3-2-1: Outsmarting yourself, staying adaptable, and choosing more empowering self-talk

Happy 3-2-1 Thursday!

Here are 3 ideas, 2 quotes, and 1 question to consider this week.

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I.

"Stop learning, die young.

Keep learning, stay young."

(Share this on Twitter)​

​II.

"One of the great gift of sports is learning how to fail in public.

People never go to the gym because they're scared of looking stupid, never share their writing because they're scared of judgment, never open their heart because they're scared of rejection.

Sports train you to face your fear."

III.

"The mind is alive when it is flexible and adaptable. It can be updated, take new form, endure change.

The mind is dead when it is fixed and immovable. It cannot absorb new ideas or thoughts. It is stiff and brittle.

When we lose our ability to adapt, to move with the environment, to tolerate new beliefs and reshape our old ones, our mind is at risk of becoming outdated. The fixed mind becomes a relic."

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I.

Writer and former heavyweight boxer, Ed Latimore, on outsmarting yourself:

"Someone with half your IQ is making 10x as you because they aren't smart enough to doubt themselves."

Source: Twitter​

​II.

Wisława Szymborska, poet and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature:

"Any knowledge that doesn't lead to new questions quickly dies out: it fails to maintain the temperature required for sustaining life."

Source: The Poet and the World ​

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Without altering the facts of the situation I am facing and without ignoring the reality of what must be done, what is the most useful and empowering story I can tell myself about what is happening and what I need to do next?

(Share this on Twitter)​

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Want to share this issue of 3-2-1 via text, social media, or email? Just copy and paste this link:

​https://jamesclear.com/3-2-1/october-20-2022​

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Until next week,

James Clear
​Author of Atomic Habits and keynote speaker​​

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p.s. The power of small habits (squirrel edition)​