Willpower Doesn't Work: Discover the Hidden Keys to Success

We are kept from our goal not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal.

As with all transformational experiences and relationships, the focus cannot be on yourself. Instead, you need to have an abundant mentality, where you generously and genuinely do all you can to help others.

The best creative work requires a blend of intensely tight focus for one to four hours, followed by a relaxed mind wandering in a different environment from where you were doing intensely focused work. You need to rotate your environments.

What if you made being in a peak state a priority?

When it comes to achieving goals, making committed decisions involves: • investing up front; • making it public; • setting a timeline; • installing several forms of feedback/accountability; and • removing or altering everything in your environment that opposes your commitment.

the ideas you could come up with when collaborating with people from very diverse backgrounds and industries have the potential to completely alter the rules of what you’re doing.

For example, if you’re wanting to make a habit of waking up at 4:30 every morning, you don’t have to start by waking up at 6:00 for a few weeks, then 5:30 for a few weeks, then 5:00 for a few weeks, then eventually make your way to 4:30. You can jump in, feel the pain, and adapt.

If you want to achieve something, you must first conceive and believe you can have that thing. Put more directly, you need to have faith in something that is currently intangible to you.

Kegan’s third stage is the transforming self. At this, the highest step, you have a worldview, but you aren’t “fused” to it. You can stand back from your mental filter and actually look at it from the outside. You can compare and contrast yours with other filters.