James Clear
speaker
1,852 appearances
7 recordings
7 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 12 May
James Clear’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 4 in all, peaking in Jan 2026 with 2.
Appearances
When you look at people who exhibit high levels of self-control, the common pattern across them is not that they have higher discipline than the average person.
The common pattern is that they are in situations where they're tempted less frequently.
Fewer temptations is the single biggest driver of exhibiting high self-control.
And so the lesson is you don't need to try to be more disciplined.
You don't need to wish that you were a person with more willpower.
You need to take a little bit of time to design an environment where you're not tempted as frequently.
So that could mean simple things like not having chips in the house or not having cigarettes in the house or things like that.
It could mean more complicated things like looking at your relationships and saying, who are the people that have the behaviors that I want to have?
What are the common habits of my friend group or my peer group?
And that's not necessarily saying I never see these people again, but maybe I only see them in pockets or in certain situations.
And then other people I'm trying to expose myself to more and hang out with more.
And so those are all ways that you can start to think about where are the temptations in my life or where am I having to, where do I need to go against the grain of the situation to have the habits that I want to have?
And where am I working with the gradient of the situation?
It's a huge driver of our habits.
There's a chapter in Atomic Habits about the influence of friends and family on our behaviors.
And I think if I could write it again, I would even expand it because it's even bigger than I think I realized.
So
Humans are very social creatures.
We all have a deep desire to bond and connect, to be part of something.
And if people have to choose between, you know, I have habits that I don't really love, but I fit in, I belong, I'm part of something, I'm supported.
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