I do not pretend to be the originator of these ideas. The truth is old. The more I study a topic, the more often I see the same concepts repeated. While we are on the subject of beliefs and repetition, I hope you believe, as I do that, repetition is the mother of mastery. It is through frequent repetition that we develop a skill or expertise. Just because you have heard something once, that is no sign you got it.  I am going to repeat a handful of key concepts throughout this book. I want to engrain these concepts into your psyche – like a brain tattoo. I want to become that voice inside your head, helping you avoid all the traps in your path. I want you to be able to read this book once and become an expert at engineering your habits to support your goals.

Success is not learning 10,000 skills; it is performing a few skills 10,000 times. Some strategies, like shaping your environment, you only need to do once, but most need to be repeated, again and again. If you are avers to repetition, purchasing a book about habits is probably a bad idea. What makes habits so incredibly powerful is the cumulative effects of compounding efforts that repetition produces. Here are my five core beliefs:

 

• GOALS determine what COULD BE; our HABITS determine what IS and what WILL BE.

• ENVIRONMENT trumps WILLPOWER and MOTIVATION. Good habits cannot survive in a negative environment.

• Start SMALL – CONSISTENCY trumps INTENSITY.

• Good habits need good TRIGGERS – typically, remembering is harder than doing.

• NOTHING IS STRONGER THAN HABIT.

 

If these ideas resonate with you, read on. I will provide you with plenty of studies, statistics, and anecdotal evidence to reinforce each one. 

“If your habits don’t line up with your dream, then you need to either change your habits or change your dream” – John Maxwell