The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything

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A 30-second technique to using this secret in your daily life

How can you start by doing in order to get more done?

Here is an anecdote shared by Ramit Sethi, author of the New York Times bestseller I Will Teach You To Be Rich:

“I was having problems getting myself motivated to go to the gym. Every morning, I’d groggily wake up and say, ‘Ugh . . . I know I should get up . . .’ and then roll over and go back to sleep. Day after day—even though I genuinely wanted to go to the gym. I finally realized that ‘motivation’ alone has very little to do with successfully changing behaviors. I started testing different techniques: adding gym to my calendar, sleeping 30 minutes earlier. I would test different approaches for 2 weeks . . . I got mediocre results. But when I sat down to analyze why I wasn’t going to the gym, I realized: My closet was in another room. That meant I had to walk out in the cold, in my boxer shorts, to the other room, shivering while I put on my clothes. Easier to just stay in bed. Once I realized this, I folded my clothes and shoes the night before. When I woke up the next morning, I would roll over and see my gym clothes sitting on the floor. In fact, I couldn’t get up without stepping on them! The result? My gym attendance soared by over 300%.”

Many people have reported similar results from the Gym Clothes effect. Some even sleep in their gym clothes so they’re even “closer to doing” when they wake up. After all, they’ve already put their clothes on. Might as well go to the gym. My clothes are already on. It would take more work to change into something else.

Spend thirty seconds putting yourself in a situation where it’s easier to do.

This is me signing up for swimming lessons. Now, if I skipped my first lesson I would have wasted my money. Seinfeld put big red X’s on the calendar because he didn’t want to leave a day blank. Ramit Sethi put his gym clothes beside his bed. Want to stop eating chips? Hide them in your apartment. Make it easier to not eat chips when you get a craving and are watching TV. Then you won’t. And then you’ll think you’re able to avoid them. Then you’ll want to avoid them.

Pulling Do to the front and pushing Can Do and Want to Do into the distance where they don’t matter means you’ll get more done.