3-2-1: The real reason you fail to stick with habits, and the secret to making anything great

Happy 3-2-1 Thursday!

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

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I.

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

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​II.

"Many people assume they are bad at writing because it is hard. This is like assuming you are bad at weightlifting because the weight is heavy.

Writing is useful because it is hard. It's the effort that goes into writing a clear sentence that leads to better thinking."

III.

An idea from Atomic Habits:

"On any given day, you may struggle with your habits because you're too busy or too tired or too overwhelmed or hundreds of other reasons. Over the long run, 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."

For more on this idea, see Chapter 2 of Atomic Habits.

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I.

Record producer Rick Rubin shares the secret to creating hit records (or making anything great):

"If you need 10 of something, make 30. Then pick the best."

Source: The Creative Act​

​II.

Author and naturalist Henry David Thoreau on the value of walking in the woods:

"I come out to these solitudes, where the problem of existence is simplified. I get away a mile or two from the town into the stillness and solitude of nature, with rocks, trees, weeds, snow about me. I enter some glade in the woods, perchance, where a few weeds and dry leaves alone lift themselves above the surface of the snow, and it is as if I had come to an open window. I see out and around myself.

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This is what I go out to seek. It is as if I always met in those places some grand, serene, immortal, infinitely encouraging—though invisible—companion, and walked with him."

Source: In Wildness is the Preservation of the World​

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What's the most fun you could possibly have in one year?

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​https://jamesclear.com/3-2-1/april-20-2023​

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Until next week,

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

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p.s. What it's like to be married to me.

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