3-2-1: On discarding old commitments, handling disappointments, and how to go from vision to reality

Happy 3-2-1 Thursday!

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

I.

"If you feel resistance before you begin, it's usually procrastination and you need to get started.

If you feel resistance after you begin, it's usually feedback and you need to make adjustments."

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​II.

"Focus is how you knit the hours of the day together. With focus, the day becomes a beautiful tapestry. Without focus, you end up holding a bundle of loose string."

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III.

"Anytime in my life when I have managed to go from a vision to a reality, the vision has not been a plan but a practice.

In other words, what matters is not having a vision, but rather making a habit of returning to and revising the vision. For the big things in my life, I'm always coming back to them week after week—sometimes day after day. As new information arrives, the vision gets updated. The dream becomes more crystallized over time. It's a habit of thinking about where you want to go with an ever-increasing degree of clarity.

You do not need a vision, you need the practice of envisioning."

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I.

Poet Marianne Moore offers a simple life strategy:

"I've made it a principle not to be over-influenced by minor disappointments."

Source: Sweet Theft ​
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​II.

Entrepreneur Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx, on failure:

"When my brother and I were growing up, my father would encourage us to fail. We'd sit around the dinner table and he'd ask, "What did you guys fail at this week?" If we had nothing to tell him, he'd be disappointed. The logic seems counterintuitive, but it worked beautifully.

He knew that many people become paralyzed by the fear of failure. They're constantly afraid of what others will think if they don't do a great job and, as a result, take no risks. My father wanted us to try everything and feel free to push the envelope. His attitude taught me to define failure as not trying something I want to do instead of not achieving the right outcome."

Source: Getting There ​

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What is one commitment you are continuing to do out of inertia, but—if you had the courage to eliminate it—you would immediately benefit from discarding it?

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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/april-4-2024

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Until next week,

James Clear
​Author of Atomic Habits, the #1 best-selling book
Creator of Atoms, the official Atomic Habits app
Writer of the 3-2-1 newsletter with 3 million subscribers

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p.s. Wheeeeeeeee!

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