learning about habits

Ali Abdaal has been creating one to two videos a week on his YouTube channel since 2017… a habit that took a lot of hard work and required consistency through many times of uncertainty.

In 2020, while the rest of the world was reeling from the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic, Ali was watching his YouTube habit turn him into an accidental millionaire.

Here are a few ‘habit nuggets’ I’ve gleaned from his story.

• anything can be turned into a habit, even something you love

• especially something you love

• it’s important to act, and enjoy discovering what you don’t know, then, like a successful student, to learn from mistakes and failures as you go along

• mistakes and failures often become new strengths if you simply don’t give up

• many people give up. especially when things get tough. usually because giving up is the real habit

• consistency in a habit turns novices into extraordinary novices

• the James Clear book, Atomic Habits, is getting a lot of traction on the interwebs right now. it’s not a very long book, but I did the Blinkist ‘listen to an entire book in 15 minutes’ thing to save time, and it was pretty terrific

• this blog is a habit I will be working on for years to come, and it won’t be perfect (which is ultimately what will make it perfect)

• I’ll start adding more interesting links and Blinkist recommendations to this ‘standing’ blog entry as I discover them

• why are you still reading all this? you already know the habit you need to start. what are you waiting for? start it right away. go on! hop to it! 👍🏽