When preparation becomes a form of procrastination, you need to change something.

If you want to master a habit, the key is to start with repetition, not perfection

the most effective way to make practice happen is to adhere to the 3rd Law of Behavior Change: make it easy

Guns, Germs, and Steel

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“How can we design a world where it’s easy to do what’s right?”

Habits are like the entrance ramp to a highway. They lead you down a path and, before you know it, you’re speeding toward the next behavior. It seems to be easier to continue what you are already doing than to start doing something different. You sit through a bad movie for two hours. You keep snacking even when you’re already full. You check your phone for “just a second” and soon you have spent twenty minutes staring at the screen. In this way, the habits you follow without thinking often determine the choices you make when you are thinking

We are limited by where our habits lead us. This is why mastering the decisive moments throughout your day is so important. Each day is made up of many moments, but it is really a few habitual choices that determine the path you take

It’s easy to write off these minor distractions as “just taking a break,” but over time they can accumulate into a serious issue. The constant tug of “just one more minute” can prevent me from doing anything of consequence. (I’m not the only one. The average person spends over two hours per day on social media. What could you do with an extra six hundred hours per year?)

People who are better at delaying gratification have higher SAT scores, lower levels of substance abuse, lower likelihood of obesity, better responses to stress, and superior social skills.

Here’s the problem: most people know that delaying gratification is the wise approach. They want the benefits of good habits: to be healthy, productive, at peace. But these outcomes are seldom top-of-mind at the decisive moment. Thankfully, it’s possible to train yourself to delay gratification—but you need to work with the grain of human nature, not against it.

The vital thing in getting a habit to stick is to feel successful—even if it’s in a small way.

In the beginning, you need a reason to stay on track. This is why immediate rewards are essential

The ending of any experience is vital because we tend to remember it more than other phases.

The best approach is to use reinforcement, which refers to the process of using an immediate reward to increase the rate of a behavior

Reinforcement ties your habit to an immediate reward

It can be challenging to stick with habits like “no frivolous purchases” or “no alcohol this month” because nothing happens when you skip happy hour drinks or don’t buy that pair of shoes. It can be hard to feel satisfied when there is no action in the first place.

You are making it satisfying to do nothing.

creating a loyalty program for yourself

In summary, a habit needs to be enjoyable for it to last

What is immediately rewarded is repeated. What is immediately punished is avoided.

Recording your last action creates a trigger that can initiate your next one. Habit tracking naturally builds a series of visual cues like the streak of X’s on your calendar or the list of meals in your food log. When you look at the calendar and see your streak, you’ll be reminded to act again.

The mere act of tracking a behavior can spark the urge to change it

When the evidence is right in front of you, you’re less likely to lie to yourself.

Habit tracking also keeps you honest. Most of us have a distorted view of our own behavior. We think we act better than we do.

This can be particularly powerful on a bad day. When you’re feeling down, it’s easy to forget about all the progress you have already made. Habit tracking provides visual proof of your hard work—a subtle reminder of how far you’ve come

The most effective form of motivation is progress. When we get a signal that we are moving forward, we become more motivated to continue down that path

This is the most crucial benefit of all. Tracking can become its own form of reward.

many people resist the idea of tracking and measuring. It can feel like a burden because it forces you into two habits: the habit you’re trying to build and the habit of tracking it.

whenever possible, measurement should be automated.

Tracking isn’t for everyone, and there is no need to measure your entire life. But nearly anyone can benefit from it in some form—even if it’s only temporary.

Second, manual tracking should be limited to your most important habits. It is better to consistently track one habit than to sporadically track ten.

Finally, record each measurement immediately after the habit occurs.

No matter how consistent you are with your habits, it is inevitable that life will interrupt you at some point.

The first mistake is never the one that ruins you. It is the spiral of repeated mistakes that follows. Missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit

Whenever this happens to me, I try to remind myself of a simple rule: never miss twice.

Too often, we fall into an all-or-nothing cycle with our habits.

when successful people fail, they rebound quickly.

This is why the “bad” workouts are often the most important ones. Sluggish days and bad workouts maintain the compound gains you accrued from previous good days

Don’t put up a zero. Don’t let losses eat into your compounding

Lost days hurt you more than successful days help you. If you start with $100, then a 50 percent gain will take you to $150. But you only need a 33 percent loss to take you back to $100. In other words, avoiding a 33 percent loss is just as valuable as achieving a 50 percent gain.

Going to the gym for five minutes may not improve your performance, but it reaffirms your identity

Another potential danger—especially if you are using a habit tracker—is measuring the wrong thing.

This pitfall is evident in many areas of life. We focus on working long hours instead of getting meaningful work done. We care more about getting ten thousand steps than we do about being healthy

In short, we optimize for what we measure. When we choose the wrong measurement, we get the wrong behavior.

“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.

In our data-driven world, we tend to overvalue numbers and undervalue anything ephemeral, soft, and difficult to quantify.

Furthermore, there are many ways to measure progress, and sometimes it helps to shift your focus to something entirely different.This is why nonscale victories can be effective for weight loss. The number on the scale may be stubborn, so if you focus solely on that number, your motivation will sag. But you may notice that your skin looks better or you wake up earlier or your sex drive got a boost. All of these are valid ways to track your improvement.

it’s crucial to keep habit tracking in its proper place.

If you want to prevent bad habits and eliminate unhealthy behaviors, then adding an instant cost to the action is a great way to reduce their odds

To be productive, the cost of procrastination must be greater than the cost of action. To be healthy, the cost of laziness must be greater than the cost of exercise. Getting fined for smoking in a restaurant or failing to recycle adds consequence to an action. Behavior only shifts if the punishment is painful enough and reliably enforced

The secret to maximizing your odds of success is to choose the right field of competition

Genes can predispose, but they don’t predetermine.”

In short: genes do not determine your destiny. They determine your areas of opportunity

At some point, you need to make sure you’re playing the right game for your skillset. How do you figure that out?The most common approach is trial and error. Of course, there’s a problem with this strategy: life is short. You don’t have time to try every career, date every eligible bachelor, or play every musical instrument. Thankfully, there is an effective way to manage this conundrum, and it is known as the explore/exploit trade-off

When you can’t win by being better, you can win by being different. By combining your skills, you reduce the level of competition, which makes it easier to stand out

The Goldilocks Rule states that humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right.

Professionals stick to the schedule; amateurs let life get in the way. Professionals know what is important to them and work toward it with purpose; amateurs get pulled off course by the urgencies of life

if you manage to start a habit and keep sticking to it, there will be days when you feel like quitting. When you start a business, there will be days when you don’t feel like showing up. When you’re at the gym, there will be sets that you don’t feel like finishing. When it’s time to write, there will be days that you don’t feel like typing. But stepping up when it’s annoying or painful or draining to do so, that’s what makes the difference between a professional and an amateur.

Professionals take action even when the mood isn’t right.

When you cling too tightly to one identity, you become brittle.

If you have spent every waking moment working on your business, how will you feel after you sell the company?

“I’m an athlete” becomes “I’m the type of person who is mentally tough and loves a physical challenge.

redefine yourself such that you get to keep important aspects of your identity even if your particular role changes.

How to Apply These Ideas to Business