3-2-1: On Mediocrity vs. Genius, Taking Risks, and When to Ignore a Problem | James Clear

“New goals don't deliver new results. New lifestyles do.

And a lifestyle is a process, not an outcome.

For this reason, your energy should go into building better habits, not chasing better results.”

“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.”

In her novel, The Painted Drum, writer Louise Erdrich discusses taking risks:

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and being alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You have to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed u... See more

“The events of your past are fixed. The meaning of your past is not.

The influence of every experience in your life is determined by the meaning you assign to it.

Assign a more useful meaning to your past and it becomes easier to take a more useful action in the present.”

Teacher and novelist Amelia Barr on the difference between mediocrity and genius:

“Everything good needs time. Don’t do work in a hurry. Go into details; it pays in every way. Time means power for your work. Mediocrity is always in a rush; but whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing with consideration. For genius is nothing more nor less than ... See more