James Clear Quotes

“Whenever you are stuck searching for the optimal plan, remember: Getting started changes everything.”
James Clear, Blog

“Your life is purchased by where you spend your attention.”
James Clear, Blog

“Maintain a margin of safety—even when it’s going well. Rich people go bankrupt chasing even more wealth. Fit people get injured chasing personal records. Productive people become ineffective taking on too many projects. Don’t let your ambition ruin your position.”
James Clear, Blog

“It’s almost always better to learn from peers who are 2 years ahead of you than mentors who are 20 years ahead of you. Life evolves and most insights get outdated.”
James Clear, Blog

“Some things are better off ignored than attacked. Attention is the oxygen of conflict. When you fight a problem, you breathe life into it. When you starve a problem of your attention, you suffocate it. In a surprising number of cases, the way to solve a problem is to ignore it.”
James Clear, Blog (Read Matt’s Blog On This Quote)

“If you never copy best practices, you’ll have to repeat all the mistakes yourself. If you only copy best practices, you’ll always be one step behind the leaders.”
James Clear, Blog

James Clear Quote on Hard Work and How Not All Hard Work Is Created Equally

“Success is never due to one thing, but failure can be. Sleeping well won’t make you successful, but not sleeping enough will hold you back. Hard work is rarely enough without good strategy, but even the best strategy is useless without hard work. Many things are necessary, but not sufficient for success.”
James Clear, Blog

Beyond the Quote (347/365)

Not all hard work is created equally. For some, specific kinds of “hard work” aligns with strengths, aptitudes, potentials, and interests. For others, that same “hard work” might call upon weaknesses. Even if the “hard work” that was tasked was the same, it wouldn’t have the same net result on the individual. It would cause a drastic difference in the amount of time, energy, and effort required. And if you want to optimize your time, energy, and effort in your life—then you should start by optimizing the type of “hard work” that you choose to do for this very reason.

“Reading can teach you the best of what others already know. Reflection can teach you the best of what only you can know.”
James Clear

Beyond the Quote (318/365)

And if you’re not doing either, where is it that everything you know is coming from? From social media? From click-bait websites? From news conglomerates? Or maybe from friends and family members? But, where then are they getting their knowledge from? From those same sources? The question you have to ask yourself is, how does the quality of this information compare to the quality of the information that might be obtained from reading and reflecting? I suspect that it may not only be substantially below in quality, but of little to no quality at all. I suspect that it’s a no comparison.

“When you say no, you are only saying no to one option. When you say yes, you are saying no to every other option. No is a choice. Yes is a responsibility.”
James Clear, Blog

Beyond the Quote (312/365)

This goes out to everybody who has a hard time saying, “No.“ Sure, saying no can be hard when you’re talking to a friend, family member, coworker, or even acquaintance. I get it. You don’t want to let the people you care about down. You don’t want to disappoint or upset those who ask you for a favor. You don’t want things to get awkward. But, as Clear points out above, what’s important to understand is that saying yes isn’t free of consequence in itself. It means you are saying no to every other option instead.

“Successful outcomes are never the result of a single choice. They are built up through good choices over time. A profitable business is never a choice, it is a series of choices. A fit body is never a choice, it is a series of choices. A strong relationship is never a choice, it is a series of choices.”
James Clear, Blog

“‘You’re probably right’ has become of my favorite phrases. Whenever someone disagrees with you on a small matter (read: most things), you can shrug, say ‘you’re probably right’ and move on. Not caring about winning trivial arguments saves so much time and energy.”
James Clear, Blog

“Success is largely the failures you avoid. Health is the injuries you don’t sustain. Wealth is the purchases you don’t make. Happiness is the objects you don’t desire. Peace of mind is the arguments you don’t engage. Avoid the bad to protect the good.”
James Clear, Blog

“The key—if you want to build habits that last—is to join a group where the desired behavior is the normal behavior.”
James Clear, Blog

“It’s better to do less than you hoped than nothing at all. No zero days.”
James Clear, Blog

“Build before you have to. Build knowledge before you have to. Build strength before you have to. Build an emergency fund before you have to. Let internal pressure drive you today, so you can handle external pressure tomorrow.”
James Clear, Blog

James Clear Quote on Taking Action and Why Today Might Be The Best Time To Act

“Today might be the best chance you have to take action. The longer you wait, the more deeply embedded you get in your current lifestyle. Your habits solidify. Your beliefs harden. You get comfortable. It will never be easy, but it may also never be easier than it is right now.”
James Clear, Blog

Beyond the Quote (229/365)

Your ability to get done what you know you need to get done, even when you don’t want to do get it done, only gets easier (ironically) the more you actually get it done. Did you catch that? In other words, action begets action. Consistent action taken at consistent times for certain tasks formulate habits. And habits make taking action easier. Aligning your life with this truth can help you maximize your efficiency in effort and expedite your path to success.

“People keep reading self-help and revisiting the same ideas because that’s precisely what we need: to be reminded. The problem is not that information is unhelpful, but that attention is fleeting. Nobody focuses on one idea every minute of the day. Good books refocus the mind.”
James Clear, Blog

“It is better to start as a fool and learn from your mistakes than to fake being a genius and ignore your errors.”
James Clear, Blog

“What looks like a talent gap is often a focus gap. The ‘all star’ is often an average to above average performer who spends more time working on what is important and less time on distractions. The talent is staying focused.”
James Clear

James Clear Quote on Decisions and How Understanding If One Is Reversible Or Not Can Help You Decide

“If a decision is reversible, the biggest risk is moving too slow. If a decision is irreversible, the biggest risk is moving too fast.”
James Clear, Blog

Beyond the Quote (212/365)

Let’s start by figuring out which types of decisions are which. Not going to college, for example, is a decision that can easily be reversed. You can always go back to college at a later point in time. Going to college and getting a degree in something that you aren’t passionate about or uninterested in pursuing is a decision that is irreversible. Quickly committing to college when you’re unsure, undecided, or confused about your path is a big risk. Especially if the college you’re committing quickly to has a high tuition cost.