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How to Form New Habits That Matter

‘We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.’

Darius Foroux
Forge

Photo: LaylaBird / Getty Images

Nobody is fundamentally excellent or mediocre. Where you are in your life is a result of your habits. The historian and philosopher Will Durant said it best:

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

That’s also true for the opposite of excellence. Mediocrity is a result of mediocre habits. The good news is that we can go from mediocrity to excellence — by changing our habits.

But how do you do that? Before we get into that, I want to clarify my statement: Habits change your life, but they do not guarantee success. That’s what “the habits of millionaires” type of articles and books tell us. We get it, Elon Musk sleeps two hours a day and eats Cheerios for dinner — or something like that.

But what those articles don’t mention is that correlation isn’t causation. Waking up early, working hard, and taking cold showers do not cause success. Those habits can often be found in successful people.

Only you can decide what a good habit is — for you.

So when I talk about habits, I don’t talk about outcomes. I talk about changing our actual…

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Responses (50)

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Forming one habit at a time also allows you to prioritize what habits matter to you most. This will help you gain a clearer picture of what matters most to you and where you would like to change first.

Before trying to adopt a new habit, ask yourself this: “Will doing this improve the quality of my life?” For a new habit to stick, we need a reason to change. And it can’t just be a sup...

This question is so helpful and so insightful. That one question has helped tremendously when I decide I want to improve an area in my life, which ultimately leads to feeling more peaceful.

But what those articles don’t mention is that correlation isn’t causation.

I love this sentence. It’s simple, straight to the point, and insanely accurate. Habits don’t happen in a bubble. It is not like Elon Musk only eats cereal for dinner or only sleeps two hours, he does all of these things simultaneously and somehow…