**Your habits shape your identity. Your identity shapes your habits.**
You are what you do repeatedly. [[Do the Thing the Person You Want to Be Would Do]], and you'll slowly become that person.
Goals set up a [[pattern]] of deferred happiness, meanwhile a focus on a system can lead to continual happiness. You aren't thinking "I'll lose 10 pounds, _then_ I'll be happy", but instead you can be happy knowing you didn't eat out **today**.
_**Your identity is a result of the cumulative actions you take.**_ Each small action (habit) is a vote toward your identity. You don't need a unanimous vote, you just need a majority. The etymology of "Identity" has literally means "what you do continually".
> [!tldr] 👌 The most effective way to change your habits for the long term is to focus on who you want to be, not what you want to achieve.
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# More
## Source
- [[Atomic Habits]]
## Related
- [[Habit Loop & Change]]
- [[Love the Process]]