you never act on it, then you don’t really want it. It’s time to have an honest conversation with yourself. Your actions reveal your true motivations.
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Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
Some people spend their entire lives waiting for the time to be right to make an improvement.
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Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
You don’t have to be the victim of your environment. You can also be the architect of it.
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Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
Professionals stick to the schedule; amateurs let life get in the way.
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Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
When you can’t win by being better, you can win by being different.
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Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. It’s not about any single accomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement. Ultimately, it is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress.
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Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.
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Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
Problem #1: Winners and losers have the same goals.
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Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
Be the designer of your world and not merely the consumer of it.
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Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it—but all that had gone before.
Insight
Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
All big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger. Roots entrench themselves and branches grow. The task of breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak within us. And the task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time.
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Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement
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Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.
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Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. You can be satisfied anytime your system is running.
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Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.
Insight
Book Quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
