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    #139 Habit Milestones

    The most important habit milestone is the center of gravity shift.

    Initially, when you start building a new skill, your center of gravity lies with your old identity. You’re constantly fighting the pull of your old identity. And if you’d stop for even a day, you’ll get pulled right back into your old habits.

    “If I don’t write today, what does that say about me? I’ve always given up in the past, and with this habit, it’ll be the same.”

    The center of gravity shift happens when you’re about to miss a day and realize:

    “It doesn’t matter, tomorrow I’ll start again anyway.”

    When you’ve cast so many votes for your “identity of perseverance” you know that missing one day doesn’t equal giving up anymore.

    When not writing for a day has become the exception, and when it happens, I get pulled right back into my writing habit.

    Before the shift happens, when you’re still building self-trust, discipline is key.

    But after your center of gravity has shifted to align with what you want to do anyway… you’re free.

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    #84 Long-term Side Effects of Procrastinating

    I can choose to procrastinate on a project for weeks – then finish it all in one go, right before the deadline.

    In absolute terms, I might have been very efficient with my time – but the time I saved, I spent frustrated with myself.

    The long-term effect on my self-image: I’m a procrastinator.

    What if I work a little bit on a project every single day – and have it finished well before the deadline?

    I might spend more time in total – but every day, every moment spent makes me feel good about myself.

    The long-term effect on my self-image: I cultivate an identity of discipline and consistency. I do what I believe to be good for me. I build character. Taking small daily actions towards a goal becomes part of my identity.

    What’s more: I avoid the frustration and resentment that comes with procrastination (=not doing what I know I should be doing), and feel good about myself instead.

    Long-term, the benefits of small daily actions always outweigh huge last-minute efforts.

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    #93 Second-Hand Memories and Trust Issues

    Memory stores the lessons we extract from learn life experience. And to do so, it relies, modifies, adds, subtracts, highlights, and hides.

    What about second-hand memories? Accounts of past events we didn’t experience ourselves, wars, volcano eruptions, scientific discoveries,…

    For knowledge to accumulate, to stand on the shoulders of giants, we need to transmit such lessons too. Not just as data or accounts of the past – also as memories.

    But transmitting second-hand memories require trust.

    Can we rely on the interpretation of others?

    Who do we allow to control the narrative?

    Parents? Elders? Teachers? Governments and politicians?

    YouTubers? Influencers? Bloggers? Twitter gurus?

    AI models and chatbots?

    Objective data doesn’t exist. Objective memories don’t exist either. So if we can’t trust second-hand memories anymore, collective memory and our whole learning model collapses.

  • #460 Why do the right thing?

    Write, not for the words flowing on the page, but for how writing makes you feel.

    Run, not for the personal records, but for how running makes you feel.

    Help out friends, not for expecting them to return the favor, but for how helping out friends makes you feel.

    Do the right thing, not for any outer reward, but an inner feeling of aligning with who you want to be.

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