Let’s know about James Clear, His books, Lessons and Quotes
Who is James Clear?
James Clear is an American entrepreneur and author of Atomic Habits, creator of the Habits Academy, a weightlifter, and a travel photographer in over 30 countries.
He is the founder of JamesClear.com and is also a famous Keynote speaker.
His Books: Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
Here are some of the Best James Clear Quotes
“Be the designer of your world and not merely the consumer of it.” –
“Some people spend their entire lives waiting for the time to be right to make an improvement.”
“In fact, the tendency for one purchase to lead to another one has a name: the Diderot Effect. The Diderot Effect states that obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of consumption” –
“Furthermore, goals create an “either-or” conflict: either you achieve your goal and are successful or you fail and you are a disappointment. You mentally box yourself into a narrow version of happiness. This is misguided.”
“Professionals stick to the schedule; amateurs let life get in the way.” –
“The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game.”
“WHY IS IT so easy to repeat bad habits and so hard to form good ones?” –
“The cue is about noticing the reward. The craving is about wanting the reward. The response is about obtaining the reward.”
“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.” – James Clear
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
“Time magnifies the margin between success and failure. It will multiply whatever you feed it. Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy.” –
“The implicit assumption behind any goal is this: “Once I reach my goal, then I’ll be happy.” The problem with a goals-first mentality is that you’re continually putting happiness off until the next milestone.” –
“Emotions drive behaviour. Every decision is an emotional decision at some level. Whatever your logical reasons are for taking action, you only feel compelled to act on them because of emotion. In fact, people with damage to emotional centres of the brain can list many reasons for taking action but still will not act because they do not have emotions to drive them. This is why craving comes before a response. The feeling comes first, and then the behaviour.”
“When you can’t win by being better, you can win by being different.” –
“Becoming the type of person you want to become — someone who lives by a stronger standard, someone who believes in themselves, someone who can be counted on by the people that matter to them — is about the daily process you follow and not the ultimate product you achieve.”
“We don’t choose our earliest habits, we imitate them.” –
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” – James Clear
“The Diderot Effect states that obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of consumption that leads to additional purchases.” –
“You don’t have to be the victim of your environment. You can also be the architect of it.” – Best
“The more pride you have in a particular aspect of your identity, the more motivated you will be to maintain the habits associated with it.”
“Once your pride gets involved, you’ll fight tooth and nail to maintain your habits.” –
“You don’t have to build the habits everyone tells you to build. Choose the habit that best suits you, not the one that is most popular.”
“The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. It’s not about any single accomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement. Ultimately, it is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress.” –
“Good habits can make rational sense, but if they conflict with your identity, you will fail to put them into action.”
“Over the long run, however, the real reason you fail to stick with habits is that your self-image gets in the way. This is why you can’t get too attached to one version of your identity. Progress requires unlearning. Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity.” –
“You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.”
“Perseverance, grit, and willpower are essential to success, but the way to improve these qualities is not by wishing you were a more disciplined person, but by creating a more disciplined environment.” –
“True behaviour change is identity change. You might start a habit because of motivation, but the only reason you’ll stick with one is that it becomes part of your identity.”
“In short: genes do not determine your destiny. They determine your areas of opportunity.” –
“Doing the right thing is easy. After all, when your behaviour and your identity are fully aligned, you are no longer pursuing behaviour change.”
“Research has shown that once a person believes in a particular aspect of their identity, they are more likely to act in alignment with that belief.”
“With outcome-based habits, the focus is on what you want to achieve. With identity-based habits, the focus is on who you wish to become.” –
“Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. Find a way to get started in less than two minutes.”
“Being specific about what you want and how you will achieve it helps you say no to things that derail progress, distract your attention, and pull you off course”
“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred time without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow, it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it but all that had gone before.” – James Clear
“If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
“Pointing-and-Calling raises your level of awareness from a nonconscious habit to a more conscious level by verbalizing your actions.”
“I once heard a story about a man who uses a wheelchair. When asked if it was difficult being confined, he responded, “I’m not confined to my wheelchair—I am liberated by it. If it wasn’t for my wheelchair, I would be bed-bound and never able to leave my house.” This shift in perspective completely transformed how he lived each day.” –
“What do you want to stand for? What are your principles and values? Who do you wish to become?” –
“Changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years.” –
“If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.” –
“We all deal with setbacks but in the long run, the quality of our lives often depends on the quality of our habits.” –
“Habits are like the atoms of our lives. Each one is a fundamental unit that contributes to your overall improvement.” –
“All big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tine decision. But as that decision is repeated, habit sprouts and grows stronger. Roots entrench themselves and branches grow. The task of breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak within us. And the task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time.” – James Clear
45th of 90 Best James Clear Quotes
“Progress requires unlearning. Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity.” –
“The aggregation of marginal gains,” which was the philosophy of searching for a tiny margin of improvement in everything you do.” –
“Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity.” –
“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity. This is one reason why meaningful change does not require radical change. Small habits can make a meaningful difference by providing evidence of a new identity. And if a change is meaningful, it is actually big. That’s the paradox of making small improvements.” –
“It is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis.” –
“The score takes care of itself.” The same is true for other areas of life. If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.” –
“Atomic habits—a regular practice or routine that is not only small and easy to do but also the source of incredible power” –
“This is the meaning of the phrase atomic habits—a regular practice or routine that is not only small and easy to do but also the source of incredible power; a component of the system of compound growth.” –
“Problem #1: Winners and losers have the same goals.” – James Clear
“Does this behaviour help me become the type of person I wish to be? Does this habit cast a vote for or against my desired identity?” Habits that reinforce your desired identity are usually good. Habits that conflict with your desired identity is usually bad.” –
“When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy.” –
“As behavioural scientist Jason Hreha writes, “Habits are, simply, reliable solutions to recurring problems in our environment.” –
“When you have your habits dialled in and the basics of life are handled and done, your mind is free to focus on new challenges and master the next set of problems. Building habits in the present allows you to do more of what you want in the future.” –
“You do it because it’s who you are and it feels good to be you. The more a habit becomes part of your life, the less you need outside encouragement to follow through. Incentives can start a habit. Identity sustains a habit.” –
“How to Create a Good Habit The 1st law (Cue): Make it obvious. The 2nd law (Craving): Make it attractive. The 3rd law (Response): Make it easy. The 4th law (Reward): Make it satisfying.” –
“How to Break a Bad Habit Inversion of the 1st law (Cue): Make it invisible. Inversion of the 2nd law (Craving): Make it unattractive. Inversion of the 3rd law (Response): Make it difficult. Inversion of the 4th law (Reward): Make it unsatisfying.” –
“One of the best ways to build a new habit is to identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behaviour on top. This is called habit stacking.” –
“When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. You can be satisfied anytime your system is running.” – James Clear
“The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity.” –
“Your identity emerges out of your habits.” –
“Sometimes motion is useful, but it will never produce an outcome by itself. It doesn’t matter how many times you go talk to the personal trainer, that motion will never get you in shape. Only the action of working out will get the result you’re looking to achieve.” –
“Whenever you face a problem repeatedly, your brain begins to automate the process of solving it. Your habits are just a series of automatic solutions that solve the problems and stresses you face regularly. As behavioural scientist Jason Hreha writes, “Habits are, simply, reliable solutions to recurring problems in our environment.” As habits are created, the level of activity in the brain decreases. You learn to lock in on the cues that predict success and tune out everything else.”
“Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits. Your net worth is a lagging measure of your financial habits. Your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits. Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits. Your clutter is a lagging measure of your cleaning habits. You get what you repeat.” –
“Mastery requires patience. The San Antonio Spurs, one of the most successful teams in NBA history, have a quote from social reformer Jacob Riis hanging in their locker room: “When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow, it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it—but all that had gone before.”
“Problem #3: Goals restrict your happiness. The implicit assumption behind any goal is this: “Once I reach my goal, then I’ll be happy.” The problem with a goals-first mentality is that you’re continually putting happiness off until the next milestone. I’ve slipped into this trap so many times I’ve lost count. For years, happiness was always something for my future self to enjoy. I promised myself that once I gained twenty pounds of muscle or after my business was featured in the New York Times, then I could finally relax. Furthermore, goals create an “either-or” conflict: either you achieve your goal and are successful or you fail and you are a disappointment. You mentally box yourself into a narrow version of happiness. This is misguided. It is unlikely that your actual path through life will match the exact journey you had in mind when you set out. It makes no sense to restrict your satisfaction to one scenario when there are many paths to success. A systems-first mentality provides the antidote. When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. You can be satisfied anytime your system is running. And a system can be successful in many different forms, not just the one you first envision.” –
“Sometimes a habit will be hard to remember and you’ll need to make it obvious. Other times you won’t feel like starting and you’ll need to make it attractive. In many cases, you may find that a habit will be too difficult and you’ll need to make it easy. And sometimes, you won’t feel like sticking with it and you’ll need to make it satisfying.”
“Goals are good for setting a direction but systems are best for making progress.” – James Clear
“Complaining about not achieving success despite working hard is like complaining about an ice cube not melting when you heated it from 25 to 31 degrees. All the action happens at 32 degrees.” –
“The two most common cues are time and location. Implementation intentions leverage both of these cues.”
“Unfortunately, the slow pace of transformation also makes it easy to let a bad habit slide.” –
“Success is the product of daily habits—not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.”
“Time magnifies the margin between success and failure.” –
“Eventually, I began to realize that my results had very little to do with the goals I set and nearly everything to do with the systems I followed. What’s the difference between systems and goals?” –
“True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. It’s not about any single accomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement. Ultimately, it is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress.”
“Getting 1 per cent better every day counts for a lot in the long-run.” –
“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement” – James Clear
“Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy.” –
“But in order to make a meaningful difference, habits need to persist long enough to break through this plateau—what I call the Plateau of Latent Potential.”
“Habits often appear to make no difference until you cross a critical threshold and unlock a new level of performance.” –
“Furthermore, goals create an “either-or” conflict: either you achieve your goal and are successful or you fail and you are a disappointment. You mentally box yourself into a narrow version of happiness. This is misguided. It is unlikely that your actual path through life will match the exact journey you had in mind when you set out. It makes no sense to restrict your satisfaction to one scenario when there are many paths to success”
“In order to improve for good, you need to solve problems at the systems level. Fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves.” –
“The problem with a goals-first mentality is that you’re continually putting happiness off until the next milestone.”
“The work that hurts you less than it hurts others is the work you were made to do.” –
“Environment design allows you to take back control and become the architect of your life. Be the designer of your world and not merely the consumer of it.”
“We imitate the habits of three groups in particular: The close. The many. The powerful.” – James Clear Quotes
90th of 90 James Clear Quotes
Few more powerful James Clear Quotes from his book Atomic Habits
Changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years. – Atomic Habits
Maybe there are people who can achieve incredible success overnight. I don’t know any of them, and I’m certainly not one of them. There wasn’t one defining moment on my journey from medically induced coma to Academic All-American; there were many. It was a gradual evolution, a long series of small wins and tiny breakthroughs. The only way I made progress – the only choice I had – was to start small. – Atomic Habits
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. – Atomic Habits Quotes
We all deal with setbacks but in the long run, the quality of our lives often depends on the quality of our habits. With the same habits, you’ll end up with the same results. But with better habits, anything is possible. – Atomic Habits Quotes
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