Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

We all have many different definitions of success.

Each is suited for a different area of our lives. Underneath this diversity, though, lies a very simple, common truth. Success is a matter of habits.

Habits we need to establish (or to lose).

The characteristic of a habit is to be something we do with such regularity that it becomes almost subconscious and hard to abandon. There is only one path leading there, and that is consistent practice.

And that is hard.

In his Write of Passage course, David Perell explains an effective method to make that achievable. An approach I adopted and am practicing right now.

Here's what he suggests:

First, establish the definition of "doing the work."

If you are trying to get fit, that would be "go to the gym," if you are trying to write every day, it would be "sit at your desk ready to write," you get the idea.

Second, permit yourself to leave whenever you want.

Once you have put yourself in the conditions to practice as per the first point, you can immediately decide to leave if you wish, without considering it a failure.

Finally, set a time limit for your practice as a reward.

Define the duration of your session in advance. For example, train for 30 minutes or write for one hour. Then, when the time has passed, stop and do something else.

The idea is that it'll be much easier to practice regularly with these three conditions set.

Tonight, for instance, I didn't feel like writing, but I promised myself that I'd sit at my desk to do it every day, and also that once I was at my desk ready to write, I could leave at any moment and consider it done.

Then I felt like explaining this process, so here we are. 🙂