James Clear

Are you getting 1% better or 1% worse?

Is the arrow pointed up and to the right or have you flatlined?

Because if you're on a good trajectory, even if it's a very modest gain on any given day, all you need is time.

And if you're on a bad trajectory, even if you're in a pretty strong position right now, it's not going to end well.

And so building better habits, making these small improvements, it's really about getting you on a path that can lead to where you want to go.

I really like that question of can my current habits carry me to my desired future?

You know, and if they can, then great.

Maybe you just need to be patient and let the days work for you.

But if they can't, then something needs to change about your trajectory.

And so your habits are one of the things that kind of set you on that path and determine how far you're going to go and whether you're improving day in and day out.

And so for all of those reasons, I like to refer to habits as the compound interest of self-improvement.

You know, the same way that money multiplies with compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them across time.

Many of your outcomes in life, many of the results that we all so badly want to have,

They're kind of like a lagging measure of the habits that precede them.

So your bank account is a lagging measure of your financial habits.

Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your reading and learning habits.

Even little stuff like the amount of clutter in your living room is a lagging measure of your cleaning habits.

And so we also badly want better results in life.

But the somewhat ironic thing is that the results are not actually the thing that needs to change.

You know, it's like fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves.