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Achieving success through consistent behaviors

8 min read

From: alexhormozi

Achieving success involves a systematic approach focused on consistent actions and behaviors, rather than merely intentions or external circumstances [00:00:00]. This process can be applied to various aspects of life, including health, relationships, business, sales, and investing [00:00:25]. The ultimate goal is to impress one’s “future self” [00:00:05].

What to Do: Identifying Winning Behaviors

To identify what to do for success, an “invert” process is employed [00:01:55]. This method, attributed to thinkers like Albert Einstein and Charlie Munger, suggests that it’s often easier for the human brain to identify problems than solutions [00:02:03]. Our brains are programmed for survival by finding threats [00:02:42].

The activity involves imagining the least successful version of oneself and identifying actions or inactions that would guarantee failure [00:03:05]. Examples of behaviors that lead to failure include:

Once these “losing” behaviors are identified, they are inverted to reveal “winning” behaviors [00:05:07]. For instance, being impatient becomes being patient, showing up late becomes always being on time, and not following up becomes always following up [00:05:11]. This process leverages our innate ability to find problems for positive outcomes [00:02:57].

How to Do It: Breaking Down Behaviors into Actionable Steps

Knowing what to do is only part of the equation; understanding how to do it is crucial [00:06:19]. Often, failure to act stems from instructions not being broken down into their most basic, observable forms [00:06:28]. The more skilled a person is, the more general a command they can follow; the less skilled, the more detailed the command must be [00:07:07].

Success comes down to aligning the number of skills a person possesses with the number of skills required to understand and execute a task [00:07:40]. A single broken link in a chain of instructions can prevent task completion [00:08:26]. Therefore, to ensure success, behaviors must be broken down to a level where every step is understood and cannot be failed [00:09:00].

For example, the general instruction “be more charismatic” can be operationalized into observable actions such as:

This approach is the essence of effective teaching and learning [00:10:15]. If something can be learned, it is a skill, and it can be taught [00:10:29]. Traits like charisma, often perceived as innate, are actually “buckets of smaller skills” grouped for convenience in communication [00:11:10].

Operationalizing actions means defining them using behaviors that can be seen and measured, excluding feelings, thoughts, intentions, or affirmations [00:12:15]. By focusing on observable actions, the process of learning and teaching becomes simpler, as one deals only with what can be measured [00:13:19].

Learning, Intelligence, and Confidence

  • Learning: Defined as a “same condition, new behavior” response [00:16:29]. If a situation presents itself and one’s behavior doesn’t change, no learning has occurred [00:17:34].
  • Intelligence: The rate at which one changes their behavior in the same situation [00:17:45]. It is the speed of learning [00:17:51]. Being “smarter” means adapting and changing behavior faster [00:18:27].
  • Confidence: The percentage likelihood that something will happen [00:19:32]. Confidence is domain-specific (e.g., confident realtor vs. less confident parent) [00:19:39]. To increase confidence, one must create proof by performing the desired action many times, especially in the exact situation where confidence is needed [00:19:50]. Confidence stems from past preparation, not present wishing [00:20:35]. A plan that requires luck is a bad plan [00:20:41].

Why to Do It: Overcoming Obstacles and Maintaining Motivation

Reasons people might not follow through include external and internal conditions [00:21:11].

External Conditions: The Five Stages of Opportunity Hopping

Many people fall into a cycle of “opportunity hopping” [00:21:30]:

  1. Uninformed Optimism: Starting an endeavor with unrealistic expectations [00:21:35].
  2. Informed Pessimism: Realizing the difficulty and complexity of the task [00:21:47].
  3. Valley of Despair: Questioning commitment and finding justifications to quit [00:22:02]. Most people jump ship here, repeating the cycle [00:22:20].
  4. Informed Optimism: Understanding the process, breaking it into actionable steps, and committing to regular performance and feedback [00:23:12]. This represents knowing “how to win” [00:23:30].
  5. Winning: Achieving the desired outcome [00:23:37].

Sticking with things longer yields compounding returns and is essential for wealth creation, especially during difficult economic times [00:23:51]. Hard times are when “champions are made” and skills are sharpened, as the market transfers to those who remain standing [00:25:16]. A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor [00:25:23], implying that challenges provide opportunities to prove capabilities and build enduring character [00:25:56]. What makes someone extraordinary is not just what they do, but how long they are willing to consistently do it [00:26:10].

Internal Conditions: Motivation and Deprivation

Motivation often stems from deprivation [00:26:53]. When one is hungry, thirsty, or tired, motivation to fulfill those needs is highest [00:27:32]. With money, deprivation is psychological rather than physiological; one feels “poor” if a large gap is perceived between current status and desired status [00:28:47].

To increase motivation, one can change who they compare themselves to [00:31:04]. The environment sets one’s standards, so changing the environment (e.g., surrounding oneself with higher achievers) can stretch the perceived gap and increase motivation [00:30:16]. The most effective comparison is to the person one generally wants to become [00:31:45].

Who to Become: Identity is Action

Contrary to popular belief, becoming a certain type of person (e.g., “honest,” “hardworking”) is not about “being” but about “doing” [00:32:31]. Identity is a description of consistent behaviors [00:32:42]. As Aristotle stated, “We are what we repeatedly do” [00:32:49].

The common “Be-Do-Have” framework is rejected in favor of a “Do-Be-Get” approach [00:33:02]. By consistently doing the actions associated with the desired identity, one becomes that person, and the results (“have”) follow [00:33:54]. This makes the person one wants to become 100% under their control [00:34:07]. “The work works on you more than you work on it” [00:34:19].

New identities come with new priorities, shifting how resources are allocated [00:35:11]. To be number one, one must consistently do what the number one person does [00:35:25].

When to Start: Now

Excuses for delaying action often revolve around time:

  • “Too busy”: This is actually the best time to change behavior. If a new habit can be sustained during peak busyness, it will stick during easier times [00:36:34].
  • “No time”: Everyone has the same 24 hours [00:38:10]. If one is busy but not making progress, they are likely doing the “wrong stuff” [00:38:49]. The first step to course correction is often elimination, not addition, of activities [00:38:23].
  • The “When-Then” Fallacy: This is the belief that one will take action “when” a certain condition is met (e.g., “I’ll save money when I have more money”) [00:39:29]. This inverts the natural sequence. One must “do” first to “get” later [00:39:52].

The ideal time to start is the moment one wants to be their future self [00:40:07]. By beginning to consistently perform the actions of the future self, one is that person, and proof will eventually follow [00:40:18].

The Path to Winning

The path to winning involves:

  1. Identify losing behaviors: Use the “invert” method to list actions that guarantee failure [00:41:29].
  2. Flip to winning behaviors: Invert the losing list to create a list of positive actions [00:41:30].
  3. Break down actions: Deconstruct general terms into continually smaller, observable, and actionable steps that anyone could understand and perform [00:41:57].
  4. Practice consistently: Perform these actions until they become second nature, building confidence and skill [00:41:42].
  5. Measure success by actions: Judge progress based on whether the committed actions were completed, not solely on immediate outcomes [00:42:02]. This ensures success by making failure unreasonable [00:42:04].

Life’s greatest games—marriage, health, business—are not about “winning” but about “outlasting” [00:42:23]. This shifts the focus to making decisions that are 100% within one’s control: the consistent performance of actions [00:42:40].

Hard times are opportunities to prove one’s capabilities [00:45:01]. What makes things hard is not complexity, but the consistent application of effort [00:44:53]. Consistent action, even when boring or without immediate returns, is key to eventual ease and success [00:44:56]. Doubting whether actions will yield results or if one is on the right path is normal, but winners continue to act regardless [00:44:18]. The focus should be on activities, not internal feelings; one can feel terrible and still win [00:44:39].

The ultimate reminder: if you do not change your behavior, you have not learned [00:46:57].

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