The 1% Masters These Habits | James Clear

0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

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0:51Why do you think so many people have the habit of being hard on themselves, even when they're improving and seeing the metrics go up on whatever they're measuring? I think one thing that's common is that the results of success are widely discussed and highly visible. And the process of success is often invisible and hidden from view. Because the results are the thing that gets discussed so much, it's not that results don't matter. Like I consider myself pretty results oriented. It's just that I think we tend to overvalue outcomes because it's all we ever talk about. and we undervalue the process because it's just not, it's not compelling to talk about what's going on on a daily basis.

1:32So because of all that, I think it can get easy to judge yourself. You know, you could be doing the right thing on any given day. Like I could sit down and I could write 500 words and that's actually a really good day, you know, but if the manuscript still invests and I'm still a year and a half away from the book coming out and I'm seeing somebody else launch a bestseller this week, then it's, you start to judge yourself and feel like, oh, they have what I want to have, or I'm not there yet. Or this is still a mess. I've been working on it for months. Like this is never going to get finished.

2:00It's very easy to fall into that kind of mindset, especially if you're focused on results. So I think the shift is partially, it just helps to know that working on habits day in and day out, focusing on building a better process and building a better system is how results occur. And that is very obvious to all of us as soon as you say it, but man, it's so easy to forget it on a daily basis. And so reminding yourself that most of your results in life are a lagging measure of the habits that precede them. So your bank account is a lagging measure of your financial habits. Your physical fitness is the lagging measure of your exercise habits.

2:40Your, uh, even like silly stuff, like the amount of clutter in your living room was a lagging measure of your cleaning habits. So many areas of life are largely, maybe not exclusively, but largely influenced by the habits that precede them. And so if you want better outcomes, the thing to focus on is building better habits. For some reason, we get into this mindset where we're focused on results and we naturally start to compare. And that leads to feelings of judgment, resentment, and negativity, and so on. And if we can just shift it a little bit and just try to focus on having five good minutes or living a good day or building better habits, then I think maybe you pull yourself back in the present moment.

3:20You focus a little bit more on running your own race and maybe a little bit less on what everybody else is doing. How long does it take to form a habit? And it's dependent on what habit you're trying to create. Also, are there different stages of building and forming a habit? Very popular question, how long does it take to build a habit? It does depend on the habit you're building. So there are a variety of studies that show, if you pick an easy habit, you know might only take a couple weeks if you pick something really difficult maybe it takes six or seven or eight months like you know who knows it like the same habit can take very different amounts of time depending on the context imagine one person who's trying to build the habit of doing yoga every day and they live with a bunch of athletes or people who go to yoga studios or whatever and then the other person is trying to build a habit of doing yoga every day and they live with nobody who works out and they kind of get criticized or poked fun at if they do it in front of them.

4:11Well, same habit, but very different situations. And so the environment's going to influence how much friction you're feeling associated with that. And obviously that will influence how easy or difficult it is. I think the true answer, the honest answer to how long does it take to build a habit is forever. Because if it stops, if you stop doing it, it's no longer a habit. Habits are not a finish line to be crossed. You know, they're a lifestyle to be lived. It's something to integrate into your new normal. It's not like, Hey, let me just do this for 30 days or 66 days and then I'll be a healthy person or then I'll be productive or whatever.

4:44You know, I won't have to think about it anymore. What we're looking for is a change that you can integrate into your new normal, something you can make part of your lifestyle. And then once it's part of your daily life, great, you can start to look at the next habit and try to integrate that one. It's a, it's kind of this endless process. And maybe that encourages you a little bit more to look for a non-threatening change or a sustainable change rather than just trying to flip a switch.

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6:13Again, have an amazing day and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.