There are three layers of behavior change: a change in your outcomes, a change in your processes, or a change in your identity.

True behavior change is identity change.

What's the one action that moves the needle more than 100 other actions? What's the one choice that renders 1000 other choices irrelevant?

Most things are not worth optimizing. Master the big moves and move quickly and peacefully through the other stuff.

Ernest Hemingway believed in similar advice for any kind of writing. “The best way is to always stop when you are going good,” he said. Strategies like this work for another reason, too: they reinforce the identity you want to build. If you show up at the gym five days in a row—even if it’s just for two minutes—you are casting votes for your new id