James Clear: 3 essential questions & answers to help you fulfil your potential

Do you want safety or do you want growth?

First of all, let’s get straight on what ‘safety’ and ‘growth’ mean.

In this context, ie what helps you fulfil your potential, safety doesn’t refer to primary needs: food, shelter, sleep, employment, health, property, love and belonging, family etc. You already have this.

Safety refers to having your primary needs met and feeling good about yourself and where you are in your life. There’s nothing wrong with that.

But if you wake up in the morning with the nagging feeling that you have more in you, that you have untapped potential inside of you, that there are things you want to do or experience, you want growth.

You want to learn new things and feel challenged, you want to put all of your skills to good use and build new ones. You want to become the most that you can be.

If you choose this path, know that it won’t be easy. Because there will be people around you, even loved ones, who will point out that you are selfish and willing to jeopardise your safety: money, time and other resources.

Just remember that you can’t live for others or spend your life meeting their expectations, you are not a child anymore. You are your own person and you owe it to yourself to live the best life possible and fulfil your inner potential.

Who is the person you wish to become?

Now that you have decided that you want to grow, you are ready to take the next step: deciding who is the person you wish to become.

If you think about it, it’s very much like writing the mission statement for the company, only it’s not for the company, it’s for a person, and it’s not a mission statement, it’s an identity statement.

James Clear speaks about this concept, identity statement, in his bestseller ‘Atomic Habits’, the foundational book on building good habits and success systems for personal growth.

He highlights the fact that whoever you wish to become, you need to build your identity step by step, through activities and attitudes that support the achievement of the bigger goal. It’s not going to happen overnight.

James’ process is this:

Identity statement:
I wish to become a healthy person.

Question:
What type of person am I?

Answers reinforcing the aspects that help you support your desired identity:
I’m the type of person who drinks 8 glasses of water a day.
I’m the type of person who goes to the gym once a week.
I’m the type of person who doesn’t eat sweets.
I’m the type of person who finishes workouts.
I’m the type of person who walks home from the office.

James’ unique view on building good habits is nothing short of genius. Including your goal in your identity eliminates so many struggles in one sweep. The first is frustration: it’s so much easier to not eat sweets if you switch from ‘not allowed’ which breeds frustration to ‘I’m not the type of person who eats sweets’ which brings serenity and confidence. It’s a powerful mindset switch!

What is your purpose?

This question is not easy to answer.

There are stages in life where this question isn’t of interest (when we are teens and college students, in our formative years).

Also, as we grow old and go through life, our purpose may change because we change.

There are years when we want to earn as much money as possible.

There are years when we want to sharpen our skills and abilities and accumulate as much knowledge as possible.

Then there are years when we want to share this knowledge and experience with as many people as possible.

Once you are very clear on your purpose, it’s easier to put filters in place to help you reach your purpose.

In a recent interview, James Clear was asked about his current purpose and the filters he uses to reach it. He talked about how after ‘Atomic Habits’ became the world’s #1 bestselling book, new opportunities began to emerge. One of them was consulting which meant that if he were to take it, he should have to hire and manage a team of people and his lifestyle would change dramatically.

Consulting could become a new source of revenue. But his purpose was not to make more money, it was to reach more people.

So he turned down revenue opportunities and turned toward doing work that kept working for him once it was done. His filter was reaching as many people as possible.

What does it mean? It means that doing radio interviews was not of interest to him because once they are done, they are taken off the air, they are shortlived.

Doing interviews on YouTube was the type of work that supported his purpose because they were still going to be there a year later and people were going to listen to them. Writing articles for digital global magazines would also help him reach people.

There you have it: 3 questions to help you fulfil your potential with answers to provide guidance.

Now all you have to do is grab a cup of coffee, a piece of paper and a pen and write down your answers to the three questions.

Here are 4 takeaways from James Clear speaking live, on stage, at BRAND MINDS in front of 6000+ world-changers.

4 powerful habit truths you need to know today

It’s a beautiful summer day in Hamilton, Ohio. At one of the county’s high schools, the tenth-grade students are out on the field playing baseball. The air vibrates with excitement and intense energy. Suddenly, a blonde, 5 feet tall fifteen-year-old gets hit in the face with a baseball bat by one of his classmates: the bat had accidentally slipped from his hands and hit the boy right between his eyes.

The accident was horrific: the blow crushed the bones in his nose causing instant swelling in his brain. He gave wrong answers when asked by the school nurse what year they were in and what President was in office. It took him ten seconds to remember his mother’s name. After that, he lost consciousness and was rushed to the emergency room.

At the hospital, the doctors established that he had multiple skull fractures, a swollen nose and shattered eye sockets. Shortly after he arrived there, his body collapsed: he stopped breathing and was hooked to a ventilation machine. The seizures started. The hospital wasn’t equipped to manage his particular situation so he was flown to a bigger hospital where he was placed into an induced coma and underwent emergency surgery to reconstruct his skull.

The surgery was successful, but the recovery was long and difficult. He had been dreaming of becoming a professional baseball player since he was 4 years old and that dream seemed impossible to achieve now. Still, he was determined to get his life back.

Six years after the accident, he became the best male player at his university and was selected for ESPN’s Academic All-America Team, a unique recognition enjoyed by only 33 athletes in the country.

By the time he graduated, he had records in eight different sports categories. He received the Presidential Medal, the highest honour in academia.

Years later he wrote a book which went on to become a bestseller with over 10 million copies sold worldwide.

His name is James Clear. His bestselling book is ‘Atomic Habits’.

James is a world-famous expert on habit formation. His newsletter has recently reached 2 million subscribers and the participants in BRAND MINDS 2023 had the amazing opportunity to hear him speak live, on stage about building the right habit systems to achieve success.

James Clear credits his amazing achievements following the accident to the power of good habits and putting together a system of goals.

The turning point came two years after his lif-altering injury when he got into university. He barely made it to the baseball team. He wasn’t going to play anytime soon so he decided to get his life straight. That’s when he discovered the amazing power of tiny habits. Instead of staying up late at night, playing video games, like his colleagues, he went to bed early every night.

His self-confidence began to increase and his academic results improved also: he had straight As the entire first year in college. Soon he began adopting other small habits with amazing results like not doing any homework after midnight. If he hadn’t learned it by midnight, he was just going to go to bed. All these small rules and practices were not much, but they gave him the feeling that he was in control of his life.

His habits of resting, studying & weightlifting led to him being named, six years after the accident nearly left him for dead, Denison’s 2008 Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year with records in 8 different sports categories while majoring in biomechanics.

James never realized his dream of playing in a professional baseball team. What he did was accomplish something more important than that: he fulfilled his potential.

James Clear: 4 essential habit truths you need to know today

Habit Truth #1: Behaviours that are immediately rewarded get repeated; behaviours that are immediately punished get avoided.

That’s why no one likes going to the gym (at least at first): it’s sweaty, it’s painful, maybe you don’t like seeing your body in the gym’s mirrors and you could go on with ten more reasons. The immediate result after the workout? Your body punishes you with muscle aches. Eat a slice of your favourite cake and your brain rewards you instantly by making you feel good. It’s definitely not fair.

The solution, James says, is to find some kind of immediate satisfaction. Look at the steps you need to take to achieve your goal from a different point of view to find what exactly you like about them, no matter how small. Focus on how it makes you feel and not on the result you want.

Habit Truth #2: The effects of your habits multiply over time.

“If you have good habits, time is your ally. If you have bad habits, time is your enemy. It’s really about mastering those little one percent choices. One percent better or one percent worse each day doesn’t feel like much in the moment, but it ends up being significant in the long run.”

James Clear

Eating healthy for one day is not going to show any results the next day. But eating healthy for six months will. The same is true for bad habits. Smoking five cigarettes for one day is not going to damage your lungs but doing it for six years definitely will. What you need is to show up every day. It’s like brushing your teeth: you need to do it every day.

Habit Truth #3: Setting your goal is only 10% of the work; the process or the system getting you to your goal is 90%.

James says very eloquently that we don’t rise to the level of our goals, we fall to the level of our systems. Everyone wants to look and be fit but why do some succeed while others don’t? James answers this question as follows: Because setting the goal is not the thing that makes the difference. Yes, setting goals provide clarity and a sense of direction, but it’s really the system that determines whether or not you make progress on that goal. Focus on the system and the process rather than on any individual outcome.

“We think outcomes are what matter most and we need big ambitious goals, but almost always the goal isn’t the thing that needs to change. The process behind it is what needs to change.”

James Clear

Habit Truth #4: Scale it down so it’s super easy.

Let’s say your goal is to run the marathon within a year. If you are a coach potato, running a marathon is a pretty big goal. First of all, you must become aware that there’s a big gap between you relaxing on the couch and you running the marathon. These two individuals are different on at least three levels: mindset, lifestyle and motivation. There are many changes that need to happen before you start running even for five minutes.

Before you try wrestling a dragon, exercise wrestling a lizard. Scale it down so it’s super easy. Set yourself up for success with the two-minute rule.

Whatever is your goal, what can you do in two minutes?

Read one page, do breathing exercises, stretch, learn five new words?

Figure out what it is for your goal and go do it.

BRAND MINDS ticket prices go up on February 16

Ticket prices to BRAND MINDS 2023 go up on February 16 so hurry up and book your tickets at special prices today!

Business leaders from 80 countries meet at BRAND MINDS, in 2023, the biggest business event in Central and Eastern Europe.

Over 7000 professionals and industry leaders are expected to join this year’s edition to access the ultimate insights and tactics in business strategy.

CEOs, Entrepreneurs, Marketing & Sales Managers and HR Directors bring their teams to BRAND MINDS to learn from the most respected business experts in the world:

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THE BEST GLOBAL BUSINESS THINKERS share the hottest growth strategies in business at BRAND MINDS 2023

Bestselling Author of Atomic Habits James Clear is a world-famous expert in habit formation.

His weekly newsletter is one of the most popular in the world inspiring over 2 million people monthly.