Thread by @jmikolay

Engross yourself in the wisdom of @JamesClear

I organized and distilled his last 3,000 tweets into a summary of his big ideas, in three parts…

Part 1⃣: Self-Improvement, Writing, and Life Philosophy

Be thoughtful, but get moving…
🔷Start early
🔷Start small
🔷Start now
🔷(Taking action is more important than finding the best strategy)
🔷(The path to the summit is not fully visible from base camp)

Aim to be great in 10 years…
🔷Raise your ambitions
🔷Think big when making plans

Optimize for tomorrow (as in one day from now)…
🔷Think small when making progress
🔷Do today what will benefit you later
🔷Do the biggest small things you can do

Repeat each day…
🔷Show up
🔷Put in reps
🔷Make each rep great
🔷Control the next rep
🔷Hammer away on what matters
🔷(You have to show up before inspiration will)
🔷People need consistency more than they need intensity

Give it time…
🔷The most useful form of patience is persistence
🔷Continue to work when things take longer than you expect
🔷Small daily differences early on result in wide outcomes gaps over time
🔷Small changes can accumulate to an incredible degree over months and years

Make good habits the path of least resistance…
🔷Act fast on things that compound
🔷Apply fundamentals consistently and without distraction
🔷(Habits will form whether you want them or not)

Choose the right neighborhood…
🔷Changing your habits often requires you to change your tribe
🔷Surround yourself w/people who have the same goals as you
🔷Surround yourself w/people who have the habits you want
🔷Join a group where your desired behavior is the normal behavior

Optimize for a process that leads to great outcomes …
🔷Find parts of the process to enjoy
🔷Know the process goes on forever
🔷Adopt processes that increase your winning percentage
🔷If your outcomes aren’t improving, the process needs to change

Read, search, and research widely…
🔷But select, refine, and apply carefully (broad funnel, tight filter)
🔷Repeatedly bring your attention back to the same thing
🔷Wild success requires aggressive elimination

Be great at saying no…
🔷Ignore topics
🔷Unfollow people
🔷Abandon projects
🔷Decide what shouldn’t be done
🔷Saying no is practice, not an event
🔷Cut your number of commitments in half
🔷Discover what you want by eliminating want you don’t

Don’t try to be more right…
🔷Try to be less wrong
🔷Upgrade your addictions
🔷Less wrong means more questions
🔷Unforced errors are mistakes that you choose
🔷Less wrong means hard work on the right thing

Take smart drugs…
🔷Sleep 8+ hrs
🔷Lift weights 3x wk
🔷Go outside
🔷Save 10% of your income
🔷Read a few pages
🔷Drink more water
🔷Leave your phone in another room
🔷Eat more vegetables
🔷Don’t hang with toxic people
🔷Work on projects you care about

Develop superpowers…
🔷Long-term thinking is a superpower
🔷Not taking things personally is a superpower
🔷Recruiting the best people is a superpower

Accrue wealth…
🔷Wealth is creativity
🔷Wealth is free thinking
🔷Wealth is the power to say no

Plan for failure…
🔷Have the safety net to fail
🔷Avoid repeated mistakes
🔷Learn how to fail in public
🔷Treat failure like a scientist (failures guide the next experiment)

Be smarter tomorrow (i.e. read)…
🔷Reading focuses the mind
🔷Reading is food for the mind
🔷Reading teaches you what others already know
🔷Reading gives you a new way to interpret your past experiences

Edit your thinking (i.e. write)…
🔷Writing is re-writing
🔷Writing leads to stronger ideas
🔷Writing is the antidote to confusion
🔷Writing is trimming away the excess

Write to be useful…
🔷Clarify key points
🔷Simplify paragraphs
🔷Double-check for typos
🔷Write the article you wish you could read

Make your writing easy on your readers…
🔷Be impatient on their behalf
🔷Know the mistakes they are likely to make
🔷Respect their time by only including what matters
🔷Ruthlessly eliminate unnecessary information and needless words

The best writing is short, but potent…
🔷The best writing resists compression
🔷The best writing makes the illegible, legible
🔷The best writing finds the signal in the noise
🔷The best writing is the most information dense

Learn a topic (i.e. teach)…
🔷The person who learns the most in any classroom is the teacher
🔷Exceptional teachers know why someone might misunderstand a topic
🔷Your teaching ability is constrained by your writing ability

Be the type of person who DOESN’T…
🔷Take it personally
🔷Chase a false summit
🔷Abandon fundamentals
🔷Care about trivial arguments
🔷Wish for better opportunities
🔷Let a proxy become the target
🔷Optimize for the wrong outcome
🔷Optimize things should be left undone

Be the type of person who WILL…
🔷Be kind
🔷Compliment others more
🔷Let the chips fall where they may
🔷Do your best (and be at peace with it)
🔷Be there when nobody knows what to say
🔷Be there when the only thing people need to hear is your presence

Find the rest here...

Part 2⃣: The Complete Collection of Lists — How to be Happy and Healthy
Part 3⃣: Quotes on Habits and Human Behavior

And smash the follow button for more Big Idea Summaries

letter.substack.com/p/the-best-of-…