Today marks day 19 of reading Atomic Habits, in this chapter review, we will learn about doing tasks just on the edge of our current abilities.
The book itself is very highly rated on amazon https://amzn.to/3x4K7Sa (affiliate link to book), boasting a 4.7 star rating over 157,532 reviews. The book also claims to have sold over 15 million copies as of Oct. 16, 2018 and has sold over 20 million copies as of Mar. 4, 2024.
This chapter follows up Chapter 18, where we learned about competing in the right field for us.
Chapter Summary:
- “The Goldilocks Rule states that humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities.” I fully believed this as I use to really enjoy math until around grade 11, before it was just challenging enough that I felt satisfied learning, but once I got to pre-calculus I started falling behind, I no longer enjoyed math, it felt beyond my abilities, despite trying my best.
- “The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom.” The one problem with being a YouTuber amongst the many possible rewards is how tedious it can be. What makes me stop working on my video isn’t difficultness, but boredom. I try to power through, knowing that the satisfaction of watching my video once it’s finished is far greater than the boredom.
- “As habits become routine, they become less interesting and less satisfying. We get bored.” I wish I could say I have a recent experience with this, but I haven’t built a new habit in quite some time. The closing habit I have is meditation, which in itself can already be quite boring, but the peace is very nice, so overall I enjoy it.
- “Anyone can work hard when they feel motivated. It’s the ability to keep going when work isn’t exciting that makes the difference.” Motivation is weird, it can come out of no where, when I make videos I experience this all the time. I would say that I spend about 50% of the time working while motivated and the other 50% (maybe more) working when I don’t feel motivation, I tend to enter auto pilot, as a lot of the video editing is just rinse and repeat.
- “Professionals stick to the schedule; amateurs let life get in the way.” I unfortunately am still an amateur, I let even the smallest incontinences get in the way of my habits. I know that I have to start doing things even if the stars don’t align, the days where things don’t go as plan. I may have tried to go to sleep early, to wake up early and go to the gym, but I slept poorly and now want to sleep in. This is my own fault when I sleep in, I am the one making the choice to sleep in. It’s about making that decision in our minds continuous to go no matter what (in this case I was referring to going to the gym, but it can be applied to going and doing anything)
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