Solution #3 — Take notes and set triggers to remind you

There are many golden nuggets of wisdom in self-help books and yet we struggle to remember most of them.

Even if we somehow remember the lessons vaguely, we fail to act on them at the right times.

A lesson about leadership may only be relevant when you are in a leadership position. ...

Do you read a lot of self-help books? Do you watch self-improvement videos frequently to learn how you can better yourself?

If you do, one difficulty you’d undoubtedly face on this journey is ‘actionability’ — that is, taking action and applying new knowledge you’ve lea...

So what’s stopping us from taking action on our knowledge? Well… there are a couple of reasons. Let’s explore.

To eliminate ambiguity, you need a plan.

In general, the more specific and the more clear you are about your plan the better.

• What’s the first task you will tackle when you wake up? 
• How long will you spend on your afternoon workout? 
• Where will ...

• We often think that big changes are necessary for us to grow.
• However, big changes require a lot of work. 
• If you put yourself in a position where you can easily get overwhelmed by the large amount of work, you’d very likely give up.

Example:

• You want ...

After keeping track of these valuable lessons, you’d want to set some triggers to prompt yourself to take action on them.

A trigger is any stimulus that influences behaviors (similar to a cue)

• Time-based trigger: It’s 7 am — my alarm rang so I will get ...

The solution to this problem requires a mindset shift. 

• Understand that small changes are enough.
• Oftentimes the change you need is SMALLER than you think.
• Starting small makes it mentally easy for you to get started.
• You can ALWAYS ramp up your efforts as ti...

Here’s a great example.

• Bob and Alice are both trying to become healthier.
• Bob says that he will “try to become healthier this year”.
• Alice says that she will run 3 times a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from 8 am to 9 am.

Who do you think is mor...