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> People that count on willpower to do these things, it almost never works because willpower peters out. Instead I think people that are into creating habits --
by NhanH 11y ago
> People that count on willpower to do these things, it almost never works because willpower peters out. Instead I think people that are into creating habits -- you know, studying every week, working hard every week -- those are the most important. Those are the people most likely to succeed.
That is the one insight that I wished I truly understand years ago. After figured out that intelligence barely means anything, I thought that willpower would be the most important characteristics (because of endurance, perseverance yada yada you know).
Turned out that just like physical muscle, mental muscle get exhausted and you can run out of them. You really can't exert your willpower all the time, and have to preserve them for the really tough time. As human tends to do, we reverse to our habits for the majority of our lives. Well, I hope it's not a lesson learned too late.
That said, training for habits is damn hard.
- ronyeh 11y agoIf you want to try out a new technique to train for habits, check out this site by BJ Fogg @ Stanford University: http://tinyhabits.com/ http://tinyhabits.com/ The method trains you to add a new habit to your life by doing a tiny habit every day, anchored to an already existing habit. For example, "Before I visit Hacker News, I will drop down and do TWO pushups." Eventually, you can grow your new habit to make it a bigger part of your life.
- chrismarlow9 11y agobut what about bob?
- lindseya 11y agoThere is a lot of focus in the literature right now on developing habits. What I'm interested in is the deeper motivations that drive a person to select their habits in the first place. Why does Andrew read research papers and books all day on a Saturday? Why did you decided to add two pushups to your daily routine? I think that without understanding these deeper motivations, we are left with habits that do not have enough fuel to drive them, leaving us to resort to the habits with the least resistance (i.e. lazy habits).
- howlett 11y agoYou might want to read this: http://www.wisdomination.com/screw-motivation-what-you-need-is-discipline/ http://www.wisdomination.com/screw-motivation-what-you-need-...
- geomark 11y agoThat's a very good write up. The dichotomy he describes between motivation and discipline is something that gradually came to me during my career. And some of the techniques he describes for "tricking" yourself into developing greater discpline are things that I sort of stumbled upon through trial and error. It would have been great to read something like this years ago, although at the time maybe I would not have realized its value. When you've firmly established a new facet of discipline to the point that it is internalized and becomes automatic, that's when you've got a new beneficial habit. I like how Ng nails that in an almost understated way.
- plesiv 11y agoI love this app: http://www.habitbull.com/ http://www.habitbull.com/
- icc97 11y agoThis reminds me of a zenhabits post about The Myth of Discipline [1]: [1]: http://zenhabits.net/discipline/ http://zenhabits.net/discipline/
- tdaltonc 11y agoI've built an API that helps developers build apps that create habits. http://UseDopamine.com/ http://UseDopamine.com/