James Clear

It could be, you know, if you're trying to get them to exercise, it could literally be doing one pushup, walking around the block one time or something. And this is that version of like, can I just go to the gym for five minutes sort of thing. Let's just scale it down, make it super simple. Along with that, it's very hard for it to be simple if people are being pulled in multiple directions.

And so I think if you're giving people a plan that has five things on there for them to do, can we eliminate four of those for now? Stay at phase two? And can we just do one right now? Let's take one thing and scale it down and stay focused and just try to get a little bit of momentum going on that.

And so I think if you're giving people a plan that has five things on there for them to do, can we eliminate four of those for now? Stay at phase two? And can we just do one right now? Let's take one thing and scale it down and stay focused and just try to get a little bit of momentum going on that.

And then once we've established that and started to gain a foothold there and get a little bit more consistency with that one thing, we can take that momentum and transfer it into the next one. So yeah, ideally, probably a lot of patients will be doing these five things or these 15 things, but it doesn't mean you need to do all of them right now. Let's pick one and stay focused.

And then once we've established that and started to gain a foothold there and get a little bit more consistency with that one thing, we can take that momentum and transfer it into the next one. So yeah, ideally, probably a lot of patients will be doing these five things or these 15 things, but it doesn't mean you need to do all of them right now. Let's pick one and stay focused.

So that's the first thing is try to keep it as simple as possible. Pretty obvious answer, but I still think a useful one. The second thing, again, fairly obvious, and we've talked about it a bit, but still I think useful, is the environment design piece. Even the laziest person, even the person who has zero interest naturally in these topics, is a product of the environment that they're in.

So that's the first thing is try to keep it as simple as possible. Pretty obvious answer, but I still think a useful one. The second thing, again, fairly obvious, and we've talked about it a bit, but still I think useful, is the environment design piece. Even the laziest person, even the person who has zero interest naturally in these topics, is a product of the environment that they're in.

Imagine this lab experiment where you're locked in a room that only has healthy food options. Even the laziest person is going to eat healthy there. They have no other choice. And that doesn't mean that they need to change everything in their home so that it's that control lab experiment feel. But look, there's a lot of low hanging fruit that can be done here that you don't actually need someone.

Imagine this lab experiment where you're locked in a room that only has healthy food options. Even the laziest person is going to eat healthy there. They have no other choice. And that doesn't mean that they need to change everything in their home so that it's that control lab experiment feel. But look, there's a lot of low hanging fruit that can be done here that you don't actually need someone.

And this, I think, is one of the reasons why I like environment changes. You don't actually need someone to be motivated every day to do this. You really just need them to be motivated for like one afternoon so that they change the environment a bit. And that can actually serve them.

And this, I think, is one of the reasons why I like environment changes. You don't actually need someone to be motivated every day to do this. You really just need them to be motivated for like one afternoon so that they change the environment a bit. And that can actually serve them.

In some cases, it can serve them for months, but in most cases, even food related cases, it could serve them for the next three days or five days or seven days just by getting junk food out of the house. That serves them for the next couple of days. You only need little pockets of motivation. And if you can direct that pocket of motivation toward a high leverage action,

In some cases, it can serve them for months, but in most cases, even food related cases, it could serve them for the next three days or five days or seven days just by getting junk food out of the house. That serves them for the next couple of days. You only need little pockets of motivation. And if you can direct that pocket of motivation toward a high leverage action,

like redesigning the environment, then it can continue to serve even a lazy person for a good chunk of time. So that's probably the second thing. So make it small, optimize the environment. And then the third thing, and this is maybe more of like a coaching thing as someone who deals with patients or has clients or whatever,

like redesigning the environment, then it can continue to serve even a lazy person for a good chunk of time. So that's probably the second thing. So make it small, optimize the environment. And then the third thing, and this is maybe more of like a coaching thing as someone who deals with patients or has clients or whatever,

The general strategy is easy to say, but very hard to follow, which is praise the good, ignore the bad. It goes against the grain of what we want to do because they're like, you're telling me I just want to ignore the mistakes that they're making. And certainly there's a place for rectifying mistakes. And I don't mean that every problem should just go unresolved.

The general strategy is easy to say, but very hard to follow, which is praise the good, ignore the bad. It goes against the grain of what we want to do because they're like, you're telling me I just want to ignore the mistakes that they're making. And certainly there's a place for rectifying mistakes. And I don't mean that every problem should just go unresolved.

But especially early on, the thing that you really want to build is momentum and you want to reinforce the good behaviors. And as we talked about a good plant crowding out another, a way to encourage that is by praising the good and ignoring the bad.

But especially early on, the thing that you really want to build is momentum and you want to reinforce the good behaviors. And as we talked about a good plant crowding out another, a way to encourage that is by praising the good and ignoring the bad.

There was a hilarious op-ed that was written, I think it was in the New York Times, this wife who, her husband would never throw his dirty clothes in the laundry hamper, and it was driving her nuts. Occasionally he would do it, but it was like pulling teeth all the time to get him to do this consistently.