RockneCAST
On James Clear: Motion Versus Action (#256, 15 Oct. 2024)
For this episode, we will cover the work of the Habit Buddha James Clear. In particular, we will explore the difference between motion and action as explained in Clear's book Atomic Habits.
Atomic Habits is the type of book you can read over, over, and over. It's a motion, but it will help you put ideas into action.
- Broadcast on:
- 15 Oct 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
what's going on guys for this episode I'm going to talk about the work of James Clear. And in particular, his concept of motion versus action. And a lot of you are saying like oh my gosh that sounds like the exact same thing why do I care about the difference between motion versus action. Well, I'm going to tell you why this is a very important concept. And I'm also going to discuss why you need to read the work of James Clear over and over and over again. So for this episode of the racking cast. I'm going to talk about the books like James Clear, that you need to read over and over and over again and why that's so important. What are those repeat read books in your life would love to hear racking cast at gmail. But also this concept and implementing this work and we'll get into this concept of motion versus action. We'll talk about the quantity versus quality approach to practice. We'll talk about the virtues of testing your ideas, being in action versus solely being in motion and why that's so important. And we'll give you a few pointers at the end of this particular podcast relating to put these principles into action. First off, before I get talking about that, one of the books in your life that you want to read over and over and over again. I think there are certain books whose principles are so timeless that you just need to have them on your bookshelf. And you need to repeatedly refer to them so that you can achieve what you want to achieve in your life. The book atomic habits is one of those books. I don't know what I'm going to call this particular podcast yet, but I could call it James Clear the habit Buddha. If you follow this podcast for a while I've done other episodes on James Clear. But he's so good. And after you read the work you're like, Oh my gosh, why didn't I think about this before. If you have a young person in your life that you want to try to mentor. And I want to actually implement these principles into action. This is a great book to give them to you actually gave this book to my daughter. And I had her write a book report on it. Now whether she's actually going to implement it, I have no idea. But if she does, it's incredibly powerful because what's the greatest inheritance that you can give your child. The principles and practices that if they implement will allow themselves to sustain themselves for the rest of your life, you know, reading the work of Marcus Aurelius this morning. He said, love the discipline that you know and let it support you. The greatest gift that you can give to your child is discipline to input to incorporate a set of habits that will make them who they were destined to become well it's not only important for kids. It's important for you too. And James Clear is the type of person that if you implement his work, you will change your life. He is super popular. So I'm not telling you any great secret here. It's kind of like saying, oh, if you like a talk show go listen to Oprah Winfrey. I mean he's super popular so I'm not sharing any unique secret but you may not know. You may have like heard of him like oh my god he's just another habit guru and some sort of self help God it's just kind of full of bullshit and no he's actually very, very good and I'm going to demonstrate through just a couple pages of his work to give you a little taste of it. He's really kind of get a sense of the power of his work. So first off, one of the things that he is really good at do he's very good at explaining things very simply such that you get it you're like oh my god that makes total sense. This concept of motion versus action and this comes from chapter 11, his chapter titled walk slowly, but never backward. He begins with this vignette of this photography class at the University of Florida by professor by the name of Jerry Oldsman, and he had essentially two groups of students that he had do a certain project. The goal was is to produce high quality photos. In group A, he said, make sure you give great attention to detail in planning the perfect shop. So, look for the optimal location, focus on quality don't do shit. He didn't say that exactly but that's what he basically gave him to do a good job and don't fuck it up basically as boy told him. In the other group, he was saying, just take a lot of photos and learn from those photos. Don't take a lot of time you don't have to worry about optimal lighting, take your freaking iPhone if necessary and go out and just shoot away. Shoot early shoot often shoot randomly shoot when the passion strikes you. Learn what works learn what doesn't work and go from there. At the end of the term, he evaluated the groups in terms of quality, the quality, the group that he had told to take really, really good shots. And the group that just said, fail early, fail off and try a lot, do a lot of trial and error and he evaluated the quality of those groups. And as he reviewed the approaches that were taken the quality group versus the non quality group, the photos in the quality group were far superior to the quality group. Why would that be and basically here's what he said during this semester he was actually surprised at this result. And this is what clear rights only was surprised to find that all of the best photos were produced by the quantity group. During the semester these students were busy taking photos, experimenting with composition and lighting, testing out various methods in the dark room learning from their mistakes. In the process of creating those photos they hold their skills. Meanwhile, the quality group sat around speculating about perfection. In the end they have little to show for their efforts other than their unverified theories and one mediocre photo. So this is something where there are certain professions that just think a lot about the world. They think about it but they don't necessarily do a lot of action associated with that there are certain professions like that. But, but I think this is such a good lesson and then here clear elucidates why this is and here he explains the concept of motion versus taking action. You'd think the what's the difference between motion and action. Well here he explains the difference clear describes motion as when you're in motion you're planning, strategizing and learning. Those are all good things but they don't reduce the result. If he contrasts that with action, action is the type of behavior that will deliver an outcome. If I outline 20 ideas for articles I want to write with that's motion. If I actually sit down and write an article with that's action. If I search for a better diet plan and read a few books on the topic, that's motion. If I actually eat a healthy meal with that's action. And he says obviously motion can be important in terms of the preparatory steps to become a better writer or photographer. But obviously if you don't actually couple it with an action, you don't achieve in a result. The first question of why do people, and I think basically the punchline here is, is that a lot of times people are in motion but not action they talk about doing the book but they don't actually publish it. They talk about producing music but they don't actually do it. They talk about doing a concert but they don't actually perform it. Why is that and this is the saddest part. If he gets in just the concept of people's fear of failure and here, so he writes this is that explains it he says, the more often than not. We do this motion instead of action because motion allows us to feel like we're making progress without running the risk of failure. Most of us are experts at avoiding criticism. It doesn't feel good to fail to be judged publicly. And then they will avoid situations where that might happen. That's the biggest reason why you slip into motion, rather than taking action. You want to delay failure because failure sucks. The other thing that he identifies is that it's easy to be in motion and convince yourself that you're making progress. You know, if you're in sales you got. If you're finding that you're identifying leads, can you make it any phone calls. If you're really fat, you're reading all these books on the best diet plan, but you're not taking any action itself. That's why I think this concept is so so important. And I think that that's why so many people fail to actually take these steps. So that's why whether it's exercise or intermittent fasting or diet plans. The most important thing is to take actions today and repeatedly do them and not necessarily worry about optimizing. I think a lot of times people think that in order to begin working out, they need a personal trainer. Well, there's so much good stuff already available. You just need to start doing it and being consistent. You know, this particular podcast, I have not had any critics of it yet. I think I got one bad review. I think my friends have written some positive reviews. I got one bad review up like a low star and so I'm like, Oh my gosh, I'm making it. I got critics, but I don't have any big critics yet. No one saying that I'm full of bullshit. No one saying that this podcast is socks. You shouldn't listen to it. I don't have any critics yet. But I, but I know when I do that's when I know that I'll full that I'll fully have made it, you know, one of my favorite podcasters is Andrew Cuban Cuban neuroscientist stud Stanford professor of neuroscience on the human lab podcast. Awesome podcast. I'm going to do a standalone podcast on it. And I've noticed that Hebrew men is starting to get these critics like in the New Yorker and the New York reviews and people are saying that he's just spouting platitudes which isn't true. It's a lie and they're engaging in all four sorts of Calumia against him. Why are these people attacking him like this because he's successful because they're jealous of what he's done. And if you look at what he's done in terms of where he actually started. It is absolutely amazing and he's produced a huge quantity of work. So when I look at the goals of this podcast, I'm looking at action versus motion, probably almost to a fault, because I focus so much on producing the podcast and making an actual habit. And then learning kind of what works what doesn't holding my skills practicing over and over and over again. So I can make sure that I'm continually produce this podcast and you can come to rely on it. And I hope you feel that I've actually improved in my ability to deliver this content to you, because that's the goal is to produce this content in such a way that it's easily digestible chunks, and you can actually use it. So my tip for you and my command to you is go out and identify what are those little things that you're just thinking about doing, break it into its smallest constituent part and stick and start action. So if you're a little fat, your little tubby, just get breakfast. If you do that one day you've already taken the first step to becoming a intermittent faster. If you do that every day, you all you are already an intermittent faster and you're part of a unique group. The type of group that allows their body to rest at least 16 hours a day without food. This is a key for future health, or if you want to become a reader, read one line per day, you can do that. If you want to become a writer, write one line per day, and you will become a writer. There are so many quotes that I like from James Clear, but one of them is, it eats action that you take is a vote for the person that you are destined to become. Isn't that so good. This is the type of thing that you get in this book this is definitely going to be the type of book that I will continually read throughout the rest of my life because these principles are timeless. And like a lot of timeless principles, it's so easy to get lost in the detail of life that you forget what really matters. So I hope you have the opportunity to buy atomic habits. It's a huge bestseller, and there's a reason why because it's actually very good. It's time tested, and it is so worth it. I know I'm not always going to cover the work of James Clear, but it's just so good. If you implement it, it is the type of thing where the opportunity to totally change your life. And so that's the key here. Take action, and not just be in motion. You don't get better until you start doing these things repeatedly. And I think the final thing is is that, you know, related to exercise and things like that I do with daily calisthenics. As I'm not a world class athlete and very few of us are it doesn't optimize it is actually very it's important. But I think the key thing here is to be consistent and to get any workout plan and just to get started. Because that is the key is to do something where you can consistently incorporate this into a daily habit, make it into a regular routine and incorporate it into your actual struggle, your actual calendar. And that is very very important. So that's what I'm trying to do with this particular rocket gas. I'm trying to take action. I'm trying to produce content for you. Each time I do the podcast and each time you and I listen, you listen to this podcast, we are creating this group, but don't let me have all the fun. What do you want to do. What do you want to implement your own life. You want to be a photographer writer. Start taking action and start doing it now, number one, and repeat it over and over and over and over, number two, and number three. Once you repeat it, see what works see what doesn't work and double down from there. So I hope you found this particular action of producing the podcast great. You read the work of James clear atomic habits and that you spread this message of the rocky cast the work of Jane clear and put what you've learned into action. That's kind of a rip off of the art of manliness, but you know what I'm saying, do what you need to do to become the best version of you. So that's it for this episode of the rocky cast until next time you and I see each other on the rocky cast.
For this episode, we will cover the work of the Habit Buddha James Clear. In particular, we will explore the difference between motion and action as explained in Clear's book Atomic Habits.
Atomic Habits is the type of book you can read over, over, and over. It's a motion, but it will help you put ideas into action.