1: Last week, we explored how “triggers” can help us build new habits.
What is one of the best triggers to build new habits? Your existing habits.
In fact, when done right, you can create a habit chain, Tynan writes in Superhuman by Habit: A Guide to Becoming the Best Possible Version of Yourself, One Tiny Habit at a Time.
“A very good practice,” he notes, “is to … continue reading
“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1: Think about a negative habit.
Typically, something triggers it.
“Stress triggers overeating or gambling, waking up might trigger smoking, or boredom might trigger wasting time online,” Tynan writes in Superhuman by Habit.
You can use this insight to power new, positive habits as well.
“Why not use such a powerful reality of the human experience to your benefit?” Tynan asks.
For example, you wake up every day. You … continue reading
“Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man’s power ends.” —Hudson Taylor
1: You’ve decided to meditate twenty minutes a day.
To implement this new habit, you decide you will sit down and meditate every other day.
Sounds reasonable, right?
Unfortunately, you have likely set yourself up for failure.
“You’ll get the greatest compliance,” Tynan writes in Superhuman by Habit, “by maximizing frequency and minimizing intensity.”
The best strategy? First, make it a daily habit. Second, reduce the time it takes.… continue reading
Abraham Lincoln on the cost of leadership: “If there is a worse place than hell, I am in it.”
1: On July 2nd, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted unanimously to declare independence from Britain.
“That these United Colonies are, and of a right ought to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved,” so read the motion.
But “there was … continue reading
1: “Monday, July 1st, 1776, began hot and steamy in Philadelphia, and before the morning was ended a full-scale summer storm would break,” David McCullough writes in his book John Adams.
John Adams, then one of Massachusetts’s delegates to the Second Continental Congress, was up before sunrise.
Early that morning, he wrote a long letter to Archibald Bulloch, the new president of Georgia: “This morning is assigned … continue reading
Abraham Lincoln on America: “My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.”
1: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,” legendary hockey player Wayne Gretzky once said.
And in most areas of life, this is true.
“It’s better to try and to fail than to not try at all,” Tynan writes in Superhuman by Habit
One area where Wayne’s statement is not true? Habit formation.
“If you are not going to follow through with a habit,” Tynan reasons, “it is … continue reading
