James Clear

But it definitely is an internal journey and it definitely will take longer than you would imagine in a lot of cases.

Possibly. I mean, I'm sure there are a lot of variables that go into it, but it does align with there's like this whole category of behaviors that I feel like if you wanted to hack a radical change in your life, you want to figure out a way to get, like you said, this epiphany to stick. Massive environment changes or lifestyle changes are a good way to do that.

Possibly. I mean, I'm sure there are a lot of variables that go into it, but it does align with there's like this whole category of behaviors that I feel like if you wanted to hack a radical change in your life, you want to figure out a way to get, like you said, this epiphany to stick. Massive environment changes or lifestyle changes are a good way to do that.

Perhaps one of the strongest ways to do that. So having a kid, getting married, changing jobs, moving to a different city, even something small like getting a dog can lead to rapid behavior change. And I think one of the things that is really crucial about it is that most of those decisions tend to be irreversible or at least very hard to reverse. I had one that I struggled with for a long time.

Perhaps one of the strongest ways to do that. So having a kid, getting married, changing jobs, moving to a different city, even something small like getting a dog can lead to rapid behavior change. And I think one of the things that is really crucial about it is that most of those decisions tend to be irreversible or at least very hard to reverse. I had one that I struggled with for a long time.

Sometimes people ask me, you know, what habits have you struggled with or whatever? And I tend to be pretty good about getting enough sleep. I almost always get eight hours or even nine if I'm training hard. But I would fall into this pattern where it'd be like nine or 10 o'clock at night and I would kind of get a second wind and I'd be like, well, maybe I'll just send a few emails or something.

Sometimes people ask me, you know, what habits have you struggled with or whatever? And I tend to be pretty good about getting enough sleep. I almost always get eight hours or even nine if I'm training hard. But I would fall into this pattern where it'd be like nine or 10 o'clock at night and I would kind of get a second wind and I'd be like, well, maybe I'll just send a few emails or something.

And of course, it's never just a few. You turn around and it's midnight or one and you're like, okay, am I going to sleep for eight hours? Because if so, that means I'm not getting up till nine. And I know that I prefer to get up early. I know that I feel better throughout the rest of the next day. 10 p.m. James is kind of ruining things for tomorrow, James, by staying up late.

And of course, it's never just a few. You turn around and it's midnight or one and you're like, okay, am I going to sleep for eight hours? Because if so, that means I'm not getting up till nine. And I know that I prefer to get up early. I know that I feel better throughout the rest of the next day. 10 p.m. James is kind of ruining things for tomorrow, James, by staying up late.

And I tried a bunch of different things. There's a little device called an outlet timer. You can buy it for like 10 bucks on Amazon. You plug it into an outlet and you can set the time for when it kills the power from that outlet. And so like if you plug your internet into it, then like the internet shuts off at 10 p.m. or whatever you set it for.

And I tried a bunch of different things. There's a little device called an outlet timer. You can buy it for like 10 bucks on Amazon. You plug it into an outlet and you can set the time for when it kills the power from that outlet. And so like if you plug your internet into it, then like the internet shuts off at 10 p.m. or whatever you set it for.

So I tried different things like that, but then you could just pick your phone up and get around it. But the thing that finally made it stick was getting a dog because the dog is going to get up at 7 a.m. Whenever I go to sleep, it doesn't matter. And I need to go take it for a walk. And you can only do that for a few days before you're like, all right, I'm not going to play this game anymore.

So I tried different things like that, but then you could just pick your phone up and get around it. But the thing that finally made it stick was getting a dog because the dog is going to get up at 7 a.m. Whenever I go to sleep, it doesn't matter. And I need to go take it for a walk. And you can only do that for a few days before you're like, all right, I'm not going to play this game anymore.

I'm going to bed at 10. It's because it was fairly hard to reverse that got it to stick. And I think, you know, in the case of having a kid, they're going to be there every day now. Maybe you could rationalize it a bunch of times before that, but that's not going to change. They're going to be around.

I'm going to bed at 10. It's because it was fairly hard to reverse that got it to stick. And I think, you know, in the case of having a kid, they're going to be there every day now. Maybe you could rationalize it a bunch of times before that, but that's not going to change. They're going to be around.

And weirdly, because presumably this person's wife was pregnant, so they obviously saw that throughout the whole pregnancy, but that didn't get them to change. But once the child is there, man, it's really immediate. You're taking a puff and you have those little eyes looking back at you. The feedback loop is even tighter than before. So I would imagine both of those things probably play a role.

And weirdly, because presumably this person's wife was pregnant, so they obviously saw that throughout the whole pregnancy, but that didn't get them to change. But once the child is there, man, it's really immediate. You're taking a puff and you have those little eyes looking back at you. The feedback loop is even tighter than before. So I would imagine both of those things probably play a role.

But more generally speaking, those kind of irreversible or hard to reverse lifestyle changes also tend to be big drivers of quick behavior change.

But more generally speaking, those kind of irreversible or hard to reverse lifestyle changes also tend to be big drivers of quick behavior change.

I don't think it is actually. We all have habits that are like that. There's two things that made me think. The first is it connects to our conversation about identity from a few minutes ago, which is you started to take pride in it. You cared about how you presented. And the more that we take pride in certain elements of our identity or aspects of who we are, certain parts of our story.