Begin your behavior change journey by defining the type of person you wish to be, then let that desired identity inform the habits you adopt, allowing outcomes to emerge naturally.
View every action as a ‘vote’ for the person you aspire to be; consistently performing small habits builds evidence and belief in that desired identity.
Identify and take pride in specific aspects of your desired identity, as this internal motivation will make you naturally fight to maintain those behaviors.
Strive for a state where the act of performing the desired behavior itself feels satisfying because it directly reinforces your desired identity.
Shift your focus from one-time goals to building robust systems of daily habits to achieve sustained success and continuous improvement.
Understand that your performance ultimately defaults to the quality of your daily habits and systems, not merely your aspirations or goals.
Instead of solely focusing on desired outcomes, concentrate on improving the daily habits and systems that serve as inputs, allowing the desired results to naturally follow.
Leverage the principle that behaviors immediately rewarded are repeated, and those immediately punished are avoided, focusing on speed and intensity of feedback.
To build good habits, ensure the cues that trigger them are highly visible, available, and easy to notice in your environment.
Increase your motivation to perform good habits by making them appealing, exciting, or pairing them with something you already enjoy.
Increase the likelihood of performing good behaviors by making them as easy, convenient, and frictionless as possible.
To ensure a good habit is repeated, make the experience of performing it satisfying, enjoyable, or pleasurable, providing a positive emotional signal.
To break bad habits, reduce your exposure to the cues that trigger them by making them invisible or less accessible in your environment.
To break bad habits, make them seem unappealing or undesirable by associating them with negative outcomes or experiences.
To break bad habits, increase the friction and number of steps required to perform them, making them inconvenient and harder to do.
To break bad habits, introduce an immediate negative consequence or cost to the behavior, making it feel unsatisfying or unpleasant.
To make new habits easier to start, scale them down to a version that takes two minutes or less to complete, like ‘read one page’ instead of ‘read 30 books.’
Focus on consistently establishing a new habit, even in its smallest form, before attempting to optimize or scale it up, as consistency is foundational.
Recognize that the most difficult part of any new habit is often just getting started; focus on mastering the act of consistently showing up, even for a short time.
When initiating behavior change, begin by making the desired habits obvious and easy to perform, as these two laws offer the most accessible starting points.
Instead of directly focusing on breaking bad habits, prioritize building new good behaviors, as these will naturally consume time and resources, displacing the old, undesirable ones.
When using short-term reinforcements for habits, ensure they align with and reinforce the long-term identity you are trying to build, rather than contradicting it.
Seek out and join social groups where your desired behaviors are considered normal, as this social alignment makes it much easier to adopt and maintain those habits.
Understand that the desire to belong often overpowers the desire for self-improvement; therefore, align your desired habits with the norms of groups you want to belong to.
Utilize significant environmental or lifestyle changes (e.g., having a child, moving, new job) to facilitate rapid and often irreversible behavior shifts.
Make commitments that are difficult or impossible to reverse, such as getting a dog, to force consistent adherence to new habits like an earlier bedtime.
Recognize that single mistakes are rarely ruinous; the real problem is allowing a slip-up to trigger a spiral of repeated errors, which can form a new, undesirable habit.
If you miss a habit or slip up, ensure you get back on track immediately and do not miss it a second time, preventing a downward spiral of repeated mistakes.
If you make a mistake, mentally divide your day into four quarters (morning, afternoon, dinner, night) and strive to contain the error to that specific quarter, allowing you to get back on track quickly for the next one.
After a mistake, avoid self-judgment, guilt, or negative narratives; instead, accept the event for what it is and move on to the next opportunity to get back on track.
Practice mindfulness meditation to develop the ability to observe self-judgment and negative thoughts without engaging with or judging them, fostering a more resilient mindset.
Cultivate the ability to quickly assess your current situation, identify deviations from your desired path, and make rapid adjustments, as life is dynamic and optimal paths evolve.
Employ the ABZ framework: define your ultimate desired outcome (Z), honestly assess your current reality (A), and then determine the immediate next step (B) that moves you directionally towards Z.
Maintain a very clear vision of your ultimate goal (Z), but remain flexible about the specific methods or paths you take to achieve it, allowing you to adapt to new opportunities.
To strategically change your behavior, begin by cultivating deep self-awareness to understand your current habits, cues, and underlying motivations.
To increase self-awareness of your habits, create a detailed list of every routine action you perform throughout your day without judgment.
To understand the cues for a specific habit, ask yourself ‘Who, What, When, Where, Why’ each time the habit occurs, recording the context and circumstances.
Simply observing or measuring a behavior, such as tracking food intake or water usage, can often lead to changes in that behavior, even without a specific goal.
Find ways to visualize your progress, whether through charts, printouts, or simple habit trackers, as seeing your advancement often motivates continued behavior.
Channel small, infrequent bursts of motivation into high-leverage actions like redesigning your environment, as this can create lasting behavioral support even for those with low daily motivation.
To encourage desired behaviors, lavish praise and positive reinforcement for good actions, while deliberately ignoring minor slip-ups or undesirable behaviors, especially early on.
Be consistently kind and encouraging, as positive reinforcement, even if seemingly small, can be powerful enough to motivate someone to continue a desired behavior.
Understand how habits work and how to shape them to gain control over your behaviors rather than being a victim of them.
Concentrate on actions within your control, as your long-term results are largely influenced by the habits you consistently repeat.
Choose to act as if you have free will, selecting the best option that serves you, as it doesn’t matter if it was predetermined or not.
Recognize that genetic predispositions inform where to work hard and how to strategize, rather than dictating whether to work hard at all.
Increase perseverance and discipline by identifying areas, categories, or skills that genuinely interest you, as it’s easier to sustain effort when you enjoy the process.
Find enjoyment in your work or activities, as those who have fun are more likely to persevere longer than those who are suffering.
Be curious and willing to explore many things, as this increases your chances of discovering an area where you are fascinated and that aligns with your natural abilities.
Focus on domains where you are deeply bothered by things not being ‘right,’ as this drive for perfection will lead to superior results compared to those who get bored or frustrated.