Nir Eyal

And she has this practice she shared with me where she has a stack of thank you cards and she has this daily habit of whenever anyone does something nice, makes her feel good, makes her feel appreciated, just has a pleasant sensation, she wants to thank them.

Whether that's saying it out loud, whether that's writing a little thank you card, whether that's sending an email, never ever miss an opportunity to say thank you, to show gratitude, right?

Whether it's

the someone who serves you at a restaurant and does a nice job, whether it's your child that you thank them for being extra polite to you, or whatever, your spouse, giving them an extra hug, or an employee or a colleague, always be gracious to people and show them how appreciative you are.

Now, why is that good?

It's not just good karma.

Turns out that you are provoking luck.

How does that happen?

Imagine, when you send someone a handwritten thank you note, which takes maybe 30 seconds,

When that thank you note lands on their desk and just so happens to land next to a business opportunity that they're thinking, well, who would be someone I should share this with?

You're top of mind.

So you're kind of pollinating opportunities.

You're creating these opportunities.

You're provoking luck.

So that's one thing we can do.

Another thing we can do that we have to get into the habit of doing is intentionally create

exiting our comfort zones, finding ways to do things that are a little weird, a little uncomfortable, because it turns out that motivation is in large part about discomfort.

It's about overcoming something that's difficult, because what spurs us to action is that we want something, and wanting itself hurts.

So the more we can get comfortable with the pain of doing something,

the better we become at it, the less resistance we have, right?