The conduct of our lives is the true reflection of our thoughts. —MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
The conduct of our lives is the true reflection of our thoughts. —Michel de Montaigne, Of the Education of Children
The habit of the habit is more important than the habit itself. For this reason, it can be helpful to keep a habit symbolically, even if we can’t keep it literally, to keep a habit in place. Someone w...
The most important step is the first step. All those old sayings are really true. Well begun is half done. Don’t get it perfect, get it going. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step....
The very words we choose to characterize our habits can make them seem more or less appealing. Engagement time sounds more interesting than than email time; playing the piano sounds more fun than prac...
There are many compelling reasons to exercise, but study after study shows that weight loss isn’t one of them. The way to lose weight is to change eating habits.
The Hawthorne effect, in which people being studied improve their performance, simply because of the extra attention they’re getting. In
These small, everyday actions had their own value; the pressure of my daily habits would mold my future. These habits were little things on their own, but their combined weight was massive. I thought...
They’re perceived to be more friendly, warmer, and even more physically attractive. A study showed that students who were happy as college freshmen were earning more money in their midthirties—without...
This self-knowledge is crucial because we can build a happy life only on the foundation of our own nature, our own interests, and our own values.
This was exactly what I had noticed about the stopping aspect of First Steps. When we try a new habit for the first time, it feels full of promise, even if it’s arduous. But most of that excitement is...
Thoreau admonished, Our life is frittered away by detail.… Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! This longing for simplicity is so powerful and complex that it needs its own term, much like nostalgie de...
To a truly remarkable extent, we’re more likely to do something if it’s convenient, and less likely if it’s not. For this reason, we should pay close attention to the convenience of any activity we wa...
Unlike a reward, which must be earned or justified, a treat is a small pleasure or indulgence that we give to ourselves just because we want it.
Upholders respond readily to both outer expectations and inner expectations. Questioners question all expectations, and will meet an expectation only if they believe it’s justified. Obligers respond r...
W. H. Auden articulated this tension beautifully: Between the ages of twenty and forty we are engaged in the process of discovering who we are, which involves learning the difference between accidenta...
Waldenlust. This longing takes several forms: fantasies of the freedom that dispossession would bring; nostalgia for earlier, supposedly simpler times; and reverence for the primitive, which is assume...
Walking had an added benefit: it helped me to think. Nietzsche wrote, All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking, and his observation is backed up by science; exercise-induced brain chemical...
What I Value What’s most satisfying to me: saving time, or money, or effort? Does it bother me to act differently from other people, or do I get a charge out of it? Do I spend a lot of time on somethi...
Else. Self-measurement brings self-awareness, and self-awareness strengthens our self-control.
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