Book Summary of Be Your Future Self Now by Benjamin Hardy

In “Be Your Future Self Now,” Benjamin Hardy makes the case that in order to achieve ultimate success, you must become your highest self, or “future self.” Achieving this requires identifying your higher self and committing to life-changing goals above all else. This guide will explore Hardy’s argument and provide recommendations for adopting the necessary mindset, supplemented by other success experts.

The Importance of Your Higher Self

According to Hardy, success in life means reaching your full potential by becoming your highest self. This requires all your present actions to move you closer to that goal. Identifying your higher self early on is crucial because your present actions are driven by your future goals and desires.

Having a clear and ambitious vision of your higher self helps you take productive actions in the present that will benefit you over time. Conversely, lacking a clear vision of your higher self leads to unproductive actions that harm your progress towards becoming your best self.

When You Lack a Clear Vision, You Become Unproductive

According to Hardy, lacking a clear vision of your higher self leads to unproductive behaviors that hinder your progress towards becoming your best self. These include instant gratification and non-crucial activities that feel rewarding in the short-term but do not contribute to your long-term goals.

Engaging in such behaviors takes away from the time you should be dedicating towards becoming your higher self. Hardy recommends identifying your higher self and committing to your future goals and desires to avoid unproductive behaviors and ensure that your present actions are beneficial in the long term. The following sections will outline his recommendations for doing so.

How to Become Your Higher Self

The next sections will cover Hardy’s four primary suggestions for achieving your highest potential and how to apply them.

  • To become your higher self, according to Hardy:
  • Identify who you want to become and the big goals that person has achieved.
  • Prioritize three achievable goals to work on over the next five years that will lead you towards your higher self.
  • Set specific 12-month goals with clear success criteria to measure your progress towards your priorities.

For example, if your higher self is a renowned graphic designer, your priorities may include getting degrees with stellar grades, building an impressive portfolio, and doing freelance work for local businesses. Your 12-month goals may include finding a mentor, planning your required courses, and achieving a minimum B grade in each class.

Recommendation #2: Set Your Higher Self as Your Daily Priority

To make steady progress towards becoming your ideal self, prioritize daily actions that align with your goals and avoid distractions.

Principle #1: Disregard Non-Crucial Activities

Avoid activities that do not contribute to achieving your goals, such as painting your house, which takes time away from pursuing your 12-month goals.

Principle #2: Schedule 12-Month Goals First

Schedule daily time to work on your goals before other urgent tasks, such as working on your graphic design portfolio before your sales job.

Principle #3: Replace Instant Gratification Habits

Cultivate beneficial habits that align with your goals, such as checking out book cover designs on Goodreads instead of playing video games to improve your graphic design skills.

Recommendation #3: Seek Out Beneficial Environments

Hardy’s Recommendation #3 is to seek out environments that will aid in becoming one’s higher self. This can be achieved by stepping out of one’s comfort zone and surrounding oneself with people who are better than them.

These actions can help develop the skills and habits needed to progress towards one’s goals.

To do this, one should attempt tasks that their higher self would excel in and seek out individuals who have achieved similar goals or are closer to achieving them.

Recommendation #4: Have an Empowering View of Life and Fate

Hardy argues that a disempowering view of life and fate can prevent people from becoming their higher selves. This view is often shaped by three factors: their past, their current circumstances, and a sense of helplessness about their ability to control their future.

Hardy advises adopting three empowering beliefs to become your higher self.

  1. Firstly, don’t let your past dictate your future; learn from it and use it to grow.
  2. Secondly, take ownership of your circumstances and ability to change. Find at least one way to benefit from any situation and identify actions you can take to change your circumstances.
  3. Lastly, believe that you’re the creator of your own fate and that your purpose is to achieve fulfillment and become the highest version of yourself.

Adopting a firm belief that you will become your higher self and expressing gratitude for it will reinforce your belief in yourself and empower you to take necessary actions to achieve your goals.

Book Summary of Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss’ book Tools of Titans describes the routines and convictions of 101 top achievers, including IT investors, business owners, athletes, and artists. You can succeed by adopting the behaviors and viewpoints of those who are successful in your preferred field.

Our summary focuses on the book’s major themes of habits, showcasing patterns in motivation, work and business success, happiness, and health across all 101 individuals.

Inspiration and Goals

Visualizing long-term goals is a common habit among titans, as it provides clarity and motivation for the hard work ahead. Arnold Schwarzenegger, for example, stresses the importance of having a clear vision of the end goal, as it helps endure the challenges and pain on the way. Knowing why you’re pushing hard makes the journey easier.

Be Courageous. Be Brazen

Feeling unprepared to tackle a big goal? You may be holding yourself back with artificial constraints. Titans advise pushing past these boundaries, whether self-imposed or societal. Remember, every admired titan faced formidable obstacles just like you. The difference is their courage to push through.

Tim Ferriss’s Fear Exercise

Overcoming fear can be achieved through Tim Ferriss’s fear exercise. Firstly, imagine the change you wish to make, then consider the absolute worst possible outcome in vivid detail. Ask yourself how bad and permanent the damage would be, and how likely it is to happen.

Next, envision the best and realistic outcomes and how they would improve your life. Through this exercise, you’ll realize that even the worst outcome isn’t permanently crippling, and you can recover even if you fail.

Work Habits and Career

After setting your goals, productivity strategies are essential to make progress in limited time. Titans advise on laser-focused prioritization of opportunities that align with your goals.

Instead of getting caught up in minor tasks, prioritize big rocks first, and evaluate opportunities based on the “hell, yes!” rule. Avoid the “culture of cortisol” by focusing on goals and cutting out unnecessary activities that cause unhappiness.

Deciding What to Work On

Advice for choosing a career path in a world of endless options:

  • Become a double/triple threat by being above average at two or more things and combining them.
  • Augment your career with useful skills like communication, management, sales, finance, and internationalization.
  • Make an impact by working in a field where you can’t be easily replaced.
  • Example: Tim Ferriss chose to focus on self-improvement instead of becoming a venture capitalist because he could make a greater impact on people’s lives.

Personal Habits

The book features highly disciplined and goal-oriented individuals, and offers advice on personal habits. Success comes from action, not just knowledge.

Start with small actions to build momentum towards your goals. Identify and confront your weaknesses, and imagine your future self giving advice to overcome them. Don’t make excuses for your weaknesses, visualize the real costs and work towards improvement.

Creativity and Ideas

To generate more good ideas, focus on quantity over quality. Don’t be afraid to generate bad or silly ideas, as they can lead to good ones. Challenge yourself to come up with a certain number of ideas each day, even if they’re not all business-related.

To think of ideas, ask dumb questions, question conventional wisdom, and put yourself in new environments. Remember, being imaginative is more important than being right. To do innovative work, you need to believe something that few others believe.

Testing Ideas

How to identify good ideas from a pool of many? It’s difficult to be objective about your own ideas, as you may not see the bigger picture or spot flaws. To ensure that an idea is worthwhile, seek feedback from others who can stress-test it.

Investor Marc Andreessen and co-founder Ben Horowitz, for instance, scrutinize every idea they bring up to each other. LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman gauges his staff’s mettle by whether they push back on given strategies.

Meanwhile, the military employs “red teams” whose mission is to sabotage plans to challenge their efficacy. If an idea can withstand such critical evaluations, then it is likely a good one.

Business Strategies

Entrepreneurial titans shared their tips on starting and growing successful businesses. Rather than having millions of followers or being a global superstar, you only need 1,000 true fans who will buy anything you produce.

Authenticity is key, as people crave connection and realness. Don’t be afraid to differ from societal expectations to be yourself. When it comes to business tactics, think 10 times bigger rather than 10% bigger, avoid hyper-competitive areas, and charge for your product. Failure should be avoided, and quick execution is essential.

Happiness and Mindset

Success isn’t just about productivity and achieving goals; being happy and emotionally in control is important too. Titans practice gratitude and reflect on their lives, focusing on what worked and taking risks.

When dealing with negative emotions like anxiety, stress, and anger, it’s important to stay calm and acknowledge the emotion rather than suppressing it. Being cynical or jaded is like being dead; it’s important to keep an open mind and stay curious.

More Useful Questions to Ask

Redesign your life now, instead of waiting for $10 million. Tim Ferriss found that his desired lifestyle cost less than he thought, and the resource he lacked was time, not money. Try doing the opposite of what you normally do for 48 hours to find new successful ways of doing things. When you lose something like an investment or opportunity, don’t try to make it back the same way you lost it. Tim Ferriss sold his house instead of wasting time managing it, realizing that his time was a valuable asset that could be used to grow his brand and business.

Book Summary of Business Made Simple by Donald Miller

Donald Miller believes that the reason you may not be making enough progress in your business career is that you’re not adding enough value to your company. Miller suggests 11 methods to become a good investment for your company, from acquiring value-adding personal attributes to successfully carrying out a strategy.

By following his advice, you can learn how to add value to your company no matter what your role. Creating a StoryBrand is a book by Miller, the owner of StoryBrand, a firm that assists businesses with story-based marketing message.

In this manual, we’ll add psychological knowledge and advise from other business experts to Miller’s suggestions.

Your Goal in Business: To Be a Good Investment for Your Company

Adding value to a company by generating profits is key to succeeding in business, according to Miller. This ability can lead to career advancement or entrepreneurial success, as leaders and investors prioritize it. For example, creating a successful marketing campaign that brings in new prospects and revenue is more likely to get you noticed and promoted compared to simply fulfilling job requirements.

11 Ways to Investing Well for Your Business

Miller provides 11 sequential steps to become a valuable investment for your company.

Trait 1:

Successful professionals recognize themselves as valuable economic assets to their companies, quantifying and explaining their value in terms of revenue generated or sales made. They aim to earn back at least five times their salary, resulting in a modest profit for the company.

Trait 2:

To succeed and be a valuable asset to your company, you must see yourself as an active agent in your life. Making excuses and playing the victim will hinder your growth and success. By pursuing new goals actively, you can learn and develop.

Trait 3:

Reacting calmly to problems is a valuable trait that can earn you respect and help you accomplish more. By handling problems gracefully, you can conserve mental energy for yourself and others.

Trait 4:

Being open to feedback is a key trait for success. Seeking regular feedback from mentors and friends can help you improve and excel, even if it’s initially challenging to hear.

Trait 5:

Successfully managing conflict is crucial for progress. To navigate conflict productively, Miller recommends accepting it as a part of moving forward, avoiding intense negative emotions, showing respect for the person involved, and prioritizing resolution over being right.

Trait 6:

As a manager, prioritizing respect over being liked is crucial for the success of your team and company. You can earn trust by setting clear goals, clarifying individual responsibilities, and rewarding achievements.

Trait 7:

Being action-oriented is key to completing projects. Merely intending or planning to do something isn’t enough; you must follow through with action.

Trait 8:

Trusting in your knowledge and taking action leads to faster progress than procrastinating or avoiding difficult decisions.

Trait 9:

Maintaining a positive outlook on the outcome of your actions leads to taking more risks, resulting in greater long-term rewards.

Trait 10:

Believing in your ability to improve means failures are viewed as growth opportunities. You can take on greater challenges and rise to meet them, leading to growth, improved skills, more responsibility, and higher pay.

Step 2: Become an Effective Leader by Creating a Company Story

Miller’s second step for becoming a valuable asset involves creating a company story to become a successful leader. A company story explains the reason for the company’s existence and why people should engage with it.

Without a clear story or mission that includes every employee, the company will lack direction and fail. To create a company story, start by writing a mission statement that inspires action, using a template such as “We will accomplish [goal] by [date/year] because of [why achieving the goal is important].”

Then, define the traits employees must possess to fulfill the mission and determine three repeatable actions they should take daily to achieve it.

Step 3: Enhance Productivity by Focusing Only on Critical Tasks

Miller’s third step towards becoming a valuable company investment is to manage time effectively by prioritizing tasks that offer the highest return on energy investment. Miller recommends creating two task lists: one with three crucial tasks to complete each day and another with less important tasks to delegate or eliminate. It’s important to complete the top three tasks first, even if only partially done, to increase productivity.

Step 4: Visualize Your Business as an Aircraft to Become an Experienced Marketer

Step four in Miller’s guide to becoming a valuable employee involves learning to strategize effectively. He suggests visualizing the company as an airplane with five parts – body (overhead), wings (products/services), right engine (marketing), left engine (sales), and fuel (capital and cash flow). Balancing these divisions is essential for maximizing success.

For instance, if the body of the plane becomes heavier, the marketing and sales engines must be powerful enough to keep it aloft. Miller advises keeping overhead low, ensuring profitable and popular products, testing marketing with a website, building a sales funnel, and monitoring cash flow to stay airborne.

Step 5: Base Your Messaging on a Story the Customer Can Star In

Step 5 in adding value to your organization is crafting effective marketing messaging. Miller recommends creating a story where the customer is the hero with a goal that your product helps them achieve. The hero faces an obstacle, which is the problem your product solves. You position yourself as the guide who can help the hero overcome the obstacle with a plan and challenge the hero to take action. Lastly, you explain the benefits the hero gains by taking action and the consequences of not taking action.

Step 6: Create A Three-Step Sales Funnel That Fosters Customer Trust in The Sixth Step.

To become a valuable team member, it’s important to learn marketing mechanics. Miller emphasizes the significance of a robust sales funnel in marketing strategy.

A sales funnel helps to improve sales by leading buyers through the three stages of inquiry, comprehension, and purchase. To spark curiosity in potential customers, create a concise sentence that outlines a problem, your product as the solution, and the result of using your product to solve the problem.

Step 7: Communicate in a Story Format so Others Listen

To add value to your company, you must excel in basic communication, particularly presentations, according to Miller. In sales presentations, follow the story structure and focus on the problem you’ll solve, your solution, and how it will change the customer’s life.

Connect every subpoint to your main point, and limit the number of subpoints to three or four. For a unique and memorable presentation, consider weaving in other stories and keeping it short. Gallo suggests a maximum of 18 minutes, as anything longer will cause the audience to tune out, regardless of the presentation’s quality.

Step 8: Making the Sale Involving Qualifying Leads, Sharing A Narrative, And Sending Proposals

To add value through sales, Miller recommends qualifying leads to avoid wasting time and money. Ask if they have a problem your product solves, if it’s within their budget, and if they have the authority to buy.

Miller also suggests pitching in a story format, highlighting the customer’s problem and proposing a solution with references to past success. Lastly, provide a document or video summarizing your pitch for prospects to reference.

Step 9: Negotiate Effectively by Determining the Other Party’s Negotiating Style

Step 9 is about developing negotiation skills to add value to your company. According to Miller, there are two types of negotiation: cooperative and adversarial. In a cooperative negotiation, both parties aim for a win-win outcome, while in an adversarial negotiation, one or both parties want to win at the other’s expense.

To negotiate successfully, identify the type of negotiation and adjust your approach accordingly. Find out what factors influence the other party’s decision-making process and appeal to their emotional needs. For instance, when selling a used car, highlight its sleek leather interior to appeal to the buyer’s desire for a stylish ride. Finally, to end a negotiation, pretend to be dissatisfied with the outcome, which signals to the other party that they’ve won.

Step 10: Successfully Manage Groups With Metrics

To effectively manage people, Miller advises relying on input and output metrics. Input metrics measure the work put in to produce an output, while output metrics measure the actual output produced. For example, posting three times a week on social media (input) could lead to 300 new followers (output).

Step 11: Execute Well Using a Plan

To execute a project successfully, Miller recommends three steps: hold a launch meeting to determine the project’s success criteria, participants, resources, and timeline; check in with the team weekly to ensure everyone knows their next step; and publicly track input metrics to encourage the team’s progress.

In “A World Without Email,” Cal Newport suggests using task boards to manage communication and check-ins effectively. Task boards are physical or digital boards with columns representing project stages and cards representing tasks. Newport also advises delegating the scheduling of large meetings to an administrator or scheduling service.

Book Summary of Atomic Habits by James Clear

In “Atomic Habits,” James Clear shows how changing your habits can transform your life. This guide covers why habits are important, the three mindsets for creating them, how habits are formed, the four keys to changing them, and ways to continue improving. We’ll also compare Clear’s approach with other expert methods.

Small Adjustments Lead to Massive Transformations

Clear believes that small changes in behavior, called “atomic habits,” can transform your life because behaviors compound over time. One good behavior leads to another and creates a ripple effect of positive changes. Clear categorizes habits into three levels: goal-driven, system-driven, and identity-driven habits.

Goal-Driven Habits

According to Clear, a goal-driven habit is a behavior done to achieve a specific objective. Many people try to change their behavior this way, such as studying two extra hours a day to ace a test.

System-Driven Habits

Clear suggests that system-driven habits focus on processes that lead to achieving goals, instead of focusing solely on the goal itself. An example of a system-driven habit is developing a study routine, which emphasizes the process of studying rather than just aiming for a good test score.

Identity-Driven Habits

Identity-driven habits are behaviors that align with our beliefs about ourselves, or our identity. Clear suggests that we perform these habits because they match our identity. For instance, if you see yourself as a good student, you develop a study routine because that’s what good students do.

How to Change Your Habits: Start With Your Identity

Clear recommends creating identity-driven habits instead of goal-driven habits for lasting behavior change. By embodying the person you want to be, you reinforce that identity with evidence and make performing the corresponding habits easier.

Your desired identity should guide the systems and goals you choose. For instance, if you aim to be a conscientious person who excels in tests, you might prioritize getting enough sleep. These habits lead to achieving your goals and are sustained even after you reach them.

How Habits Form: The Four Stages

Clear describes the four stages of habit formation: cue, craving, response, and reward. The cue prompts the brain to notice a reward, leading to a craving and a behavior that satisfies that craving, resulting in a reward.

Over time, this pathway becomes stronger, forming a habit. For example, coming home stressed from work (cue) prompts the craving for relaxation, leading to the response of drinking a beer, which satisfies the craving and reduces stress (reward).

Four Keys to Creating Habits

To create new, beneficial habits, Clear recommends altering each stage of the habit-forming process. He provides four keys for doing so, one for each stage: cues, cravings, responses, and rewards.

Key 1: Cues: Identify and Use Them to Your Advantage

To create positive habits, Clear advises identifying cues by making a list of daily habits and noting which actions precede and follow them. This helps to cue new desired behaviors, such as drinking water right after turning off your alarm.

Use Awareness to Your Advantage

Clear recommends planning in advance using the formula “When X occurs, I will do Y” to make cues noticeable and increase the likelihood of performing a new behavior. For example, schedule studying for 6 pm if that time is currently vacant on your habit list.

Clear’s “habit stacking” technique links a desired behavior to an existing habit by using the formula “After I do X, I will do Y.” For example, “After I put my dinner dishes in the sink, I will study for one hour.”

Be specific about the behavior that follows a cue to make it effective. Ensure the cue is feasible, as logistics can hinder new habits. For example, “I’ll study at my desk for an hour after putting dishes in the sink” is more effective than “I’ll study after dinner.”

Key 2: Craving: Increase the Appeal of a New Habit

Clear recommends two techniques to make creating habits easier by affecting the second stage of habit formation, the craving. Firstly, associate the new habit with other positive behaviors. Secondly, reframe the struggle of a new habit in a positive light to maximize the appeal of the desired behavior.

1) Connect Habits You Should Do to Things You Want to Do

Clear’s first strategy for increasing the appeal of a new habit is to link it to something positive by sandwiching it between an existing habit and a desired activity. This can be done by using the formula, “After X, I will do Y. After I do Y, I get to do Z.”

2) Reframe actions as opportunities rather than obligations.

To change your attitude and perceive obligations as possibilities is Clear’s second tip for attracting a new habit. By focusing on the positive elements of the behavior and the reward that comes with it, you can view your struggles as steps towards your goal, which increases motivation to do the behavior.

Key 3: Response: Decrease the Difficulty

At the third stage of habit building, Clear advises concentrating on the act itself to strengthen habits. Making the behavior effortless is what Clear advocates doing in order to keep your preferred identity, build confidence, and advance.

Make Behaviors Easier

Clear advises simplifying behaviors by removing obstacles and breaking them down into smaller, two-minute steps. Doing so increases the chances of taking action and maintaining the behavior. Instead of large changes, committing to small actions leads to small successes that boost motivation. Breaking down tasks, such as cooking dinner, into smaller steps, like opening the fridge or pulling out a vegetable, makes it easier to achieve.

Key 4: Reward: Make It Fulfilling

Clear suggests that for a habit to form successfully, the rewards must be satisfying. However, since many rewards are delayed, it’s essential to find ways to create immediate rewards that keep you motivated to continue.

End New Habits With Rewards

Clear suggests adding immediate positive reinforcement at the end of a desired behavior to create fulfilling rewards that keep you motivated. You can maintain motivation in a manner that delayed incentives cannot by engaging in an activity that is instantly gratifying after the action. The incentive of a higher mark next month may not be enough to motivate you to study, but concluding each study session with a cookie can.

Record Your Habits

Clear suggests using a visual representation to track progress and increase motivation. By marking a calendar or tracking sheet, you can see your accomplishments and feel rewarded for each successful completion. This act of tracking can be satisfying and motivating, creating a cue to continue the habit.

Breaking Bad Habits

To break a bad habit, disrupt one of the four stages of habit formation:

  1. Make the cue unnoticeable.
  2. Decrease the appeal of the habit.
  3. Increase the effort required to perform the habit.
  4. Make the reward unfulfilling.

To break the habit of shopping at the mall, change your route to avoid the cue, add a reminder of how much money you can save, increase the effort required to get there, and pay only in cash to decrease the reward.

Finding the Right Habits

Clear suggests focusing on developing habits that align with your strengths and interests as they are more enjoyable and easier to maintain due to your genetic makeup and predispositions.

The Big Five Personality Traits

To identify ideal habits, understand your personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. While not determinative, traits can guide toward habits more likely to succeed. Clear advises finding the version of a habit that aligns with your personality, rather than copying others. For example, if you dislike crowds, daily walks may work better than gym visits.

Continuing to Show Up

To maintain the effectiveness of a habit, it’s crucial to address its potential downsides. Clear offers strategies for tackling these issues, which include:

Make actions more difficult to avoid boredom

Clear suggests making habits challenging to combat boredom but not too difficult to discourage you. It’s important to ensure some level of success and failure to maintain motivation. This intermittent reward system reduces boredom by making each attempt novel.

How to Keep Progressing: Build on Momentum

Clear warns that creating habits can lead to stagnation, as automation may cause you to miss mistakes and hinder progress. For example, playing the same piano scales every day without noticing small mistakes can reinforce bad habits and impede progress.

How to Keep Changing: Develop an Adaptable Identity

Clear warns of a third downside of habit formation: becoming too attached to the identity that the habit represents. This can make it challenging to evolve beyond that identity because losing the habit means losing a part of yourself and your motivation. For instance, if you identify as a “good student” due to your habit of studying every day, graduating and losing the habit can lead to an identity crisis.

Looking Forward: Continue to Reflect and Adjust

Clear suggests that habit formation is an ongoing process that requires continual evaluation of your identity and behaviors. Your brain is always seeking ways to automate behavior based on environmental cues, so it’s crucial to reflect on your habits regularly.

By making small adjustments, you can promote growth and refine your actions to stay on the path to your goals. With hard work and awareness, you can become anyone you want and achieve anything you desire.

Book Summary of The Power of Discipline by Daniel Walter

It might be difficult to be productive when you’d rather do anything else. Our natural tendency is to favor immediate satisfaction above effort and long-term objectives. In contrast, Daniel Walter contends in The Power of Discipline that developing healthy habits will help you become more disciplined over time.

Walter, a Canadian author and cognitive neuroscience Yale graduate, specializes on enhancing focus, routines, and memory. This manual will discuss developing productive habits, biological hurdles to self-discipline, and its difficulties. To assist readers attain their maximum potential, we’ll also rely on other works like Awaken the Giant Within and The Power of Habit.

What Is Self-Discipline and Why Do We Struggle With It?

The capacity to make wise decisions, withstand pressure, and act in your best interests is known as self-discipline. Daniel Walter emphasizes the significance of setting objectives, forming positive habits, and working consistently hard in order to achieve success.

Self-discipline is a talent that requires experience and work to develop since people have a tendency to choose quick satisfaction above hard labor. In addition, Walter lists four innate characteristics that undermine self-control: the need for consistency, exaggerating one’s own talent, procrastination, and unreasonable expectations. To develop self-discipline and accomplish your goals, it is essential to recognize these inclinations and work to overcome them.

Tendency #1: Craving Consistency

Walter identifies the first biological tendency that hinders self-discipline as our resistance to change and preference for consistency in our lifestyles, jobs, and environments.

This tendency prevents us from taking uncomfortable steps that can trigger improvement and success. Experts like Brianna Wiest attribute this phenomenon to the brain’s hardwiring for homeostasis, which sends us urges to resist change and maintain consistency to avoid emotional changes that alter bodily chemistry.

Humans Fear Loss and Failure and Desire Comfort

Humans resist change and crave consistency due to three reasons: fear of loss, fear of failure/regret, and comfort in the familiar. To overcome this tendency, Walter suggests performing a thought analysis exercise when making important decisions.

This involves listing the pros and cons of each option and determining which choice will be most advantageous for personal improvement and goal attainment.

We Crave Consistency Because of Our Pain vs Pleasure Response

Walter and Robbins both explore why humans resist change and favor consistency, but they have different approaches to overcoming these urges. Walter identifies three underlying reasons why we resist change, while Robbins argues that all unproductive behaviors and decisions stem from our biological urge to avoid pain and seek pleasure.

Robbins explains that neuro-associations control our pain and pleasure responses, and he identifies three factors that determine whether we’ll form a pain or pleasure association with an experience. These factors may explain why we resist change and favor consistency. Walter suggests performing a thought exercise to overcome these urges, while Robbins recommends reconditioning our neuro-associations.

Tendency #2: Over-Estimating Personal Abilities

The Dunning-Kruger effect can impact self-discipline by causing people to overestimate their ability and neglect practicing it. To avoid this tendency, seeking feedback from proficient individuals is recommended. Procrastination weakens self-discipline as it becomes habitual, and there are two main forms: delaying hard work for instant gratification and spending more time planning than doing work.

To resist procrastination, start tasks as soon as possible and stop planning when 70% sure of success. It is important to accurately judge one’s own abilities and improve self-awareness to enhance self-discipline skills.

Procrastination Isn’t Always Bad

In “A Mind For Numbers,” Oakley discusses two types of procrastination. She argues that deferring tasks to plan them is useful, while consciously delaying work for more immediately enjoyable activities is unproductive and termed as habitual procrastination.

To overcome procrastination, both Oakley and Walter recommend starting tasks as soon as possible. However, Oakley suggests completing the toughest tasks first to avoid burnout and using planning time effectively. She does not support Walter’s idea of starting work at 70% certainty.

Tendency #4: Setting Unrealistic Expectations

Walter highlights the common mistake of underestimating the time and effort required to reach our goals, leading to failure and discouragement. Giving up too easily weakens our ability to self-discipline, as it reinforces the habit of instant gratification.

To overcome this, it’s important to set realistic expectations, analyze our goals and actions, and avoid self-sabotaging behaviors. For instance, someone who wants to learn how to knit must practice consistently for the required time frame to achieve their goal. By doing so, they can preserve their self-discipline and avoid giving up.

The Impacts of the Planning Fallacy and How to Resolve Them

Experts attribute unrealistic expectations to the planning fallacy, a cognitive bias where people underestimate the time needed to complete tasks due to poor planning and overly optimistic performance expectations. This bias stems from optimism bias, motivated reasoning, and taking the inside view.

Setting unrealistic expectations can lead to a lack of self-discipline and trigger negative thoughts, self-judgment, depression, and burnout. To avoid this, Walter recommends analyzing behaviors and prioritizing tasks, managing time and resources, and considering potential obstacles. Experts suggest seeking advice, defining priorities, blocking time off in your calendar, and brainstorming potential obstacles to ensure a realistic perspective on goals.

Improve Self-Discipline With Good Habits

To enhance self-discipline, Walter suggests replacing bad habits with good ones that support discipline. Habits are actions we do automatically, and forming habits that are detrimental to our interests reduces our ability to adopt positive habits.

However, Gary Keller cautions that building new habits can quickly deplete our limited supply of self-discipline or willpower. To overcome bad habits, Walter recommends cultivating good habits such as:

Habit #1: Create Morning and Evening Routines

Walter suggests that establishing a consistent morning and evening routine helps to promote productive behaviors and make better choices, reducing unproductive temptations that can harm self-discipline. By making these routines a habit, you can resist behaviors like sleeping in, eating poorly, or staying up too late.

A morning routine should include a plan for waking up, eating breakfast, and leaving for work, while an evening routine should start an hour before bedtime, with activities such as brushing teeth, washing face, setting out clothes for the next day, journaling, and then getting into bed.

Habit #2: Create Plans to Achieve Your Goals

Walter suggests that big goals can be overwhelming and lead to inaction, which weakens self-discipline. To avoid this, clearly define your goals and create a plan of action that breaks them down into daily tasks and sub-goals. By doing so, you can hold yourself accountable and increase your chances of success.

To create an effective plan, identify your end goal and then break it down into tasks like applying for residency, finding an apartment, and researching costs. Finally, create a daily schedule to accomplish a task or subgoal every day.

Habit #3: Gain Control Over Your Impulses

Walter says that acting on impulses without thinking is a bad habit that harms self-discipline. It leads to giving up and instant gratification, which can be harmful in the long run. To counteract this habit, he suggests two strategies: the 40% rule and the 10-minute rule.

The 40% rule advises to push through the discomfort and complete the remaining 60% of the work, whereas the 10-minute rule suggests waiting for ten minutes before acting on an unproductive impulse to assess if it’s the best decision.

Applications of the Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method that can also help with avoiding instant gratification. It involves setting a timer for a period of time, such as 10 minutes, and using that time to be productive. This can help you avoid giving in to temptations and stay on track with your goals.

By engaging in productive behaviors during these short bursts, you may be more likely to continue being productive and less likely to give in to instant gratification. This technique can be useful in various contexts, such as when you feel the urge to binge eat and can spend 10 minutes doing yoga instead.

Habit #4: Become Familiar With Discomfort

Walter advises that self-discipline often requires doing things we don’t want to do, like work instead of partying. However, practicing self-discipline can help us resist unproductive behaviors and persevere through tough times. To become familiar with discomfort, Walter suggests stepping out of our comfort zone intentionally.

For example, if you’re uncomfortable on stage, try karaoke with friends to build resilience. Experts note that this approach can also boost confidence and creativity, but caution against overwhelming yourself too quickly. Instead, start with small steps and consider going with a friend to ease into discomfort.

Habit #5: Practice Mindfulness and Meditation

Walter suggests that mindfulness, or focusing on the present and controlling thoughts and emotions, is crucial for self-discipline. Negative thoughts and emotions can make it harder to practice self-discipline, but if you focus on the present and control your thoughts and emotions, they won’t influence your ability to self-discipline.

One way to develop mindfulness is through meditation, which improves focus, decision-making, and delaying instant gratification. Mindfulness and meditation are highly effective for increasing self-discipline, indirectly improving sleep quality and alleviating stress. A beginner-friendly meditation technique is “noting,” which involves recording thoughts, feelings, and urges to overcome impulses.

Habit #6: Fully Commit to Your Goals

Walter says that to improve self-discipline, you must fully commit to your goals and put in 100% effort. Half-hearted efforts hinder self-discipline, and true success requires a strong belief in your ability to achieve your goals.

To overcome subconscious intentions that prevent full commitment, identify limiting thoughts and habits and replace them with positive ones. Brian Moran, author of The 12 Week Year, also agrees that weak commitments stem from subconscious intentions and must be addressed to achieve goals.

Increase Commitment by Pacing Yourself and Creating a Routine

Walter’s recommendations for maintaining commitment and momentum towards your goal are two-fold. First, avoid taking on too much too soon, as it can lead to loss of motivation and weaken self-discipline. Second, establish a goal-focused routine and maintain it even after you achieve success, as consistency is key.

For instance, if you want to gain supporters for your new innovation, posting on social media randomly won’t help. Instead, set a routine of posting twice a day, and even after achieving success, continue to post twice daily to maintain and strengthen your community.

Habit #7: Create Positive Associations

Walter warns that relying solely on self-discipline can lead to burnout if you dislike the work. To sustain self-discipline, he suggests creating positive associations with the work by incorporating enjoyable activities into a ritual before, during, and after work. Repeating this routine can create positive mental associations, making it easier to self-discipline. For example, open curtains before work, light a candle during, and reward yourself with a nice dinner after.

Change Your Neuro-Associations to Boost Self-Discipline

Tony Robbins, in his book “Awaken the Giant Within,” emphasizes the importance of rewiring negative associations, or what he calls “negative neuro-associations,” to practice self-discipline effectively. Negative associations with necessary activities like work can hinder productivity.

While Walter focuses on building positive associations to replace negative ones, Robbins suggests taking additional steps to completely undo old negative associations and replace them with new positive ones.

To change negative associations with a behavior, Tony Robbins suggests taking these steps:

  1. Identify the behavior you want to change and what’s blocking you.
  2. Create a sense of urgency to change by realizing how the negative association is holding you back.
  3. Disrupt the negative pattern of thinking by doing something unexpected when the negative association arises.
  4. Create a positive pattern to replace the old one and reinforce it by making it a routine.