Worthy Podcasts #12

James Clear is one of the best non-fiction writers around. "Atomic Habits" has been at the top of the bestselling books charts for many years now. True to his name, the clarity in his thinking and writing is indeed case study material.

I recently came across this two-hour-long Barrett Brooks podcast interview with him. He discusses various topics, and it’s a joy to listen to.

Please find my notes from the episode below.

James clear with Barrett brooks

• Direct you attention to the right thing.. Choice is important

• Internal monologue needs to be good. Self talk should be optimistic. Parents and teachers matter

• Get small wins…they will propel forward. Momentum is important

• Inner voice is formed in childhood.

• Focus on the appreciation often. More than criticism

• We don't just pass genes to kids, we pass our way of living.

• Make a list of beliefs and ideas you want to pass on to your kids

• Life rewards courage and action, not intelligence

• Climb is the fun part. Don't forget to celebrate milestones

• Don't shy away from difficult things

• Like who you are. There are many ways to have a wonderful life.

• Healthy self-esteem is crucial. Not depending on others for happiness

• Having low self-esteem let's you tolerate bad relationships because it will still feel better than the internal dialogue

• Able to sit with yourself and feel good shows that you have good self-esteem

• Tell kids that they are running their own race…not anyone else's

• Children adopt actions not words

• Parenting is in a way about reprogramming yourself

• Learn to set high standards. You will always strive, improve and set good examples.

• Understand your own standard

• What are you encoded to do? Think

• 99.5% things in life can be just good enough. The remaining 0.5%>>>make it the best

• For atomic habits…he created 12 chapters. Collected all books relevant to each chapter and distilled the knowledge into each chapter

• Broad funnel…tight filter

• Try to make things the best if you are spending time on it

• Simply believing in yourself doesn't guarantee success…but not believing is sure to fail

• Always tread the line between confidence and delusional when doing a business or launching a product. Believe that it will work

• It's authors responsibility to find the reader not the other way

• Book launch is like a rocket launch. You need a good rocket, enough thrust to reach escape velocity and with that it will reach orbit and stay there

• Opportunities are all around. See them and grab it

• Try to reverse engineer when faced with problems

• Luck is open doors in life. You might not know what's on the other side but you need to walk through it

• If you try to do too many things…everything will be lukewarm in outcome

• Family is the innermost. Old good friends are the next.

• Sometimes it's not enough to do your best. It's important to do what's required - Winston Churchill

• Ask yourself…did you do what's required?

• Reset your baseline by networking with high achievers

• Teams win because of his relationships…not just individual talent

• Saying No to things (that feels painful) to create time/space to do important things is the way to go to focus.

• Decide how you want to spend your days/lifestyle…. Then build the biggest business within this boundary.

• Don't compete with the best who are sacrificing what matters to you the most

• A good spouse should keep you centered

• Employees either need time or money. That is what they desire

• Meaning and fulfillment might mean more for some

• Love and belonging is important for most…at home

• If you need better ideas output…you need better input. Books are the best for Depth. Social media, blogs etc…can serve to give ideas

• Reading is like filling gas and writing is like going on an adventure

• Read widely. If it's good write notes, label it and go thru it once a week. Dump all similar labels into separate spreadsheets.

• Spread great ideas

• Try to figure out the the real meaning of the word Generous

• Divide your life according to three dimensions

• Past, present and future

• Negative, neutral and positive

• Others, team (family), yourself

• Ask yourself that if you had to exist in one of three options in each dimension which one would you exist in most of the time (primary mode)