Each week I share a bit of wisdom from author James Clear with my personal training clients in Denver. His book Atomic Habits has inspired many optimal health seekers to create a new routine. While change may be challenging, the right mindset and series of habits can lead to a lifetime of joy, physical prowess and comfort, and less pain. If you like my selections, definitely signup for Clear’s weekly newsletters for more tidbits!
Find new inspiration with a Denver personal trainer. / Photo: Eberhard Grossgasteiger
Favorite Quotes (and Thoughts) from James Clear, Author of Atomic Habits
"The more you invest yourself in fulfilling work, the more your effort fuels you. The harder you work on a bad project or in an unsatisfying role, the more of a grind it becomes."
“Life is a series of tradeoffs, and greater results usually require greater tradeoffs. The question is not, "Do you want to be great at this?" The question is, "What are you willing to give up in order to be great at this?"
Meditation teacher, Light Watkins, on acting your age: "The advice shouldn't be to act your age. It should be to act your spirit. Your age may try to prohibit you from dancing like that, or starting over, or trying something new. But your spirit would never do such a thing. If something feels aligned, your spirit wants you to go for it, whether you're 15 or 85. Acting your age makes you fit in more, while acting your spirit will indeed cause you to stand out—in a bad way to people who act their age, but in an inspiring way to those who act their spirit. Try acting your spirit from time to time, and you can see for yourself which path makes you feel more alive." Source: Newsletter by Light Watkins. (Hat tip to Wes Claytor)
"Question: “Who (or what) do you need to forgive, so you can move on and live well?”
"It's only work if you would rather be doing something else. Find a way to carve a career out of what you already want to do."
“Build small habits. Make big plans. 1) Keep your daily actions small. Strive to get 1% better every day. 2) Keep your daily mindset big. Think about how you can play a bigger game. Start small, but never dream small."
Painter Mariam Paré, who specializes in making paintings by mouth after suffering a spinal cord injury, offers some advice to her younger self: "If I could talk to myself twenty years ago, I would tell myself to focus on my strengths, and not on my weaknesses; on the things I could do and not the things I couldn’t do; to strive to excel and hone those skills to the point of excellence. That this was the best strategy to secure my future. I would say to myself that the only real obstacles you have are those you create for yourself."
"If an idea is true, criticism will not destroy it, but strengthen it."
Interior designer Danielle Colding on the ultimate luxury: "Quality of life is having the freedom to make choices that are not fear based. Whether it’s the ability to choose the kinds of projects I want to take on and can learn from, or the ability to take a month off to travel. Freedom to choose is the ultimate luxury."
Question: “What is an area you'd like to improve over the next decade? How are you working toward that outcome today? Think long-term. Act short-term.”
"When researching strategies, emphasize patterns over stories. One person succeeding means nothing. 100 people succeeding is a signal. When explaining strategies, emphasize stories over patterns. People forget numbers and charts. Everyone remembers a great story."
"When determining the size or complexity of a new habit ask yourself, "What can I stick to—even on my worst day?" Start there. Master the art of showing up. Then advance."
Poet Jenny Xie on how reading is a form of travel: "Reading is migratory, an act of transport, from one life to another, one mind to another. Just like geographic travel, reading involves estrangement that comes with the process of dislocating from a familiar context. I gather energy from this kind of movement, this estranging and unsettling, and I welcome it precisely because it’s conducive to examination, interrogation, reordering. Travel, imaginative or physical, can sharpen perception and force a measuring of distance and difference." Source: The Self Is a Fiction
