The Science of Self

Focus on a few main principles for lasting motivation. These include not waiting for a right time, taking baby steps, working from intrinsic motivation, avoid temptation outright, cutting distractions, monitoring impulses with mindfulness, visualizing in detail our goal, getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, and allowing our future selves to advise and guide our present selves. Email the s...

A to-do list hastily written on a Post-It might be one of the most ubiquitous tools for self-discipline and avoiding procrastination. It works on our psychology by manipulating dopamine, and this is one of the few instances that we can actually make our brains work for us. But ultimately, a to-do list just makes sure that things are not being forgotten or falling through the cracks, and it doesn’t...

• Have a healthy attitude toward control—though there are things in life we never have control over, we are always in charge of our own reactions and actions. Try the Stoic exercise to help you identify what you can change, what you can’t, and practice the wisdom it takes to know the difference. • Self-disciplined people know that their success in life is their own responsibility, and they own it....

For example, every day you could commit to walking for thirty minutes. You’re not committing to running a marathon or losing fifty pounds. All you have to focus on each day is walking thirty minutes, that’s it. You may certainly build up to the marathon or gradually lose all that weight, but that’s not what you focus on each day, each moment. Just take a baby step each day, then repeat it the next...

Unscheduling is the radical opposite because it takes the focus off of work. In some ways, it is more realistic, because it dictates that you fill in your schedule with all of your nonnegotiables and life priorities. That way you can see how much time you actually have to work and think. It also allows you to see what is missing from your life and is harming you emotionally. Work comes last in thi...

Have a healthy attitude toward control—though there are things in life we never have control over, we are always in charge of our own reactions and actions. Try the Stoic exercise to help you identify what you can change, what you can’t, and practice the wisdom it takes to know the difference. Get the audiobook on Audible at http://bit.ly/41Habits Show notes and/or episode transcripts are availabl...

• This kind of self-reflection allows you to see exactly what areas you need to work on and see whether your efforts are resulting in progress. • Depending on which aspects you identify as under-developed, you can do a lot to improve. • To find positive mentors, reach out to others and network, or simply ask for help and advice from accomplished people. • To develop sensory rich vision, make a goa...

• A schedule can be just a schedule in the way that a hammer can be just a hammer. But why not use it to its greatest potential instead of as something you only take out for passive purposes? Scheduling is powerful because it very clearly sets out our intentions and goals often on a daily or hourly basis. So why aren’t we using them more? In this chapter, we lay out two divergent methods of using...

• Willpower is a limited resource that can get depleted on the many tiny stressors and tensions of daily life. Lower your overall life stress and you free up more mental bandwidth to spend on what’s really important. Stress management should be a regular habit and not reserved for when you’re already struggling. • Finally, think of glucose as the physical analogue of willpower. Sip something sweet...

Working with the limitations of your own brain requires an honest appraisal of where you are and how you’re functioning. Make it a habit to routinely assess yourself on the following aspects, on a scale of one to ten: Sense of purpose, the presence of positive mentors, sensory rich vision, self-belief, planning and organization, education and skills, patient perseverance, and the ability to see wo...

The second set of instructions comes from Hungarian writer Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi and his flow theory. Flow is about moving and working effortlessly, to the point that you lose track of time and are engrossed in your task. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? He lists a set of requirements for achieving flow, but we will focus on the elements of having your actions pointed toward specific goals, a balance of...

Dont beat yourself up—nobody every improved from a position of judgment and self-hate. Have compassion for yourself, be kind, forgive slip-ups, and keep focusing on the positives. You do not need to make yourself feel bad in order to improve. We all have moods that change and shift, but we also possess the ability to choose how we respond. We can allow ourselves to feel what we feel without lettin...

Self-discipline is a means to reject the traits of reaction and retreat. It gives you something to actively work on every day and forces you to make decisions and take actions based on what you really need. Through that process, you will learn more about yourself than you ever have before. You’ll see why you made certain decisions in the past, and you’ll understand what kind of person you really a...

We’ve gone through some of the psychological beasts that underlie the feeling of “lazy” and it turns out that we are beset by barriers, rather than a preference to be sloths. So what can we do with this knowledge? It doesn’t automatically launch us into action, but this chapter is about the second-best thing—providing formulas and workflows of sorts to break down what is missing from action. This...

• Getting right in body, mind, and soul means adopting the attitudes and mindsets that make a self-disciplined life possible. Firstly, make a plan to reduce, remove, and avoid temptations. If you are proactive and pre-empt them, they have less impact on your life. • One of the biggest and most damaging myths is that we can only take action when the time is right or when we feel like it. The truth...

The pleasure principle asserts that the human mind does everything it can to seek out pleasure and avoid pain. It doesnt think; it doesnt analyze; it just acts like a blind animal urgently moving in the direction that it feels more pleasure and less pain. It doesnt have any sense of restraint. It is primal and unfiltered. It doesnt get simpler than that. An apt comparison, in fact, is a drug addic...

The main causes for so-called laziness include fear of judgment and negative emotion, fixed mindsets that make action feel useless, organizational issues that keep you confused and spiraling, and physical or mental deficiencies such as sleep, rest, nutrition, illness, and lack of alignment. Its not so much that we need to cure these issues, because that is a tall task without dedicated introspecti...

Make sure you are scheduling in ample time to rest and recuperate, as well as time to acknowledge your progress and reward yourself. This is crucial for your ongoing success! Show notes and/or episode transcripts are available at https://bit.ly/self-growth-home Peter Hollins is a bestselling author, human psychology researcher, and a dedicated student of the human condition. Visit https://bit.ly/p...

When you think of Buddhism, the world discipline is usually not far away. In fact, discipline is right at the core of Buddhist teachings. Its tenets emphasize maintaining a sense of control over one’s mind and body as a means to fulfillment. In fact, it preaches that we are naturally endowed with the ability to do what we want, and feel contentment at all times. However, we give up those feelings...