Listing all of the times I’ve improved rapidly in the past was a very interesting exercise. Many of the times where I made a really big improvement stemmed from making a decision that was hard to make in the moment, but locked me into a path toward something good. That’s very much in line with the basic principle is “take advantage of willpower now to put yourself on a course in which you don’t need willpower to do the right thing later.”
Another idea that seems common to a number of the examples I can come up with is an idea that I might call “seize the moment.” It’s very similar to the first one but perhaps just slightly distinct. The basic idea is if you do one hard thing and it works, you may find that lots of other hard things suddenly seem easier, at least momentarily. I’ve had times where I was able to get on a roll of compounding improvements that way, and I think it can be surprisingly successful at allowing you to make big changes.
Listing all of the times I’ve improved rapidly in the past was a very interesting exercise. Many of the times where I made a really big improvement stemmed from making a decision that was hard to make in the moment, but locked me into a path toward something good. That’s very much in line with the basic principle is “take advantage of willpower now to put yourself on a course in which you don’t need willpower to do the right thing later.”
Another idea that seems common to a number of the examples I can come up with is an idea that I might call “seize the moment.” It’s very similar to the first one but perhaps just slightly distinct. The basic idea is if you do one hard thing and it works, you may find that lots of other hard things suddenly seem easier, at least momentarily. I’ve had times where I was able to get on a roll of compounding improvements that way, and I think it can be surprisingly successful at allowing you to make big changes.