Lukas von Hohnhorst

Copyright © 2017 Lukas von Hohnhorst

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ISBN: 9781520814377
 Table of Contents

Introduction ......................................................................... 5
What Is The HabitSystem? ................................................................ 8
How Does The HabitSystem Work? ............................................... 11
Section One—The Roots .................................................... 17
The Root Cause of Habit Problems ................................................. 18
The Solution: Action and Simplicity.............................................. 30
Element #1: Action ........................................................................... 32
Element #2: Simplicity ..................................................................... 36
Section Two—The Trunk .................................................. 45
Element #3: Daily Repetition .......................................................... 46
Habit Taxonomy ............................................................................... 51
The Three Types of Habits .......................................................... 52
Habit Spheres................................................................................. 62
How Growth Habits Create Mindset Habits ............................. 64
Element #4: Tracking ....................................................................... 68
Habit Tracking 101 ........................................................................... 73
Three Different Tools for Habit Tracking ................................ 74
What About Rewards? ................................................................. 78
Streaks and Chains ....................................................................... 79
The Need for Tracking ................................................................. 81
Weathering a Storm: How to Skip Habits Beneficially............... 83
Pruning and Trimming: How To Deal with Bad Habits ............. 88
Section Three—The Crown ............................................... 93
Element #5: The Habit Journey ...................................................... 94
Vertical Growth ............................................................................. 96
Horizontal Growth ....................................................................... 99
Cathartic Growth ........................................................................ 102
The Habits ........................................................................................ 106
Personal Development ................................................................... 108
Morning Routine ......................................................................... 108
 Go to Bed Early/Get up Early .................................................... 109
Success Journal ............................................................................ 111
Plan the Next Day ....................................................................... 115
The Physical ..................................................................................... 117
Exercise/Lift ................................................................................ 117
The Creative ..................................................................................... 120
Write ............................................................................................. 120
Draw .............................................................................................. 122
The Mental........................................................................................ 124
Meditate ........................................................................................ 124
Code ............................................................................................... 125
New Language ............................................................................. 126
Read ............................................................................................... 126
The Entrepreneurial ....................................................................... 129
Work on Your Business.............................................................. 129
Mini Projects .................................................................................... 132
Behavioral Habits ............................................................................ 138
Going One Step Further: Track Everything ............................. 140
Inspiration: Ideas for Behavioral Habits ................................ 140
Mindset Habits ................................................................................ 143
Generic Habit Learning Skill (GHLS) ....................................... 143
How To Set Up Your HabitSystem ............................................... 146
INTRODUCTION

The HabitSystem | 5
Your First Task
Before you begin to read this book, I want you to make one promise.
You must pledge that you will, no matter what, read one page of a
book—that is, any book you want—every single day for the next 30
days.

To keep track of your pledge, you will need some kind of

Accountability Journal: a notebook, a journal, an app, or any
consistent place where you can jot down your daily successes.

Start creating this journal right now, okay? Not after reading the
first chapter, not in five minutes. I mean right now. After all, you
probably bought this book because it specifically details how to
create new habits. If you are unwilling to take this first step, it
could very well be a sign that you are not yet ready to change your
life. That’s okay, I'm not forcing you.

But just know that change requires real commitment. It means

taking a hard look at yourself and asking, “Am I reading this book
because I want to dream about change, or because I want to change
now?” Because here’s the deal: if you do this first step and start your
Journal right away, you’ll benefit big time.

Take a piece of paper and write this down: I will read one page every
single day for the next 30 days. And then sign and date it to pledge
your commitment. It doesn’t have to be perfect (you can find a
better notebook or app later), right now a piece of paper will do.

Have you created your Accountability Journal? No? Then do not

even bother reading any further in this book because you have
already told yourself that you are unwilling to put in the work
required to benefit from its contents. I know this may sound harsh,
but it’s the truth. This book is all about forming habits, and you
have to take that first step to form a habit. Change begins now.

6 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

Your First Success
Have you created your Accountability Journal? Yes? Very good!
We’ll count today’s reading as one page, so go ahead and put a tick
mark in your Journal next to today’s date, or otherwise note that
you have read one page. You are off to a great start! Was it hard to
read one single page? Probably not. It was most likely quite easy.
And since you are reading this paragraph, it shows you have
continued to read beyond one page, and you will no doubt read
another couple of pages after this.

Take a look at the habit you have just started: the average book has
about 300 pages. Yes, some books may have 200 pages and others
may have well over 500 pages, but on average one can say that a
book has around 300 pages. Since a year has over 300 days, you’re
on your way to reading at least one book a year.

And that’s only if you read one page a day. For every additional
page, you read consistently every day for a year, you complete
another book in that given year. For instance, if you read two pages
every single day, you will read two books in a year; for ten pages per
day it will be ten books in a year. This illustrates the power of
implementing small habits that create big changes.

The HabitSystem | 7
 What Is The HabitSystem?

P
OSSIBLY THE MOST LIKELY question you, the reader, will have at
this moment is, “What is the HabitSystem?” Boiled down,
the HabitSystem is a framework that helps you implement
and sustain habits—that’s it. While this sounds rather simplistic, it
is actually quite difficult to create new habits. That’s why there are
many books on habits—some of them helpful, others not so much.
You may ask, “What is so different about the HabitSystem from
other books?” Let me tell you.

The HabitSystem is not a book that gives you a warm and fuzzy
feeling or some pseudo-inspirational stories. I know it is
motivational to hear these anecdotes from time to time, but in this
book, we focus on the profound and long-term impact you will
create within the HabitSystem.

The HabitSystem is a book about learning and doing. When we talk

about habits, we talk about things like reading consistently, working
out consistently, learning a new language consistently, writing a
journal consistently, having a consistent morning routine, or working
on a project consistently—you get the idea.

What this book is about is acting and doing. While we will cover
non-activity habits (we refer to them as “Mindset Habits”), the core
of this book is on activity-based habits (we refer to them as “Growth
Habits”). You will learn later on why we do it this way.

As you can probably see by now, this book is radically different

from books you may have read before. With most books, you read
them once and most of the content is quickly forgotten. This is a big
problem because you will only be able to use the mechanisms and
tools provided in a book as long as the content is salient.

8 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

After reading a book, you might think, hey this is a great concept.
You might end up using the ideas once or twice. Then when you
finish the book, you’ll most likely forget about that awesome
concept you liked so much while it was fresh in your mind, but no
change will have occurred.

I wrote this book specifically to help you avoid this all-too-common

pitfall. I want you to work with this book like your life depends on
it. I want you to realize that your life does depend on it: the quality
of your life, your success, and your happiness all depend on it. Take
notes and most importantly, use this book as a tool to effect lasting
change.

There is something special about this book. It does not provide

short-term fixes and magic pills. If you just read this book and
forget about its contents, you will have made zero progress because
reading and working long-term are two very different things.

The benefits of this book are long-term in nature. You will only see
the benefits if you actually apply the methods provided in this
book. This means doing your habits daily. I want to be frank:
anything else will not work. “Daily Repetition,” as I call it, is a core
concept of this book. Since you have already committed to a
positive daily habit by reading one page per day, I know you have it
in you to reap all the benefits of this book.

Daily Repetition requires that you work on your HabitSystem every

single day. The good news, and I know you’ve been waiting for some
good news, is that you get to determine how much you want to
work on your HabitSystem. You can work on it for five minutes a
day (we call this lower limit the “Completion Threshold”) or for
four hours. The only thing that matters is consistency. This concept
may sound foreign to you right now, but trust me, it will all make
sense once you have finished this book.

The HabitSystem | 9
Like I said, this book requires you to work. Your life will not change
after you read it once; that’s not how life works. This is not a
feel-good book that you read to make your life instantly better. This
book is an invitation and a guide to making your life better—on
your own, through action and intention.

With this in mind, I invite you to create your own HabitSystem. I

know this book has the potential to elevate your life to a new level.
Yes, this is a bold claim. Yet I have lived this claim, and I can
promise that this book contains the recipe for bold change. You are
the one with power. This book is a tool to help you harness and fully
utilize that power.

10 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

 How Does The HabitSystem Work?

The Habit Tree and “Start Slow Then Grow”

Y
OU MAY HAVE WONDERED why there is a tree on the cover of
this book. It is actually a particular tree: an oak. This is not
some random coincidence because I just happen to like oak
trees—there is a reason behind this choice. As you read along, I am
sure you will understand the reason why I chose an oak.

Now, what is this tree about? Why is it here? The HabitSystem uses
the metaphor of a tree to help you achieve the goal of long-term
habit implementation. We will look at the roots, the trunk, and the
crown of a tree and liken them to elements of the HabitSystem.
Using this metaphor will allow you to remember the Core Elements
of the HabitSystem more easily in a visual sense by giving you a
profound image of how growth works.

To become a majestic oak, a small acorn needs certain nutrients and

conditions to grow larger and stronger. The same is true for the
HabitSystem. You will start just like the tiny acorn and, over time,
your HabitSystem will grow larger and stronger and will become
more stable because you have given it exactly what it needs to
grow. At first, your system will be fragile—just like a tender sapling.
However, as your HabitSystem matures, it will grow strong,
resilient, and stoic—just like an old oak.

The core principle behind the HabitSystem is Start Slow Then

Grow, which also pertains to our tree metaphor. Growth has to be
organic and sustainable. Sometimes fast growth is sustainable,
albeit not very often. In the HabitSystem, we want lasting change,
not some quick fix or magic pill. Consequently, just like a tree, we
will start slow.

The HabitSystem | 11
Figure 1: The five Core Elements of The HabitSystem

Each part of the oak tree represents a specific element of the

HabitSystem:

Tree Component: Roots

Every tree needs deep roots that provide a stable foundation. The
root of the tree, however, is not visible. It is below the surface,
similar to how an iceberg is composed. Yet, without deep roots, no
tree can grow big. The roots in the HabitSystem are manifested
with two Core Elements: Action and Simplicity. They are necessary
for your HabitSystem to grow strong and stable, just like roots are
necessary for even the biggest of oaks. Without them, no growth is
possible. And even if your HabitSystem has grown mature, a solid
root is still necessary.

12 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

Core Element: Action

Any amount of Action is better than no Action at all, and to

implement a habit, you just need to start somewhere. This may
sound obvious, but many people procrastinate or wait for the
perfect starting point. Perfection and planning are overrated, while
Action is highly underrated.

Core Element: Simplicity

Our lives are complex enough, and every superfluous component

requires an unnecessary expenditure of energy. This is why the
HabitSystem is set up to be simple in three main ways: Simplicity in
Concept, Simplicity in Habit Design, and Simplicity in Tracking.

Tree Component: Trunk

Next up is the trunk, which is the first visible element of every tree
that grows gradually larger over time. In the HabitSystem, the
trunk is represented by the active elements of the HabitSystem,
namely Daily Repetition and Habit Tracking. To grow your habits,
you have to repeat them every single day and you must keep track
of them. Just as a trunk grows wider very slowly over time thus
becoming more stable, your Daily Repetition and your Tracking will
become more solid, meaning that your habits are no longer fragile
but more mature and sturdy like an old oak’s trunk.

Core Element: Daily Repetition

Implementing a habit is not a one-time event, but a continual

process. Instead of thinking in terms of events, which does not
work when implementing long-term habits, you will become
process-oriented and maintain consistency. Consistency is at the
crux of habit creation, which in turn leads to sustainable change.

The HabitSystem | 13
Core Element: Tracking

To help you stick to your habits daily, some form of Tracking

System is a must, such as the Journal you already began at the
beginning of this book. This can be a notebook, an app, or whatever
works for you. Your Tracking System must be very simple—the
simpler it is, the more likely you are to keep using it. You will even
learn how to effectively include allowable habit skipping, which
makes the HabitSystem even easier to implement.

Tree Component: Crown

Finally, there is the tree’s crown. It is the loftiest component of a tree
and its three types of growth—Vertical (improving), Horizontal
(compounding), and Cathartic (shedding)—directly correspond to
the types of growth you will see with the HabitSystem. The crown
consists of many different branches, each looking somewhat
different than the next. The analogy to the crown is seen in the
development of the HabitSystem, which we call the Habit Journey.
The Habit Journey encompasses the increase in your skills, your
ever-growing list of habits, and the notion that the system grows
more mature and defined over time.

Core Element: The Habit Journey

Developing your system entails using three types of growth:

Vertical, Horizontal, and Cathartic. Vertical Growth refers to the
obvious benefits of the progress you make with daily repetitions.
Horizontal Growth involves the adding on of new habits and the
corresponding Spillover Effect. Cathartic Growth means refining
your habits as you shed old, non-beneficial habits.

This was a broad overview of the Habit Tree and its Core Elements;
they represent the components necessary to implement your own

14 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

HabitSystem. Based on the three components of a tree, this book is
divided into three sections.

How This Book Is Structured

In the first section, we will look at the root. Here, we learn about the
mindset behind the HabitSystem. We will learn what the root
problems of habit implementation are and how you can overcome
them with Action and Simplicity.

In the second section, we will learn about Daily Repetition and

Tracking your habits which involves the Habit Taxonomy, how
habits are tracked, and what to do with bad habits. Just as an oak
tree can be pruned to encourage new growth, you’ll learn exactly
how to trim non-beneficial habits and get them out of your life to
make way for a lifelong HabitSystem.

In the last section, we will talk about different habits and each one’s
particular qualities. We will explore how you can use habits to grow
your HabitSystem, your personality, and your skills and delve into
the three types of growth: Horizontal Growth, Vertical Growth, and
Cathartic Growth.

The strength of the HabitSystem is that it builds upon the core

tenet of Start Slow Then Grow. It takes motivation, which is
unreliable, out of the equation, and it can then be boiled down to
the Five Core Elements which will be invaluable tools in creating
positive habits that lead to real change.

The HabitSystem | 15
 Summary
• The HabitSystem is likened to an oak tree and, like the tree, consists
of three components: The Roots, the Trunk, and the Crown.

• The core idea behind the HabitSystem is Start Slow Then Grow
because we care about growth and change that has a long-term
impact.

• The Root of the HabitSystem has the elements Action and

Simplicity.

• The Trunk of the HabitSystem has the elements Daily Repetition

and Tracking.

• The Crown of the HabitSystem represents the Habit Journey and its
three types of growth: Vertical, Horizontal, and Cathartic.

• The first element is Action. To effect lasting change, any Action is

better than no Action at all. Trying to be perfect will often lead to
no Action and, thus, no change at all.

• The second element is Simplicity. Simplifying things makes them

easier. Thus, we strive for Simplicity in Concept, in Habit Design,
and in Tracking.

• The third element is Daily Repetition. Habits ought to be done each

day because Daily Repetition ensures constant Action and
embraces a process-mindset.

• The fourth element is Tracking. Tracking allows you to consistently

ensure Daily Repetition. Tracking will be simple.

• The fifth element is the Habit Journey which represents three types
of growth: Vertical, Horizontal, and Cathartic.

16 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

SECTION ONE—THE ROOTS

The HabitSystem | 17
 The Root Cause of Habit Problems

Why Change Doesn’t Always Last

N
OBODY IS EVER PERFECTLY happy. This statement may sound
depressing, but it’s quite true. And to be honest, I think it
is good that there’s no such thing as perfect happiness. If
there were perfection in life, a lot of the thrill—the struggle that
makes life dynamic—would be lost. I believe that striving for a
happier, richer, more fulfilling life is an invaluable endeavor.

Most people I know want to improve certain aspects of their lives.

Some want to be more successful or earn more money, some want
to be healthier in body and mind, and yet others want to learn a
new language or express themselves creatively. All of these worthy
endeavors require us to do something: to change. More specifically,
to change habits—but how does this come about?

Our desires become reality through action. We may consequently

try numerous approaches, only to fail time and again. You may
have experienced this on your own, prompting you to ask yourself,
why is it so hard to change even when I really want to? The more
relevant question, I would suggest, is why is it so hard to make
lasting change?

These questions puzzled me for quite some time. What I learned

from my own experience is that, to be blunt, there is a huge
problem with how most people approach change. Note that I didn’t
say that change is impossible, or that we are powerless to change. It
is our approach, the way we think of change, that just isn’t working.
Therefore, I want to provide you with a different mindset, along
with the actionable tools you will need to implement sustainable
change in your life.

18 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

Let’s start by looking at the current landscape of change-related
vehicles. I’m talking about self-help books, magazines, and a
fabulous invention called the Internet, home of many
self-proclaimed experts on a plethora of topics.

One common theme crops up over and over again: the world is full
of quick fixes, shortcuts, and bogus inventions. And many people
are happy to swallow these magic pills because it is so tempting to
believe that they will help them achieve their goals with little time
or effort. But most, if not all, of these quick fixes simply do not
work. They may seem effective for a week, maybe even a month.
Yet, inevitably, the progress slows and eventually stalls. Why is
that the case? Why is the change so fleeting, so unsustainable?

Just go to a gym in January, and then once again in March. You

know what you’ll see. You’ll see a striking decrease in attendance.
Or take note of how many people have started a life-changing diet
promoted by the latest super-guru and see how long their
momentum holds. We’ve all heard a fellow student proclaiming,
“Next semester, I am going to do all of my reading on time!” In 99%
of these cases, there is a flurry of enthusiasm and action that
quickly peters out. The result: no lasting change.

I’ll tell you why that is the case. Just wanting to change is not
enough. And you know what? Just changing is not enough in and of
itself.

Mere desire does not provide an adequate tool kit to attain lasting
change. The single biggest problem is that people want to change
way too much in way too little time. This is, I repeat, the single
biggest problem. Please don’t misunderstand me: I am not
condemning big change or big dreams at all. I’m all for thinking big.
What I am saying is that the culprit, what gets in the way of lasting
change, is the desire to grow too fast. So many of us want

The HabitSystem | 19
immediate results; we want results yesterday, which is not only
unrealistic, but undoable.

An oft-cited Chinese proverb attributed to Lao Tzu says, “A journey

of a thousand miles starts with a single step.” Wise words. To put it
another way: in order to think big, you have to start small. You can
think back to the oak tree, which takes close to one hundred years
to fully mature; all of its growth is solid and lasting.

The truth is, everything in this world starts out small. An enormous
oak tree was once a tiny acorn. Each human being takes years to
grow from a tiny cell to a full-grown adult. Each computer is the
result of a series of steps—electricity, the ability to mine copper and
transform it into wire, binary coding—each of which took centuries
to develop. This is the essence of life—and a core mechanism in this
world.

Trying to change the essence of life is futile. No company started as

a multi-billion-dollar enterprise. Every successful company started
with a single idea and then, over time, became what is now Apple,
Mercedes-Benz, or General Electric. The latter two companies took
over a century to become the giants they are today.

The same concept is true for us humans when it comes to changing

the way we live. We are simply not designed to change too much at
one time. Thus, a core principle upon which HabitSystem is based
is:

Start Slow Then Grow

You will read these words again and again throughout this book.
Start Slow Then Grow is one of the core tenets of the HabitSystem.
Compare it to that old oak again; it took so many years for that
acorn to grow but now it is an enormous behemoth. Yes, massive
growth is possible, but it will take time.

20 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

Since this concept is actually the answer to the question of how we
create sustainable change, I’d like to first back up a bit and try to
understand the problem of why change is not always easy. This
understanding is paramount because it enables us to get a deeper
look into what the solution should look like.

Disclaimer: I’m not saying that big change in a short amount of

time never works. There are some situations where it has. Still, a
look at the relative success of slow versus fast change shows us that
slow change is heavily favored. Thus, we want to develop a
generalized approach—a proven concept that can work for anyone,
and one that is not contingent upon a miracle or exceptional luck.

Resistance and Entropy

Without further ado, I will explain the problem in detail: why most
of the time big change in a short amount of time does not work.

The goal of change is growth—and the two things that thwart

growth are Resistance and Entropy. These two concepts are
interconnected. Resistance sounds familiar and you may have
heard about Entropy. You may now ask: What do they have to do
with habits and lasting change? Let me elaborate.

Every system, including the human mind, has a default state to

which it reverts. The default state of nature is chaos. That is, when
you allow nature to go unchecked, chaos will emerge. This
phenomenon is explained through the Second Law of
Thermodynamics which states that any system naturally
gravitates towards a more disordered state.

Take a garden, for example. What makes it a garden, rather than a

wild field, is the planning and work devoted to pruning the trees
and bushes, planting flowers, and clearing out the weeds. If you
leave the garden alone for long enough, chaos will emerge—the

The HabitSystem | 21
garden will grow ragged, unwanted plants may take over, and the
order that characterized your garden will disappear. Essentially, the
default state of that piece of land is not that of a garden, but rather a
disorganized field. The disorganization may be beautiful in itself,
but if you want a garden, it takes effort or energy to maintain the
garden. Without your guiding vision and without your effort and
energy, nature will resist order and, over time, the carefully
cultivated garden will be gone.

This process of the garden, or any system, reverting to chaos is

what we mean by Entropy.

How does the concept of Entropy apply to making changes that will
lead to growth? More specifically, how does the concept apply to the
human brain? Well, when we try to incorporate big changes in our
lives, tension is introduced into our systems of thought, mindset,
and behavior, and our entire being is affected. The big change we
try to incorporate is in drastic opposition to the default state, or the
way things are before change happens.

Remember, the order of the garden, as well as the big change we

want to implement, naturally tend toward chaos. The creation of a
new or more organized state introduces a tremendous amount of
tension, or, as we will call it, Resistance.

If you seek to create order or change in your garden or your mind,

countering Entropy will create Resistance, which can only be
overcome with the expenditure of energy. Because without energy,
it is inevitable that systems will revert to their default states.

To illustrate, I will use a real-life example that I am sure you can

relate to: if you resolve to go to the gym for two hours, every single
day, cold turkey, you create a lot of tension in your system. Because
the new habit is so different from the old, the change will require

22 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

you to put in a lot of energy into maintaining the new. Without that
energy, your system will revert to the default state—in this case, it
means that you will not be going to the gym at all. Your brain and
body will put up Resistance that is equal to the size of the change.

The bigger the change, the more tension is created in the system.
The more tension, the bigger the Resistance to change. Working
against this natural but ultimately defeating cycle requires huge
amounts of energy. And here’s the catch: energy is a limited
resource.

As everyone probably knows, the dominant human form of energy

in most cases is willpower. Willpower is the energy required to do
things that run counter to the mind and body’s Resistance. You
summon up willpower to take a cold shower; you draw from
willpower to read a book rather than go to your default state, which
may be to watch TV.

As I said, energy (and thus willpower) is a scarce resource. Research

has shown that willpower is depleted every time we have to make a
decision, which explains why it is difficult to resist falling back to
the default state. When willpower is depleted, chaos emerges. It’s as
simple as that.

But What About Motivation?

You’ve heard it before, how nothing can get done without the
proper motivation—but is this even true? Can it help us at all in
effecting lasting change? Motivation is actually willpower in
turbocharge. When we are motivated, we feel like we have an
endless supply of willpower. Motivation is at its peak when we start
new projects or activities, and we sincerely believe that we will
maintain this level of motivation in the future—a shockingly
misguided line of thinking. Experience really ought to remind us

The HabitSystem | 23
that motivation is something we have no control over. It’s fleeting
and mercurial. Sometimes we are bursting with it, sometimes we
are not in the mood.

Let me tell you what experience conveniently forgets to tell us:

relying on motivation will never ever get us to our goals. It will
never work in the long run because motivation is just a feeling, and
all feelings are subject to change. What can be relied upon, on the
other hand, is a consistent approach, a system that is controllable
and not subject to our changing feelings.

To reach our goals, we must not and cannot rely on motivation

alone. To effect change, we must give up the illusion that
motivation alone will lead to growth. This fact is a hard one to
swallow, I know. But we all know from experience that while
motivation leads to spikes of growth that seem big in the short run,
it cannot be relied upon to guide us toward long-term growth due
to its very nature.

Figure 2: The reality of changes in behavior; most changes are not sustainable
and thus provide no long-term results

24 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

It is well-known that we live in an increasingly short-term-focused
society which is dominated by instant gratification and peak
experiences. Just look at movies with fast cuts, and the “always
online” mentality. All of this fast-paced fuzz goes against human
nature. Yet far too many people let their feelings dictate their level
of action. And while motivation can be extremely useful, its fleeting
nature is ignored—we optimistically (or foolishly) hope that this
time, it will last.

Life is a marathon, not a sprint. Just like our tree does not grow
mature over the course of one day, your life is not going to change
by the end of the week. What counts is long-term happiness and
fulfillment, not the hunt for constant and short-lived peaks. The
reliance on motivation alone is a symptom of the sprint mentality,
as it encourages people to gratify their immediate wishes instead of
choosing positive habits that lead to sustained happiness.

But now we find ourselves in a tough situation. First of all, we know

that willpower is a finite resource that will not suffice in our fight
against the powerful forces of Resistance. Secondly, we know that
we cannot rely on motivation because it’s fleeting and unreliable. It
sounds bad, doesn’t it? Well, take heart: there’s a common sense,
realistic, and effective fix that you will learn about in the pages to
come.

To so introduce this approach, we will begin with shortly revisiting

the concept of Entropy because there is something else important
about it that you should bear in mind.

The Thing with Entropy

On the previous pages, I mentioned Entropy along with Resistance
and made some points about the default state of things and how
Resistance makes it difficult to maintain change.

The HabitSystem | 25
Entropy leads to chaos in a system—the reversal to the default
state—if no energy is put into the system. The key takeaway from
Entropy is that it requires energy to remain at a consistent level, as
otherwise chaos emerges.

Going back to the example of the garden, we know we have to weed,

water, and ensure sunlight and nutrients for it to emerge from
chaos. Your energy is needed to fight Entropy and keep Resistance
at bay. If you till it once in the spring, plant your seeds, and then
leave it alone, it will soon transform to its default: a wild patch of
weeds.

The difference between maintenance and growth

Now, consider the example of going to the gym once a week. You
have built up some muscle; now the default state is some muscle. In
order for you to keep that default state, you have to commit to a full
body workout once a week. These weekly workouts will help you
maintain your current physical level: you will keep some muscle.

Now here’s the deal: what if you do just a tiny bit more than just
what is necessary to maintain the default state? In your workout
case, this means going to the gym twice a week. In the garden
example, this means that apart from your basic garden care, you
implement something like an irrigation system or apply extra
fertilizer. You decided to put in some energy to make the garden
more fruitful. Now, something interesting happens: not only is the
current level maintained (as enough energy is put into the system
to counter the Resistance), but a tiny bit of growth has occurred as
well.

The resulting difference is striking. Let’s imagine two gym friends.

Both started with some muscle. One of them has been going to the
gym once a week for a full year, the other one has gone to the gym
twice a week, also for one year. I promise you that there is a big

26 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

difference. When this difference is seen as an end result, it is
massive. But it was brought about by tiny changes over time that
resulted in an intentional expansion of your default state. Here is
my proposition: if it requires you to put energy into maintaining
the default state, why not put in just slightly more energy to get
growth? This additional energy is not very much, but it will make a
big difference in the long run. Reading one page a day seems like a
small thing, because it is; and it’s totally doable. Reading two pages
a day isn’t much more to imagine or accomplish. Making tiny
adjustments like this over the course of a year yields significant
results.

Distinguishing the starting points

At this point, we need to distinguish the different starting points.

When you want to change, that is, when you decide that it’s time to
acquire a new skill or change the direction of your life, you either
start from scratch or you start with something. Starting from scratch
means that you have no acumen in the new area you’re trying to get
into. Starting with something means you already have some level
of achievement in this area.

When you start with something, Entropy is highly relevant because

if you do nothing, Entropy will ensure you’ll certainly lose some of
your skills. If you played an instrument as a kid and suddenly
stopped, most of your skills would be lost today due to Entropy.
Entropy happens in nearly every area of life. If no energy is put into
the system, then chaos will emerge. This is the very way of nature.
In this case, you already know that you have to put in energy
merely to maintain at the same level. So why not put in a little bit
more energy to grow?

When you start from scratch, Entropy is the default state, which is
chaos. No skill means chaos. As a result, every amount of growth,

The HabitSystem | 27
even if very small, will have an impact. Take a look at languages. If
you only happen to speak English, every amount of energy put into
learning Spanish will improve your Spanish ability. If you are not
physically fit, even light workouts will positively affect your
physicality. This is a good thing because if you are starting at the
zero level in a desired skill, you know that only a small amount of
repeated effort over time will produce massive growth.

The HabitSystem is designed to show you exactly how to

implement these small, effective changes to create long lasting
habits.

28 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

 Summary
• Most people want to change certain areas of their lives—they want
to grow and improve.

• Often, the size of the desired change is too big to be implemented

sustainably in the short run.

• We call our natural tendency to oppose change Resistance. In most

cases, the amount of Resistance to change is equal to the size of the
change.

• We call nature’s tendency to revert back to chaos Entropy. It is a

feature persistent in most systems and, simply put, means that
chaos emerges if no energy is put into the system.

• Because of Entropy, energy is required to maintain the default

state. If no energy is put into the system, chaos emerges.

• If you put more energy into a system than is required to maintain

its default state, growth happens.

• Willpower, a form of human energy, is an exhaustible resource.

This makes it hard to sustain big changes, as a lot of energy is
required to make the change stick.

• Motivation—or willpower in turbocharge—will fail you, as it is

fleeting and unsustainable.

• If an activity becomes a habit, it can be done almost automatically

thus requiring no motivation and only little energy.

The HabitSystem | 29
 The Solution: Action and Simplicity

How to Make New Approaches Sustainable

W
HEN OUR SOURCES OF energy—willpower—are in short
supply, and if motivation gets us only so far, the
HabitSystem is the solution. It is a long-term process
of making sustainable change possible. When I talk about the
process of implementing habits, I am talking about the process of
sustainable change. Short-term change is not something I would
consider a success, because it does not create new habits nor does it
result in long-term growth. What really counts is whether change
occurs in the long run.

If I were a heavy drug addict (I am not), being drug-free for one day
would certainly be something to be proud of; but ultimately, the
only thing that would really make a difference in my life would be
whether I could stop taking drugs in the following days, weeks,
months, and years.

Many things are needed first before long-term growth or change

can be sustained. On one hand, it might seem great that I went to
the gym every single day for two hours for a whole week. I might
look back and think, What a great accomplishment! But in reality, for
a habit to last, it must have its foundation, its roots, and all of the
Core Elements. Otherwise, motivation runs out, and we revert back
to our default. As soon as I stop going to the gym every single day
for two hours, all those workouts would have had an overall zero
effect.

These examples demonstrate short-term change—which is

unsustainable. This type of change is insignificant because it does
not promote personal growth in any meaningful way. That brief

30 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

window during which you worked out may have felt good then, but
imagine feeling good about working out consistently, and really
seeing tangible results.

In the next section, we will cover the first two ingredients that
make long-term results possible: Action and Simplicity.

The HabitSystem | 31
 Element #1: Action

Done Is Better Than Perfect

T
HE FIRST ELEMENT OF the HabitSystem is Action. Without
Action, no change can happen. While this may seem so
obvious it doesn’t merit special consideration, the lack of
Action is exactly what causes failure in attaining goals.

When people try something new, it is human nature to want to be

perfect right from the get-go. They spend time looking for the
perfect guide; they want to avoid making mistakes at all costs. Do
you remember the beginning of this book? I wanted you to commit
to creating a Journal to keep track of your daily reading for the next
month. Maybe you decided that, Today is not the right time to start
because of reason X, or you were thinking that, Tomorrow is also a
good day to start. If you thought something along those lines, you
exhibited the exact symptoms I am explaining here. I hope you
have continued tracking your daily reading. If that’s the case, it
means you have taken Action—which is great. I just want to remind
you of the importance of Action.

Let’s continue with the problem most people have when it comes to
doing new things. Instead of taking Action, most people wait for
the right moment, when the conditions are ripe and they have all
the knowledge they need. Their intentions may be good, but you
know what? There is a big problem with this approach.

First of all, perfection is impossible—in any endeavor. It’s not real.

When striving for perfection, it is the striving that is important
because we all know that perfection does not exist. The German
mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss put it perfectly like this: “It is
not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the act of

32 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment.” This
notion—we call it “process-mindset”—is covered in Element #3:
Daily Repetition.

Secondly, trying to be perfect is the number one reason for not

starting at all. People wait for the perfect moment, the perfect
conditions. They procrastinate and say things like, When I buy the
perfect workout attire, I will start. When they finally buy their
overpriced workout clothes, they say, When I have a perfect workout
partner, I will go to the gym. People are very persuasive and
imaginative in finding reasons not to start. They convince
themselves that no start is better than an imperfect start.

Most people want to start with the perfect training schedule, they
want to start with perfect nutrition. They read up on the perfect
balance of cardio and strength, on the importance of interval
training, they buy vitamin supplements and juicers. And then they
make elaborate schedules: what to eat, when to work out.

What they fail to realize is that this is not real-life thinking. In real
life, starting from scratch just means you are a beginner. As a
beginner, what is more important than how you do something is
that you actually do something. Once you get going, learning will
inevitably take place. If your start wasn’t that great, you’ll have
plenty of opportunities to learn how to improve. Over time your
brain will figure out what works and what does not work.

Look at anybody who has achieved something in life. Nobody

started out perfectly; there was adversity along the way. No
photographer started out with the perfect camera and equipment
sitting unused in his lap—no, he started with one click—maybe his
first photo was grainy or out of focus. Maybe he forgot to take the
cap off!

The HabitSystem | 33
Every start is sloppy and slow. But are you going to let imperfection
stop you? Or can you accept the fact that starting—and then
keeping at it—is the only thing that matters? I’m going to repeat
myself because this is so important: the biggest problem is that
people never start because they want to start perfectly. There is no
perfect start!

Starting creates energy, and the desire to be perfect can be

paralyzing. Instead of starting with perfection as the goal, look at
beginnings in a more positive light: starting anything, a new skill or
a new habit, forces our brains to start working. Fortunately,
problem solving is one of the brain’s primary tasks—in some ways,
our brains are always searching for things to solve.

You will encounter problems when you start anything new—but

these unanticipated obstacles are part of learning. The exciting part
is that your brain will start working and searching for ways to solve
the problem and turn adversity into advantage.

If you are still stuck in the idea of beginning with perfection, none
of this gets to happen. You may sketch out possible obstacles, but
you can never be sure whether things will turn out as you
predicted. You are stuck in the land of what if?

Look, I do not propose that you go in unprepared. Being prepared

has its place and is not the same as being perfect. What I propose is
adopting the strategy of taking the middle ground. A strategy with
just enough preparation, but not so much that you get bogged down
by getting everything right in the beginning.

You may have already heard about the 80-20 principle—the gist is
that 20% of the effort and energy you put into something is what
will create 80% of your net gains, meaning your success. As you
prepare to begin anything, just make an educated guess about how

34 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

to start. You may not get everything right in the beginning, but the
whole point is that you don’t need to. Get the core things right;
don’t look into the future and try to predict all the obstacles that
may or may not happen. Just start!

Unnecessarily long preparation robs you of learning time. Most

people fail to consider this. If you spend two weeks preparing, that’s
two whole weeks during which you could have learned by doing.

If you want to try rock climbing, do the preparation you need to do.
Yes, it’s a dangerous endeavor in which you could be injured or die.
In that case, a high level of preparation is advised. But in most
cases, starting with little preparation does not incur any
conceivable risks.

Let’s look at an example that really demonstrates the value of

starting rather than waiting for perfection: if you want to learn
how to write, the best idea is to just start by putting pen to paper.
Sure, you could begin by reading about how to write and then start.
However, writing is a skill that gets better when you actually write.
The doing is more instructive than the knowing. And in starting to
write, you simultaneously learn about how to write. You start to
sense what you know and what you don’t know. You learn what
works for you and what doesn’t in ways you never could have done
by merely reading about how to write. This way, you’re improving
your writing while learning more about it at the same time.

Part of the process is to value the importance of learning by doing.

Your brain is designed to improve and to help you when you learn
something. You will reap the rewards once you start. So, get out
there, do not procrastinate, prepare a little, and—Go!

The HabitSystem | 35
 Element #2: Simplicity

Keep It Simple, Stupid

Y
OU HAVE LEARNED THAT every system—your body and mind
included—will react with Resistance to change. This
Resistance is equal to the size of the change and the tension
it creates. You also know that sustaining change requires energy,
which is often not available due to the fact that willpower is a
scarce resource.

Consequently, instead of wanting to change too much in a too short

a period of time, we will look at small gradual changes that will
require much less energy.

When you go through the world with open eyes, you will find that
many things in life are quite simple. They may seem complex at
first and, technically speaking, they often are. But when you dig
deeper, most great things and ideas started out simple, almost
mundane. It took a lot of time and many repetitions to make them
as complex as they are today. Those many steps taken over time
represent the natural process. Something simple gets better and
better, is continually improved and, at the end, seems complex. But
the result is just the one-time representation of your repetitive
actions. The process is what matters, and despite how complex it
was along the way, it began with a simple idea.

You will not be starting with the end result, but with a simple idea,
which over time with Action and Daily Repetition (see Element #3:
Daily Repetition), will get you to that end result. Going through the
process is what takes that simple start and creates a complex end
result.

36 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

When we talk about Simplicity, we differentiate between three
different types of Simplicity.

The first, Simplicity in Concept, refers to the notion that your

general approach should be based on simple principles.

The second, Simplicity in Habit Design, refers to the notion that

your habits should be so simple you can easily do them daily. The
minimum level of action for your habits is called the “Completion
Threshold.”

The third, Simplicity in Tracking, encompasses the idea that the

way you track your habits should be as simple as possible.

Let’s now learn more about these three types of Simplicity.

Simplicity in Concept
Trying to come up with the perfect system may seem like a good
idea. After all, you may want to get it right from the start. However,
time and again it’s been shown that simple concepts win out over
complex ideas. This sounds quite similar to the notion that
Action—learning by doing—is preferable to long and drawn out
planning, which is unnecessary and can be counterproductive.
While Simplicity is similar to learning by doing as opposed to
planning, there are some differences.

The HabitSystem | 37
Over the course of time, and given the application of energy, simple
ideas turn into complex things. It took tens of thousands of years
for the human brain and body to get to where it is today. And, while
our bodily functions and intellect are now intricately complex,
human life started out incredibly simple.

When you try to make changes, you have to start simple and you
have to start small. In fact, a lot simpler and smaller than you may
think. The first step to change—the first step in your Habit
Journey—will seem insignificantly small, almost nonexistent. You
will want to go faster, bigger, and more complex. But you have to
resist this urge because it is caused by motivation, which causes
you to overestimate your energy and your ability to keep up with
complex approaches. Remember, motivation is fleeting, it clouds
your judgment, and it will come and go as it pleases.

And also remember Entropy. The bigger and more complex you set
things up, the greater the required energy to keep that new level,
and the greater the chance that Entropy will do its work. Big
approaches may work for a couple of days or even weeks, but once
the motivation lessens, it will seem incredibly hard to keep going.
That’s when you stop and you’re back at zero again.

Because of all of this, you have to start really small and simple with
your HabitSystem. It should be very simple at first so you can
achieve sustainable change. Over time your system will gradually
evolve, grow bigger and more complex—just as the oak tree will
develop over time to be large and elaborate. This steady growth is a
direct result of sticking to the path of mastery and elevating your
mindset to a new level.

As a beginner, you start at level 0 and move up. When you try to
cheat your way by starting at level 4, you will inevitably face an
opponent that is too strong for you. When you decide that you want

38 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

to read a lot and think to yourself, I will now read 30 pages every day,
you are doing just that—trying to shortcut the system. It will work
for a couple of days but then failure emerges.

I tell this to many people and I get criticized a lot for my

recommendation of starting simple and small. I hear, “You need to
think big,” or “30 pages a day is totally not that much.” Both
arguments are completely right, but they also thoroughly miss the
point.

Let me put it this way: if it were so easy to read 30 pages every day,
why are so few people doing it? There are two possible answers.
First, people might not want to read. Second, it could very well be
that reading 30 pages every day is not very easy. It’s obvious that
the first answer is not correct because, from what I can tell, many
people out there actually want to read. Thus, the second answer, the
difficulty, is much more likely. And indeed, if you’ve tried it, you
can agree with me. Going from zero pages a day to 30 pages a day is
actually quite hard. It is not easy. If it were easy, a lot of people
would do it. Since not many people do it, it obviously is not that
easy. It may be easy short-term and you may do it for a couple of
weeks. But doing it consistently—which is the only thing that
matters—is quite difficult. We looked at this when we talked about
Entropy and Resistance.

Of course, there are also many people who read a lot. But these
people also started out slowly. When you read constantly and
consistently, it is easy to read 30 pages a day. However, it is not that
easy for people who do not yet have a reading habit. The same is
true for many other things. For instance, it is not hard to go to the
gym regularly if you have been doing so for a couple of years. Once
an activity becomes a habit, it is easy to do it. After all, this is what
we are here for—turning activities into daily habits, so they become
easy.

The HabitSystem | 39
What I mean with all of this talk about Simplicity is this: a simple
system will always beat an elaborate system when the going gets
tough. The simple system is more adaptable, flexible, and versatile.
Simple things are easy to do—hard things are hard to do.

While this sounds very theoretical and abstract, there is actually a

practical component to Simplicity. It is covered in the next two
aspects of Simplicity, namely Simplicity in Habit Design and
Simplicity in Tracking.

These two types of Simplicity are two of the most important

notions of the whole book. Read these passages carefully and, more
importantly, stick to them when implementing them into your
HabitSystem. It is of the utmost importance to have a simple habit
design and a simple Tracking method. Simplicity is at the crux of
success. Without it, the two elements of the trunk—Daily
Repetition and Habit Tracking—will not work out.

An oak tree can only develop a strong trunk and crown when the
roots are stable. Daily Repetition and Habit Tracking, which provide
you with the stability needed to grow, are only possible when the
requirements of Action and Simplicity are met.

Simplicity in Habit Design

So far we have talked about Simplicity in Concept, that is,
Simplicity in the overall fabric of our HabitSystem. Let’s now fill
this idea of Simplicity with life and look at it from a more practical
perspective.

The way each of your habits is designed has to fulfill the

requirement of Simplicity.

Simply put: Doing your habit should be just as simple as not doing it at
all.

40 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

Designing habits this way allows us to be consistent, making Daily
Repetition possible. In theory, it is possible to read 30 pages every
day. However, reality is another story. Reading 30 pages every
single day will not work in the real world—especially if you start at
normally reading zero pages a day. It may work for a couple of
months (and even that is a very optimistic guess), but there will
inevitably be one day where you simply are unable to read the
desired number of pages. And then, you lose your streak and
become demotivated.

Is it desirable to read 30+ pages every day? It sure is. Yet, when it
comes to designing our HabitSystem, we must choose a simple
approach. We can say, “We achieve our habit of reading when we
read one page.” This is compatible with reality.

Even on very challenging days where time is a very scarce

resource—and there are many of these days—you will be able to
read one page. It does not take much. Reading one page is just as
simple as not reading at all. This is what we call the Completion
Threshold.

The Completion Threshold simply refers to the minimum level of

Action that is required to make you say, “I have achieved my habit
today.”

For the reading habit, the Completion Threshold is one page (and
you already committed to it). In the case of writing, it could be fifty
words. For learning a new language, our Completion Threshold
could be one new vocabulary word or 10 XP in Duolingo (which is
not very much).

The gist is that it should be incredibly simple to reach your

Completion Threshold. Remember that even little things add up

The HabitSystem | 41
over time, and also remember that your willpower will be depleted.
On these days, you will still be able to execute your habit.

You may now ask, and rightfully so, With only a page every day, how
am I going to make any progress? The answer is, of course, you won’t.
Reading only one book per year is not what we would call an
achievement. But things get interesting after you read that one
page. In most cases, you will just continue to read. After all, reading
one page happens quickly, so you might as well just continue
reading. And then you suddenly read 50 pages on a good day and
five on a bad day. On a very bad day, you may only read the one
page. But you read at all! Your average pages per day will be above
one. To give you an idea of how this looks in real life, my average for
2016 was 27 pages a day—up from 13 in 2015, when I first started
with the HabitSystem. On some days, I read close to a hundred
pages; on other days, I just read one page. But I read every single day.

You’ve got to set the bar very low. Even 10 minutes every day can
be too much. Especially as your number of habits increases. You
will be happy when you have designed your habits in a way that
you can do all your daily habits in a matter of seconds or minutes.

To sum it up, we want our habits to be simple. Consequently, we set

the bar very low to ensure consistency. We call this bar the
Completion Threshold. Every day we strive to do more than what is
required. On some days, however, we are happy that the bar is set
low—and we still can achieve our daily success.

Simplicity in Tracking
At this point, you may have a broad understanding of habits and
some of the peculiarities of the HabitSystem. What we have not
talked about in detail yet is Habit Tracking. Believe me, we will

42 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

cover this topic in detail in a couple of pages. For now, all you need
to know is that you will track your daily habit completion.

Like the design of habits, your Habit Tracking has to be very simple.
If you utilize a cumbersome approach, Tracking will fail. By
cumbersome I mean doing something like writing down the
number of pages you read every single day, which would be too
time-consuming and you would have to bother with paying
attention to the number of pages you read every day. Trying to do
so every day would be counter-productive because you will
inevitably fail.

In the HabitSystem, we use either a binary Tracking—success and

failure—or a Tracking with three states: success, failure, or skipping.

• Success: We reach or surpass the Completion Threshold. It

does not matter by how much, it just matters that we do. In
our Tracking method of choice, we use a tick mark or a “1”
to symbolize that for a given day on which we have
completed the habit. Success is associated with the color
green.
• Failure: We fail to reach the Completion Threshold. There
may be many reasons, but what matters is that we have not
completed the habit for that given day. While this is not
desired, it will happen. In our Tracking method of choice,
we use a “0” to symbolize that for a given day, we have
failed the habit. Failure is associated with the color red.
• Skipping: Apart from the binary options of success and
failure, there is also the state of “skipping” a habit. We will
cover different methods of skipping in the appropriate
section. Skipping is associated with the color yellow.

In the chapter dedicated to how to track your habits—using

spreadsheets, apps or pen and paper—we will closely examine how

The HabitSystem | 43
to track your habits. We will also go over ways you can design your
HabitSystem to incorporate skipping.

For now, remember that just like your habits themselves, your
system of keeping track of them has to be one thing: simple.

Summary
• The Elements of the roots are Action and Simplicity. No matter
how mature your system is, they are of paramount importance and
have to be taken into account at all times.

• Action refers to the notion that—most of the time—learning by

doing is better than a carefully planned approach that is never
executed. Done is better than perfect.

• Action is required for any type of change. Life is not about endless
planning and hesitating, but about doing.

• Simplicity refers to the idea that many complex concepts can be

boiled down to a simpler and easier form.

• Simplicity in Concept refers to the removal of unnecessary

complexity that clouds our judgment.

• Simplicity in Habit Design means that habits are designed in a way

that they are very easy to do. The point at which a habit is
successfully completed is referred to as the Completion Threshold.
It is to be set very low. So low that you are able to do the habit even
on very bad days.

• Simplicity in Tracking means you employ a simple—not

over-engineered—approach to track your habits. There are three
states: success, failure, and skipping.

44 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

SECTION TWO—THE TRUNK

The HabitSystem | 45
 Element #3: Daily Repetition

Focus on the Process, Not the Event

P
EOPLE LOVE EVENTS AND they love results. What they don’t love
is the work and the investment of time and effort required to
have the chance to experience great events and results. Most
people have an event-mindset. Sports are a perfect illustration of this
mindset: every weekend stadiums and arenas all over the world are
packed with enthusiastic fans, and televised sports is a
multi-billion-dollar industry.

All sports—basketball, soccer, you name it—are event-driven. A

game is an event in itself, and every game consists of several
sub-events: goals, fouls, scores, and celebrations, to name just a
few. Audiences and fans love and crave these heightened moments
because they create in us a distinct and intoxicating mix of
emotions.

It is easy to forget, however, that events are merely an outcome, a

product of the hard work done by athletes, daily, weekly, for their
whole lives. The event, then, is the tip of the iceberg; the
process—the training—that is required to obtain the skill to
“produce” events is not visible to the public. The majority of an
athlete’s time is spent training and exercising. Each exciting
moment of the game represents only a tiny fraction of the time and
effort an athlete puts into it. We act as if the actual events and
games themselves are the important part—when in fact they are
not. The event is a culmination of years of the long, continuous, and
often tedious process of training. Anthony Robbins succinctly
describes it like this: “People are rewarded in public for what
they’ve practiced for years in private.”

46 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

Consistent training is not an event; it is a process of continuous
improvement broken up into tiny parts. And in the long run, single
events are insignificant because the process of consistent training
is what leads to results. A player can be lucky in one game, but to be
a star, continuous improvement and hard work is required.

Take soccer—or football as it’s called outside the US. Cristiano

Ronaldo, arguably among the biggest soccer stars of our time, has
been scoring goals consistently for more than a decade. This is not
the result of chance. All these events—or goals—are the result of a
rigorous, continuous process. As spectators, we only see the payoff:
the 30-yard screamer, the soaring home run, or the three-point shot
to win the game. We only see the events, and we assign high
importance to them—after all, we fans are watching the game to
experience these events.

It’s not only in sports where people have an event-mindset. Take

startups and budding companies. People think about the key events
or milestones in a company’s growth. They think about a company
getting funding or people becoming an instant success or
millionaires overnight. We call them “lucky” events, and certainly
luck may play a role in those circumstances; however, the process
of trying various entrepreneurial endeavors, the strenuous work of
contacting investors, and the long hours of developing business
strategies remain unseen and therefore uncelebrated.

One reason for overlooking the importance of process is that events

are concrete, and therefore salient in our brains, making them more
cognitively available. Process, on the other hand, can be rather
boring and mundane. Process, by definition, is gradual.

It lacks glitter or flash, but process is the foundation of consistent big

events.

The HabitSystem | 47
The process is what will establish a firm root system, so like the oak
tree, everything will be in place for you to reach a high level of
growth. Single events, like a home run, can be the result of luck, but
a career batting average of .342 cannot be the result of anything but
process.

The process-mindset is essential to the HabitSystem because it

allows us to keep focus on the process, the habit, even when we are
tempted to seek a shortcut to the big event. When we think about
habits, it is of utmost importance to focus not on single events, but
on developing and maintaining a process-oriented mindset.
Embracing the process-mindset means focusing attentively on
every task you do, not the intended result.

Because process is gradual, the only way to achieve a process-mindset

is to embrace consistency—to do something every single day.

Daily Repetition is the key to mastery. Daily Repetition is the single

biggest determiner of long-term success. Daily Repetition embraces a
process-mindset. When you do something every day, your focus
lies on doing the task, not on the desired result. Over time, results
will inevitably come. It may not always be evident. It may seem like
nothing is happening. But trust the process, because the results
from Daily Repetition, as well as your mindset, are working hard
behind the scenes. Boiled down, Daily Repetition is the most
succinct summary of the HabitSystem. Consistent Daily Repetition
is what the HabitSystem is all about. Jim Rohn put it like this:
“Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced
every day.” This is what the HabitSystem is all about.

In the grand scheme of things, one day is insignificant. On the other

hand, your life and your success are the sum of every day you have
lived. This means two things. First of all, a single day does not
matter much when viewed in isolation. Trying to do something big

48 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

on a single day is a bankrupt idea—it will not work and will put you
into a position in which you can’t succeed. One day is not enough to
create something remarkable from scratch.

Figure 3: How Daily Repetition creates lasting long-term impact—and how

small negative habits create massive decline over time

The second meaning to each day being insignificant but over time
adding up, however, is that doing something consistently every
single day for a year, or even a decade, will produce tremendous
results. That’s where success is made. In the grand scheme, the only
variable you can consistently control is what you do every single
day. If you are consistently unproductive, nothing good will
happen in the long term. But, if you consistently put effort into
every single day, those efforts stack and compound, and big things
are possible. This idea is not new or revolutionary. Aristotle already
knew: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an
act, but a habit.” We can put it differently and say it like this:

Every person is the sum of what they do each day. If you do good
things every single day, something good must happen.

The HabitSystem | 49
Of course, chance plays a crucial role in everyone’s life, but chance
is something outside of our control. However, what we do every
day, and how we make decisions, is inside of our control. And if we
make good decisions every single day, inevitably, something good
must happen. Bad luck may prevent us from succeeding every
single time but small setbacks should not affect us in the long run.
If we do great things every day, success is inevitable.

Thus, if you want to change your life, you have to develop

consistent good habits, every single day—not tomorrow, not once a
week, but every single day.

50 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

 Habit Taxonomy

How Habits Can Be Categorized

S
O FAR, I HAVE talked a lot about things related to habits, but
not about habits specifically. In this chapter, I will discuss
what I mean when I talk about habits. I present to you the
Habit Taxonomy.

It is imperative that you, the reader, and I, the author, have the
same understanding of what a habit is. Different people might
define the same term differently, which often leads to confusion.
Abstract concepts especially necessitate a clean-cut definition so no
problems arise from misunderstandings.

Thus, in this part of the book, we will conceptualize the idea of

habits and fill it with meaning. This may require you to replace
your current understanding of what a habit is.

With a conceptualization, it is easier to understand how habits

work and how they affect your personal development and growth.
Conceptualizing habits helps us to grasp subtleties and nuances
within different types of habits. This, in turn, helps sharpen our
understanding of how personal growth works—allowing us to
make the right adjustments. Of course, such a conceptualization is
and can never be perfect. However, having a structured
understanding will help us to focus our time and energy in the right
way.

The common understanding of habit is variegated. Merriam

Webster has several definitions for what a habit is. It can be “a
settled tendency or usual manner of behavior” or “the prevailing

The HabitSystem | 51
disposition or character of a person’s thoughts and feelings (mental
makeup).”

In this book, we take a threefold approach to defining habits,

breaking them down into three categories, each having unique
characteristics. The biggest commonality of each habit is their
character. A habit is something done (almost) automatically, and it
is done consistently. Essentially, a habit becomes part of a person’s
character and is relatively permanent. Doing something only once,
thus, cannot be a habit. At this point, it is easy to see why Daily
Repetition is so important for forming habits.

The three types of habits are Growth Habits, Behavioral Habits, and
Mindset Habits.

The Three Types of Habits

Growth Habits
Every successful HabitSystem should begin with Growth Habits
because they have the capacity to positively affect all areas of your
life. In a nutshell, Growth Habits are related to learning skills and
enhancing knowledge—they make you grow as a person. Growth
Habits can be broadly categorized into five categories. These
categories are physical growth, mental growth, creative growth,
entrepreneurial growth, and generic personal development. To help
understand these categories of habits, we can refer to them as
Growth Spheres, as shown in this image and then detailed below:

52 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

Figure 4: The five Growth Spheres

Physical Growth

Physical growth relates to all growth that has to do with your body
and your health. It is about personal fitness, sheer power, agility,
energy, and wellbeing. This can involve weightlifting, climbing,
cycling, football, yoga, or any other type of physical activity that
improves your health or increases your fitness level. It also includes
daily routines that enhance your health like drinking green
smoothies and getting plenty of fresh air and sunshine.

Mental Growth

Mental growth encompasses knowledge, wisdom, and spiritual

development. It’s about being intellectually well-rounded, skilled in
various areas, and calm. Examples of Mental Growth Habits include
reading, meditating, visualization, or learning mentally taxing
activities like coding or math.

Creative Growth

Creative growth is more of an external representation of your

mental capabilities. While your creative pursuits all start mentally,
they eventually become pieces of art in the outside world. Creative

The HabitSystem | 53
Growth Habits can manifest in anything from writing, drawing,
and making music, to designing websites and taking photos.

Entrepreneurial Growth

This type of growth relates to your career or your business. It’s

about becoming a better sales person, a better manager, or simply a
more efficient worker. It encompasses growing and developing
your business, managing your finances, and becoming financially
independent.

Personal Development

Personal development refers to generic activities that make you

grow as a person. This includes but is not limited to morning
routines, success journals, or maintaining consistent sleep times.

In Section Three—The Crown, we will examine different types of

Growth Habits in each of these five Growth Spheres

The Importance of Growth Habits

Growth Habits are the first habits you should implement because
they directly influence every facet of your life. From the physical
and mental, to creative and entrepreneurial, the benefits of Growth
Habits are seen broadly across all areas of your personal
development. These benefits grow steadily over time and
compound each other. As such they represent the quickest means
of upward personal development. Growth Habits offer the highest
return on invest in the shortest period of time.

Wait! Did I just say that they will provide fast results? Didn’t I just
spend most of the book thus far driving home the point about the
long-term component of habits?!

54 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

I did! Yet, habits will yield results faster than you might expect. By
fast I mean that changes may be noticeable in a matter of a few
weeks. I consider this fast in the context of a lifespan. Of course, it is
not fast like take a pill and become superman. Something this “fast”
does not exist and if it did, there would be severe negative
consequences in the future.

But really, Growth Habits will create results faster than you might
expect. In part, this is because you probably have never before
followed these habit-forming techniques and so have had no idea of
what to expect. You will be surprised by the effect of Daily
Repetition and how a streak of 30 consecutive days creates
significant impact.

The Spillover Effect

Growth Habits do not exist in a vacuum. That is, everything in your
life is connected—for better or worse. In this book, we target the
positive parts of life, and Growth Habits are habits that will add
something to your life. They will improve a certain area of your life
and, in the long run, spillover to other aspects of your life.

Success begets success.

Have you ever wondered about the fact that many successful
people seem to be good in multiple areas of their life? Why are they
healthy, physically fit, financially well off, and engaged to
attractive people? This is not a coincidence. I call this the Spillover
Effect.

You may have heard of the term upward spiral or the opposite,
downward spiral. This concept encompasses the notion that
positive experiences result in more positive experiences—but the
reversal is also true.

The HabitSystem | 55
The concept of Growth Habits and that of Growth Spheres assume
that a variety of skills from unrelated areas increase the chance of
creative peaks and business progress. The more skills you acquire,
the more you understand the world, and the higher the chances
become that this big net of improvements will help you create
something new and unique.

Most successful breakthroughs in science and business were caused

when unrelated disciplines came together. Steve Jobs was a
fantastic marketing guy—a visionary; Steve Wozniak was a coding
wizard. In today’s age of the Internet, it is now possible for a single
person to build up a broad array of abilities. In my opinion, every
person should strive to achieve not only broad knowledge but also a
varied collection of skills. Scott Adams, the guy behind the famous
Dilbert comics, calls this the “talent stack.” On his blog, you can find
various articles related to this concept.

Essentially, implementing Growth Habits will turn you into a jack

(or jane) of all trades and a knowledge machine. You will succeed in
creative pursuits, you will master physical arts, and you will
achieve the highest possible level mentally. This is a holistic
approach in which the total of your abilities equal more than the
sum of your knowledge and your skills—because they are
interconnected.

It is quite simple: the more you know and the more energy you put
into creative and physical pursuits, the more likely it is that you
will live a fulfilled life. That is, a life of success and happiness. It is
never too late to engage in a new activity. And doing so will unleash
new streams of energy that you can direct to other areas, and so on.

Imagine you are happy with your work life. As a result, you will
come home in a good mood. Your spouse will like your mood and
this improves your relationship. You are energized and go to the

56 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

gym regularly. As a result, you feel more powerful and wake up
earlier in the morning. Your boss recognizes your motivation and
power and gives you a promotion. You come home and have great
sex. Everything just seems to work.

Now imagine your job sucks. You come home in a bad mood. Your
relationship is negatively affected by this. You are frustrated and
buy a bag of chips and watch some stupid TV show to cool off. You
go to bed late. You are tired at work and skip your workout with
your buddy. Life is shit.

Both examples are greatly exaggerated but they provide the gist of
the Spillover Effect at work. When things in one area of life flow
smoothly, this creates a spillover and positively affects other
aspects of your life.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is a great example. He not only became one

of the greatest bodybuilders of all time, but also a movie star and
governor of California. Becoming an actor was made possible by
being a great bodybuilder. And becoming a politician was
facilitated by the fact that Arnold was a renowned actor.

The trick is to get going; to create the spark that fuels these positive
spillovers. Growth Habits do just that: they ignite the little fire that
burns small and weak at first, but continues to burn consistently.
Then, as it is fed by our daily habits, it grows and grows and affects
other areas of life. All of this is a process. It does not happen
overnight; it takes months and years, but it will happen. It is just a
matter of time.

The Consumer Producer Dichotomy

Apart from the Spillover Effect, there is another characteristic that
Growth Habits have: they create something instead of consuming
something.

The HabitSystem | 57
A life spent only consuming the creativity and work of others is not
a remarkable life. Every person can produce and create unique
things—be it moments, works of art, or relationships. Growth
Habits will help you create something truly unique; something that
is special because you put your own ideas into it.

Creating things that are special is one of life’s joys. In my view,

every person should strive to create lasting remnants, even if only
for the time you are alive.

Put bluntly, you can either consume or produce. And do not get me
wrong, consuming is not bad by design. It is just that too much
consumption can be detrimental. You should strive to be more than
an average person who consumes TV series other people produce,
eats food produced by others, and has their life defined by
somebody else’s standards for living well. We are all capable of
building something unique—we just need to acquire the skills to do
so.

If you do the opposite, no growth takes place and nothing special

happens. In fact, the cause of many bad habits is that you are a
consumer rather than a producer.

Consumers are passive and consume value; producers are active and
create value.

This, as always, has to do with your mindset. Installing Growth

Habits will change your mindset for the better. As soon as you start
to produce stuff on your own—even if it is just a scrawly painting at
first—you will see things of value with different eyes. More
importantly, you will value your time more. After all, time is the
most precious asset we have.

58 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

In order to get rid of your consuming habits, you need to replace
them with better habits. That is, instead of being passive, you
become proactive and start to produce things.

All of this will take time. But still, you have to start somewhere. Five
years ago was the best moment to start. The second-best moment
to start is now. After all, the rest of your life is still totally up to you.
Don’t waste it by only consuming. Instead, start to become a
producer yourself.

Attention: Growth Habits Are Not Your Typical Habits

Chances are, the way I defined Growth Habits is different from your
idea of habits. For most people, habits are automated forms of
behavior like brushing teeth or being punctual. I agree that these
are correct examples of habits. However, these smaller habits are
what we call Behavioral Habits. We will examine them in the next
chapter.

I like to view habits a bit more broadly than the above-mentioned

notion. For me, a habit can also be the daily engagement in an
activity like writing. But writing will always require mental energy.
It is not an easy activity. Lifting weights, drawing, and working on
your business are also mentally taxing activities. Unlike brushing
your teeth, all these activities require serious effort.

It is near impossible to engage long-term in such activities when

the Completion Threshold is set too high, requiring too much
energy to maintain on a daily basis. Entropy is the biggest enemy of
big goals when those goals are too far away from your default level.
The key is to reduce the Completion Threshold to a level so low that
engaging in the activity becomes incredibly easy. Stephen Guise
conceptualizes this in his book, “Mini Habits,” which had a big
impact on my own Habit Journey. Give it a try!

The HabitSystem | 59
The interesting thing is that once you make it a habit of writing
daily (which you do when the Completion Threshold is low
enough), you will find it really easy to keep going.

Thus, Growth Habits as we use them in the HabitSystem are more

or less just super-chargers that make you “do” the given activity on
a daily basis. In short, they make “Action” possible. And as you
know, the mere act of starting creates energy on its own. And once
you are reading, training, writing, drawing, or meditating, it is very
easy to keep going. The big energy drain that leads to failure is
caused by goals that are too lofty and unrealistic to be achieved
daily. With very simple and small habits, we avoid this energy
drain, and on good days we get started fine, while on bad days we’re
happy to have a low Completion Threshold.

I hope this little interlude made you aware of how Growth Habits
are to be understood in the context of your HabitSystem. Writing,
reading, exercising, etc., are all still energy-requiring activities.
However, we created a habit of getting started that fuels further
growth that is consistent and sustainable.

Behavioral Habits
Behavioral Habits are less significant than Growth Habits and
Mindset Habits. However, a set of good Behavioral Habits will make
a big difference in the long run by positively affecting your growth
and mindset.

Behavioral Habits are related to your habitual behavior. They often

involve a trigger or a cue that makes you behave in a certain way.
Examples include pressing the snooze button in the morning (a bad
habit), taking a cold shower when you shower, or using a to-do app
when a new task emerges.

60 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

Behavioral Habits guide our everyday lives.

Because Behavioral Habits often already exist in a bad form, like

hitting the snooze repeatedly, they are harder to change.

Implementing a Behavioral Habit often means replacing a bad habit

with a better one. This is different from Growth Habits. In the case
of Growth Habits, we just have to do something every day. In the
case of Behavioral Habits, we have to unlearn bad habits and
subsequently replace them with better ones. It requires more effort.

Later on, you will learn how to replace bad habits with better ones.
In Section Three—The Crown, I will also provide you with a list of
inspirational Behavioral Habits.

Mindset Habits
Mindset Habits are the ultimate habits. In the long run, the power
of your mind is the best predictor for happiness and success. After
all, everything you do and how you perceive everything happens in
your mind. Happiness and success happen there. With a strong
mind, you can handle all types of situations—adverse or fortunate.
With a strong mind, you have confidence in your skill and the belief
that you can master all types of situations, no matter what.

Mindset Habits refer to the way you interpret and view certain
things in this world. Your mindset guides your thoughts,
intentions, and reactions to outside stimuli. Mindset Habits are
often subliminal, and it is often difficult to explicitly describe them.
Basically, your Mindset Habits describe your operating system,
your set of beliefs, and how you view the world.

And eventually, your belief system results in actions. Changing

your mindset is the most important thing in the long run. A weak
mindset is the biggest limiting factor if you want to achieve

The HabitSystem | 61
something in your life. A weak mindset means that you have
limiting beliefs, do not believe in yourself, and that you fear making
important decisions—and, thus, end up doing nothing.

Examples for Mindset Habits are the way you view other people
(philanthropic vs. misanthropic), whether you procrastinate, your
consumer behavior, and whether you are stoic or not. All these
habits have a big impact on both your behavior and your actions.
The wrong mindset can make the most intelligent person fail. The
right mindset with strong beliefs and strong Mindset Habits can
turn an average person into a success machine.

As you can see, the three types of habits provide a holistic view for
personal growth. Let’s further understand this view.

Habit Spheres
The conceptualization of habits—the Habit Taxonomy—is not only
about the three different types of habits but also about the spheres
in which you can find these habits. Growth Habits are part of the
outside sphere that I refer to as the Action Sphere. The Reaction
Sphere is where the Behavioral Habits are to be found, and the
Mindset Sphere is where Mindset Habits reside. Essentially, there are
two broader spheres: the inside and the outside sphere, and
something like a mix (where the Behavioral Habits reside). Here is
how it looks:

62 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

Figure 5: The three Habit Spheres, their interaction, and examples

Action Sphere

The Action Sphere encompasses everything you actively do. It is

everything you put out into the world. It is something visible and
rather explicit. Activities such as reading, writing, exercising,
painting, everything social, and everything business-related are all
part of the Action Sphere. The Action Sphere, thus, is not about
thinking, it is about acting and doing. Growth Habits are part of the
Action Sphere.

Mindset Sphere

The Mindset Sphere (or inside sphere) refers to your mindset, your
beliefs. It is how you think, and it encompasses things such as your
worldview, your self-image, and your understanding of the world.
Mindset Habits are part of the Mindset Sphere.

The HabitSystem | 63
Reaction Sphere

The Reaction Sphere is in between the Mindset Sphere and the

Action Sphere. It is how you react to influences from the outside
sphere, and thus encompasses elements from the Action Sphere
(what you do) and from the Mindset Sphere (how you react
mentally). This is the sphere where habits in their traditional
understanding reside—Behavioral Habits.

Brushing your teeth may be the perfect example of a Behavioral

Habit. It may be an action, but it does not lead to growth and thus is
not part of the Action Sphere. Also, brushing your teeth is not
mentally complex and does not relate to your view of the world.
Behavioral habits are part of the Reaction Sphere.

How Growth Habits Create Mindset Habits

Your mindset and belief system represent the culmination of all
your experiences. Your mind does not exist in a vacuum, but is
confronted with reality day after day. What you do feeds back into
your belief system.

Confidence, for instance, has to be based upon some experiences; it

cannot be created from thin air. You cannot just be
confident—there has to be a reason. Of course, you can fake
confidence or competence for a short period of time. But from my
experience, the best way to gain confidence is to have experiences
that create confidence. In other words: how can you be confident if
there is no realistic foundation upon which your confidence is
based?

And it is not only confidence that has to be rooted in reality. All

your thoughts and beliefs are greatly impacted by your experiences.
The key to creating a strong mindset is thus to experience the right
things. Growth Habits help you to do just that.

64 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

Let’s now learn how this is going to look like.

The mindset changes you will experience

First, with Growth Habits you will gain confidence in your ability to
do and succeed in anything you can imagine. We call this the
“Generic Habit Learning Skill.” We will more closely look at this skill,
which is essentially a Mindset Habit, later on.

Second, you will realize that everything can actually be learned. You
can simply declare what you want to do, and then go out and do it.

Of course, it will take some time to experience these epiphanies.

From my experience, the real manifestations of these mindset
changes—new Mindset Habits—occur after a solid year or two into
your Habit Journey. Admittedly, it is challenging to describe these
mindset changes because they are implicit. Furthermore, you can
only truly feel and believe them once you have internalized them.
Just reading a text will not implement these mindset changes. But
after the first time you experience the knowledge that you are
certainly able to learn, it will get easier and easier.

The reason I am talking so much about all this is the fact that most
self-help books focus solely on Mindset Habits. They focus on
concepts such as process orientation, stoicism, consistency,
discipline, willpower, learning, working hard, etc. However, as
good and desirable as these ideas may be, looking at them in
isolation is futile. Reading about process orientation is nice and
fluffy—but how will it actually help you to make process
orientation a Mindset Habit? The answer is simple. We must follow
an outside-in approach to change our mindset.

The HabitSystem | 65
The outside-in approach to change your mindset

In essence, an outside-in approach means that actions are required

before internalization can happen. Growth Habits are the key in
getting those actions going so you can begin the outside-in method
of changing your mindset. This is how it looked like in my case.

At first, the concept of daily habits was interesting to me because I

saw how it could help me to write daily, read daily, and become a
better person overall. However, I completely underestimated the
impact these simple daily actions would have on the way my mind
works—the way I think. Growth Habits like reading, coding, and
writing have fundamentally changed the way I think. It seems like
a door I had not known of suddenly opened. I realized that you can
just make up your mind and go out and do what you want to do.

It took me a over a year to realize this deeper philosophical meaning

of Growth Habits, but I now believe that Growth Habits are actually
bigger and broader in influence than I had previously thought.

Thus, I propose a novel approach to changing Mindset Habits.

Instead of trying to embrace nice concepts like discipline and
willpower by reading about them, it is better to start with Growth
Habits because then the mindset changes happen automatically as a
result.

Why do I call this an outside-in approach? I call it this way because

Growth Habits reside on the Action Sphere and are part of the
outside world. The Mindset Sphere is part of the inside world. In
this approach, we start with the outside to create changes in the
inside.

The general approach you read and hear most about is an inside-out
approach. It goes along the lines of changing your thoughts and
your actions will follow. The outside-in approach is completely

66 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

diametrical to this common suggestion. By creating the right
actions, your mindset will change, which in turn will lead to a
better mindset resulting in even better actions in the long run.

Summary
• There are three types of habits in the HabitSystem. These habits are
Growth Habits, Behavioral Habits, and Mindset Habits.

• There are three Habit Spheres—one for each type of habit. These
Spheres are the Action Sphere, the Reaction Sphere, and the
Mindset Sphere.

• Growth Habits are part of the Action Sphere. Growth Habits are
related to skills, knowledge, and being a better person.

• Behavioral Habits are part of the Reaction Sphere. They do not

necessarily lead to growth and are often situational or dependent
upon factors contingent in the environment.

• Mindset Habits are part of the Mindset Sphere. They are your
operating system and encompass your beliefs about the world.

• Positive experiences in the Action Sphere lead to changes in the

Mindset Sphere. Growth Habits lead to learning and increases in
confidence. Thus, in the long run, Growth Habits lead to Mindset
Habits.

The HabitSystem | 67
 Element #4: Tracking

What Is Measured Can Be Managed

W
HILE DAILY REPETITION IS about the habit itself, Tracking
is about making sure we stick to our commitment of
Daily Repetition. Essentially, Tracking adds rigor and
discipline to the process of Daily Repetition. In a perfect world,
tracking your progress would not be required. But in a perfect
world, we would not need things like habits at all.

Implementing habits, as you now know, is an ongoing process. It

requires stamina, discipline, and consistency. Sustainable habit
implementation has to be done in a controlled way. Just thinking, I
will now do this [insert habit] every time or every day will not work.
We need to work systematically and efficiently: we need to track
our habits.

Tracking your habits is the single most important thing to ensure

sustainable habit implementation. That is, apart from the habit
itself.

Habit Tracking must be simple just like the habit itself has to be
simple. If the Tracking System is too complex, we face the same
problems that occur when our change is too big. The Tracking
System I propose is very simple. In fact, I briefly introduced it in the
part on Simplicity in Tracking. We differentiate three states for
every day: success, failure, and skipping. Success means you reached
your Completion Threshold, failure implies you missed it. Skipping
means you did not complete the habit, and this can happen due to
various reasons. One might be that you have days of skipping that
are planned, and you also could have worked into your
HabitSystem the unforeseen obstacles that occasionally take place.

68 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

Now that you can differentiate between the three states for each
day and the reasons for skipping, let’s take a closer look at why
exactly Tracking is essential.

What is measured can be managed

Every business relies on a plethora of data. Managers need this data
to make decisions because without it, managers are merely
guessing. A business will achieve more success when data is
tracked and decisions are made based on this information. You may
not be a manager, and Habit Tracking is a lot less demanding than
data handling in a business context. But the HabitSystem, just like
any business, will do better in the long run with a Tracking System.
It is true when they say, “What is measured can be managed.”

The mere act of writing down or capturing your daily habit

progress will allow you to manage it.

Thus, the act of tracking habits becomes a habit in itself.

And by measuring your progress, you can make inferences. You

may see patterns, and more importantly, you can easily view your
progress. Tracking also enables you to spot problem areas and make
adjustments to your HabitSystem that will help you achieve
long-term success.

The HabitSystem | 69
The creation of streaks and chains
The concept of streaks and chains is not new. If I recall correctly, it
became popular due to the TV series, Seinfeld, where the idea of
don’t break the chain was made popular. The basic premise is this:
every day you fulfill your habit, your streak increases, and if you
miss one day, your streak is lost completely. Consequently, you
want your streak to grow longer and longer. And obviously, this
only works when you do it every single day.

The concept of a streak can be better understood by likening the

steady, building growth to that of the oak tree’s crown; in the
beginning, there are only a few branch systems and it may not
seem like much. But over time, it grows lush and full, expanding
and compounding on its own growth.

This visualization is quite powerful. Now imagine you have built up

a streak of 200 consecutive days. Would you want to fail on the
201st day? Probably not. As soon as your streak has grown large
enough, you will try to maintain it.

The idea of the streak requires one habit characteristic: Simplicity.

Afterwards, it is easy to look at a streak of 200 days and think, Yep, I
will not break it. However, how did the situation look when you
started? At the beginning your streak is at 0. And any streak below
enough days—which will vary from person to person—is hard to
maintain. It will not feel bad to break the chain. The thing that is
necessary to realize, then, is that it is easier to maintain the streak
than it is to break it. That is where the Simplicity that we learned
about in the last chapter comes into play. Any habit you have
should have a very low Completion Threshold. If this is the case, you
will be able to increase your streak even on hard days. And believe
me, these hard days will inevitably come!

70 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

Apart from creating a chain you don’t want to lose, tracking your
habits will provide a log of the past. In a few weeks from now, you
might look back at your track record. This will show you how much
you have achieved already, and it will just continue to grow as time
passes. It will also give you valuable insight as to where you are
having issues and how your HabitSystem might be adjusted to
better work for you.

After Tracking for a period of time, you are able to easily see your
streak, just as you would see the result of the lush growth of the
oak’s crown. This is especially important on those days when you
lack motivation, which will happen. Having that streak growing
every day and having the data available for your review every time
you make an entry will not only raise your awareness, but also will
help you succeed with your HabitSystem. One of the biggest
benefits of Tracking is that you are able to look back and enjoy your
previous successes.

Making the habit stick

The most important argument in favor of Tracking your
habits—apart from the ones we have looked at—is that it will allow
you to make the habit become permanent. The constant daily
reinforcement will make the habit become a part of your daily life
and, subsequently, your personality. Tracking your habit progress
is crucial as it will lead to you actually doing your habit
consistently. If you do not track, you lose sight of where you are.

It is easy to fall off the track altogether if you have no data to fall
back upon. When you are tracking, you have a keen awareness of
your progress, and you can learn from it as well. Going back and
looking at your own progress is a very powerful tool. If you choose
to go without tracking, you will be posed with a greater risk of
falling off the path.

The HabitSystem | 71
All in all, there is no reason not to track your habits. It is the most
important step if you want to sustainably introduce new habits
into your life. Tracking, of course, is just a tool to help you do so.
However, it is the most important and most valuable tool in your
arsenal. It should not be wasted.

72 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

 Habit Tracking 101

How to Track Habits

T
HERE ARE THREE DIFFERENT ways to track your habits:
spreadsheets, apps, and good old pen and paper. I will shed
light on each method separately and highlight the pros and
cons. I personally use a combination of spreadsheets and apps.

Before we get to the different methods, let’s have a look at the

commonalities of each method. Habit Tracking—just like
habits—must be fast, simple, and consistent. If your Tracking
method does not feature these characteristics, it will not work in
the long run.

Before I successfully implemented my HabitSystem, I tried an

approach that did not meet the above requirements. I used a
spreadsheet, but it was cumbersome—not simple and fast.

Let me say it again once more: the Simplicity of your system is

important—believe me. Especially when you start, you must keep
Entropy and Resistance in mind. If you make things too
complicated and not easy and simple to do, the level of Resistance
will go up and Entropy will show its ugly face.

The more complex your system, the harder it will be to stick to it.
Sure, over time your habits can become more sophisticated—that
is, your skills will be better. However, the very low bar for daily
completion (the Completion Threshold) and the Simplicity of the
Tracking are both permanent elements. Even when you reach
higher levels of habit mastery, there will be days when you truly
appreciate that your system is simple and easy. Remember: even a

The HabitSystem | 73
behemoth of a tree requires stable roots, just like your HabitSystem,
no matter how mature, requires Action and Simplicity.

Three Different Tools for Habit Tracking

Spreadsheets
If you want to have a lot of control over how you implement your
Tracking System, spreadsheets are the right choice. There are three
main alternatives: Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers, and Google
Docs. Each has advantages and disadvantages which I will sum up
here. If spreadsheets are not your tool of choice, you can just skip
this chapter and move on to the next. I would assume that only a
small fraction of people—mainly those with technical
backgrounds—are going to use the spreadsheet method. I happen to
be one of these people.

Spreadsheets give you the highest level of control and

customization over how exactly you track your habits. You can
create a design that works perfectly for you. The risk here, however,
lies in over-engineering your spreadsheet. That is, it may become too
complex. This is very dangerous because when the Tracking is too
complex, you stop doing it—which means ending your habits
overall.

It is of the utmost importance that you start with a very simple

approach. Tracking has to be very easy and straightforward. If that
is not the case, the approach is a bad one. It’s as simple as that.

Before we get to the details of each specific software option, I will

show you what a simple system looks like and how you can set up
your Tracking.

You set up a table. In the column headers, you write your habits.
Each row represents a day. When you achieve your habit on a day,

74 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

you put a “1” (one) in the cell. If you fail, you put in a “0” (zero). If
you skip, you can put in a “–” (dash). The next step is to use
conditional formatting to color successful cells green, the skipped
ones yellow, and the failed ones red. That’s all.

Over time, you can implement features such as Tracking the length
of streaks, your percentage of success, and stuff like that.

Figure 6: Illustration 4: How tracking with a spreadsheet application may look

like

Apple Numbers

If you want your table to look good, and you happen to own an
Apple device, Numbers is your choice. It is quite easy to create a
nice-looking table, and a pleasing interface is an aspect you should
not underestimate. You’ll enjoy entering your habit successes in a
table that is visually appealing. I personally use Numbers because
tables look very sleek. As Numbers is available on iPhones and
iPads, as well as online, you can track your habits from everywhere.

The HabitSystem | 75
Microsoft Excel

Excel tables often look less graphically pleasing to the eye compared
to Numbers’ tables. However, I consider Excel the better tool for
analysis. As a part of your Habit Journey, you can implement Pivot
tables and charts to analyze patterns. Some of these things are not
possible with Numbers.

Google Docs

Google Docs is a free tool and can be accessed with every web
browser. It also features conditional formatting. It is closer to Excel
than it is to Numbers, but features less analysis options than Excel
does.

Apps
There is a plethora of apps, and I am unable to test all of them. Most
share a simple set of functionalities and the majority are perfectly
compatible to the HabitSystem. My personal favorites are
Momentum and Today, both iPhone exclusive. There are also many
similar apps on Android but I have not had an opportunity to use
them. A friend of mine uses an app called Loop Habit, and it may be
a good starting point.

Momentum

Momentum is my Habit Tracking tool of choice on the iPhone. It

offers a very minimalistic user interface and allows for fast
Tracking. There is also a Mac app and an Apple Watch app available.
It is perfectly compatible with the HabitSystem as you can succeed,
skip, and fail habits.

Some notable features of Momentum are different color scheme

options, the ability to define on which days the habit is active (this

76 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

allows you to make a habit for weekdays only), and custom
notifications to remind you of your habits.

I like Momentum because it is very simple and not clumsy. The free
version lets you track up to three habits. If you want to track more
than that, you have to buy it at a price point of around five dollars.

People often say that five dollars (or Euros in my case) is too
expensive. I can only laugh at this. If an app helps you implement
lifetime habits successfully, five dollars is an incredibly cheap
bargain (I am not affiliated with the creators of Momentum).

Today

Today is a rather new app that features a very stylish and sleek
interface. It also features very nice reporting options. Every habit is
represented by a nice big picture which can be selected from your
own photos or from some pre-installed images.

Like in Momentum, you can select the number of days you want to
do your habit. However, skipping is not possible.

One of the biggest features of Today are badges. For instance, if you
complete a one-week streak, a popup notifies you and presents you
with a nicely-designed batch. I imagine that this “reward” helps
beginners to stay on track.

Pen & Paper

If you want to have a lot of control over how you implement your
Tracking System, pen and paper is the perfect choice. It might not
give you the same analytics and styling options as a spreadsheet,
but it does provide you with many options, such as using a
calendar, a journal, a binder, or whatever works for you.

The HabitSystem | 77
What About Rewards?
Especially in the beginning, it can be of great help to use a reward
system to better implement habits. I have read about rewards quite
often but I have never personally used them to help me implement
habits. Consequently, it is difficult for me to appropriately judge
the benefits and pitfalls of using rewards. I have not experienced
the effect of rewards firsthand, so I cannot comment on the effects
rewards have on your progress. However, judging from the fact
that I have implemented a sustainable HabitSystem without
rewards, I may assume that rewards are not a fundamental
requirement to successful habit implementation. Yet, most other
books on habits stress the importance of cues and rewards. I
personally do not think this conceptualization is very important. I
feel this way because the HabitSystem uses a very different
approach than other systems and may thus work well without
rewards.

With all that said as some kind of disclaimer, let’s examine the idea
of rewards in more detail, since they may signify an important tool
for your HabitSystem.

Rewards, in my understanding, are little things that can be used to

incentivize the implementation of new habits. For example, you
can reward yourself with a new book, a movie, or a nice dinner once
you have reached a pre-defined milestone, say your first two-week
consecutive streak. Or, a bigger reward when you are one year into
your HabitSystem. So far, this sounds good. However, rewards have
a problem: they are extrinsic which means the motivation to do the
habit is caused externally. Intrinsic motivation is not caused by
external rewards but rather by an internal desire.

Simply put: if your desire for the habit is intrinsic, you do not need an
extrinsic reward. And if you claim you need a reward to keep you

78 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

motivated, you may not want the habit bad enough. The habit itself
should be reward enough to keep you going.

If it is too hard to maintain daily habit completion, you have either

set the bar too high or you are not really committed. You will fail in
both cases, and I would propose that a reward is not going to
change much about it.

I am not completely against rewards but I think one should

consider the ramification of rewards. Simply saying, Once I have a
two-week streak, I will reward myself with X, is a bit too easy.

Another problem is the fact that people often do not stick to the
requirements for the reward. They might say, Ok, I may not have
completed a two-week streak, but I will reward myself with X anyway.

Use rewards with caution and at your own peril. Personally, I prefer
the idea of streaks and chains because they can also keep you
motivated. Let’s explore these concepts in more detail.

Streaks and Chains

One of the crucial concepts when it comes to habits are the
concepts of streaks and chains. I have introduced them briefly
when talking about the importance of Tracking. In essence, they
provide a different and possibly empowering and motivating
perspective on habits.

A streak or a chain—we refer to these terms

interchangeably—refers to a string of consecutive days on which
you have completed a habit successfully. When you read every day
for a week, you have a streak of seven days in the habit of “reading.”
This sounds very simple and straightforward, but has some
interesting implications.

The HabitSystem | 79
For one, when your chain grows larger and larger, you will be much
less likely to suddenly stop your habit. After all, you do not want to
lose your chain. Especially when you hit the first 100-day streak;
you will be much more likely to continue with your habit daily.

This concept is largely due to the compounding effects of Action

and Daily Repetition. As your growth continues, it gets larger and
you’ll find it easier to recognize each success. This idea is similarly
seen in the lush, green growth of the oak tree’s crown. The fullness
is made up of so many small branches that don’t seem substantial
on their own. But when they accumulate over time and the
branches and leaves continue to build off the older parts, the whole
of the crown becomes, over time, fuller and more abundant.

There are two requirements that need to be fulfilled to make use of

this beneficial factor. First, you have to keep track of your streak.
Second, you need to get to that 100-day streak.

The first requirement can easily be fulfilled by using an app to track

your habits. Both Momentum and Today count your streaks, and
Momentum also displays your streaks quite nicely. Today, on the
other hand, gives you rewards for different streak lengths.

If you use a spreadsheet, implement a formula to track your streak

(which is a bit harder than it may seem at first glance).

If you track your habits with pen and paper, you can simply count
the days and write down the length of your streak every day. This
action will enforce and deepen your conceptual understanding of
Daily Repetition—because when you miss a day, you start again at
zero.

The second requirement is a bit harder to fulfill. The first 100 days
are the most crucial ones. After that, it mostly goes downhill (in a

80 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

positive sense). There is no bulletproof concept that will guide you
through the first 100 days.

To be honest with you, it took me a few tries to reach a 100-day

streak. At the beginning of my Habit Journey, the thing that was
lacking the most was consistency. We will talk about this important
aspect later on.

At this point, all I can say is that you have to build up your streak.
The good thing is this: inevitably, there will be a point of no return.
Once reached, you will almost automatically do your habits daily. It
will still require you to work, especially when it comes to Growth
Habits. After all, reading, writing, or whatever your habit may be, is
an active endeavor. However, you will not have to fight as hard
against Entropy and the body’s natural Resistance. You will be a lot
stronger.

You will know when you reach the point of no return. At this point,
you will simply power through and do your habits—no matter
what. They will be a super important part of your day-to-day
life—too important to miss out on.

The Need for Tracking

Once something becomes a habit, we would assume that we can
stop actively Tracking it. This is not the case!

Most books about habits claim that it takes x amount of days for
something to become a habit. Most of the time, x will equal 21.

From my experience, this is bullshit. Habits are not sustainably

implemented after 21 days. In fact, it takes a lot longer. Sure, when
you do something daily for a couple of weeks, it will be more likely
to become a routine. But to really stick sustainably to a habit, a lot
of time and repetition is required. If it only took 21 consecutive

The HabitSystem | 81
days to form a habit, there would be many more people with
impressive physiques and a proper diet. Reality shows that this is
not the case.

As I said before, the Habit Journey is a process that never ends.

When you get complacent, Entropy soon finds you and takes back
what it desires.

The only lesson we can take from this is the following:

Always track your habits. Tracking in the HabitSystem is simple and

takes only a few minutes—or less. Always track your habits.

Summary
• Tracking your habits is important because of various reasons: what
is measured can be managed; streaks and chains; and—most
importantly—making the habit stick.

• You can employ different techniques, including using spreadsheets,

apps, or pen and paper. Which technique you use is entirely up to
you.

• Use rewards at your own peril. Rewards can help with

implementing habits but, because they are extrinsic, they may also
distort the underlying reasons why you want to implement a given
habit.

• Streaks and chains are important concepts that can help you to
maintain your habit. They are particularly applicable for Growth
Habits and are reinforced through daily tracking.

• Tracking never “ends;” it will be your constant companion as you

embark on your Habit Journey

82 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

 Weathering a Storm:
How to Skip Habits Beneficially

What to Do When the Going Gets Tough

T
HE BASIC IDEA OF doing simple things every day sounds very
easy in practice. But life is full of unforeseen events. We are
sure to face challenges; that is just life. And just like the oak
tree uses its deep roots and bendable structure to weather a storm,
we too must be sturdy and flexible enough to face our challenges.
This requires us to design our HabitSystem in a way that is
resilient—tough so it can survive the problems that will crop up in
the real world. Many approaches—like working out every day,
reading for half an hour every day, practicing an instrument fifteen
minutes every day—sound very good and very doable. On paper.

But we have learned that these aims are too high. In fact, going
from reading zero pages a day to half an hour a day is actually
crazy. Only very few people will actually follow through. We have
partly solved this issue by making our habits very small. But even
that is not enough. In this section, we will cover the inevitable
failures that will happen—even if the habits are very small.

Believe it or not, there will be days where even the simplest of

habits do not get completed. There are numerous reasons for this,
and life will be very creative in putting obstacles in our way.
Especially in the beginning—the first weeks and even months—you
will find it relatively hard to maintain your habit streak. Over time,
you will find your consistency accumulates and even the
unforeseen obstacles life throws at you will be easy to overcome.

The HabitSystem | 83
When we talk about making these types of habit blunders, we can
use a skipping method as a tool.

We define skipping this way: “Skipping means not completing a

habit—for whatever reason—without breaking the chain.”

This definition implies that you do not lose your chain but have not
completed the habit on a given day. One could argue that when you
do not complete your habit, you have failed and your chain starts at
zero again.

However, this may not be the best way to look at it for a couple of
reasons. For starters, there can be legitimate reasons to skip—not
based on feelings or excuses but on predefined rules. We will look at
possible rules that allow you—guilt-free—to skip a habit without
losing your chain.

Whether you want to use a skipping method depends on the

importance you place on the concept of chains. Some people do not
use skipping at all and stick to the binary approach of only having
success or failure. Other people prefer to have a more flexible
system.

I cannot tell you which way is better. It is a personal decision.

However, I have one important thing to add. Skipping can be
dangerous as we will see in each of the different skipping methods,
which are as follows:

• Re-do missed days

• Rule skipping
• Zen mode
• Flexible approach

84 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

Re-do missed days
The “re-do missed days” approach is the most straightforward form
of skipping. It can be implemented in two ways. Boiled down, it
allows you to re-do your habit the next day if you failed to do it
previously.

This comes with some dangers, however. Beginners especially may

feel tempted to skip and think, Nah, I’ll do this tomorrow. And then
they say this every day thereafter. This is a complete failure of a
HabitSystem. Re-do missed days should be the last resort.
Otherwise, it becomes a habit itself—which is to be avoided at all
costs.

Consequently, re-do missed days is an approach I can only

recommend to very conscientious people because of the inherent
danger of it becoming a habit itself.

What can re-do missed days look like? Imagine you are on a road
trip and forgot the book you want to read. You have missed one day
of your reading habit. On the morning of the next day, you get back
home and “re-do” your habit by reading one page. You can now
either mark the lost day as skipped or as completed successfully
(that is up to you). In the evening, you complete your reading habit
for that day, just like you normally would.

The important notion is that you complete a re-do for the missed
day. The next day you re-do the lost day, and complete the habit for
that day as well. This is important because otherwise, you have not
really re-done the missed habit. In the first 10 months of my Habit
Journey, I used re-do missed days a couple of times. On some days, I
did not have a book with me or was unable to use a smartphone or
computer to learn Spanish (more on how these habits look in the

The HabitSystem | 85
last section of this book). But now, more than 500 days into my
Habit Journey, I prefer rule skipping, which we talk about next.

Rule skipping
Rule skipping means that you define rules that allow you to skip
habits. For example, it is not advisable to work out when ill. It is
counterproductive. Consequently, you should have a rule that
allows you to skip your physical activity on days you are sick. Rule
skipping must be used with caution though: stick to the rule, do not
bend it and use it as an excuse. Such would be the case when you
are not ill but claim to feel not in the mood.

Rule skipping can also be used in cases where you only do habits on
certain days. I personally only use my habit of going to bed at 11
P.M. from Sunday nights to Thursday nights. Friday nights and
Saturday nights are off. The same is true when I am traveling.

You have to design your own rules—but then you must stick to them.

Luckily, the Momentum and Today apps allow you to define on

which days you want to complete your habit. You can implement
rule skipping quite easily in your spreadsheet, as well as with your
pen and paper approach.

Zen mode
Zen mode means no skipping is used altogether. This approach only
knows complete and failed days. It is the best approach for
beginners as it has a clear-cut definition of success and failure. Over
time, you will see patterns and possibilities to help you create the
flexibility and rules that work for you in your HabitSystem.

86 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

Combination
Of course, you can combine rule skipping with the re-do missed
days approach. You can use rules for specific days, like vacations or
other special events. In the case of “normal” failure, you can use
re-do missed days.

My advice for starters is to use the Zen mode for the first couple of
months—say, the first 100 days—to get a sense of what it means to
do something daily. This allows you to fully focus on the habits and
helps develop a priority system; the rules can come later once this is
established. In essence, this will help you avoid skipping habits in
the beginning.

The HabitSystem | 87
 Pruning and Trimming:
How To Deal with Bad Habits

How to Clean and Refresh your HabitSystem

O
FTEN, PEOPLE HAVE BAD habits they want to get rid
of—smoking, hitting the snooze button too often,
procrastinating, and many, many more. The problem is
that habits are habits, which can be both beneficial and
counterproductive.

Getting rid of bad habits is a general theme when it comes to

making New Year’s resolutions. People write lists with many items
such as less sugar, less smoking, and less processed food, as well as
Growth Habit-like items such as hitting the gym more often,
reading more, etc.

As you may know, most people fail miserably with their

resolutions, and the whole conundrum repeats itself every single
year. The mindset is wrong; simply focusing on getting rid of bad
stuff in your life misses the point. Pruning a young oak tree does
not just eliminate unneeded parts; it encourages new growth at the
same time. That’s how pruning works. It does not necessarily view
the bad habits as something that simply must be destroyed because
clearly the older growth had its purpose.

With the HabitSystem, the purpose of your old bad habits is to help
you recognize and learn beneficial habits while letting go, or
pruning, the habits that are no longer needed.

As you can see, New Year’s resolutions are more designed to stop
doing something, rather than starting something. It’s important to
have more of a “pruning” approach, where we work to encourage

88 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

new growth, just like in the case of the oak tree. Trimming and
pruning is healthful to any organism, as it helps eliminate parts
that are no longer needed to make way for new, fresh growth that is
more beneficial.

There are many reasons why people fail to set reasonable

resolutions and why they fail miserably to meet those resolutions.
Many of these reasons were outlined in the beginning of this book.
Most of the time, it boils down to completely unrealistic goals. If
you were already unable to do the things you want to do, how is a
jam-packed list of resolutions going to change anything?

Most bad habits are Behavioral Habits. True to their definition, they
cannot be Growth Habits because bad habits lead to decline rather
than growth. The most common bad habits involve engaging in too
much mindless TV-watching as well as totally unnecessary social
media meanderings.

From my experience, most people want to:

• Drink less alcohol

• Smoke less cigarettes
• Watch less TV
• Spend less time on social media or the internet in general
• Spend less money on unnecessary bullshit, expensive
coffee, and other stuff

At least 90% of the bad habits people want to get rid of fall into
these categories. The other 10% includes variations of the
mentioned items or more specific cases.

Obviously, getting rid of bad habits is not easy. If it were easy, more
people would do it. Most people lack a consistent approach. The
mere desire to do less of something does not suffice.

The HabitSystem | 89
The key to tackling bad habits is to look for underlying reasons.
First, why is that you drink too much alcohol? Second, why do you
want to change it? Third, why are you unhappy with the status
quo?

The second and third questions are just as important as the first.
You need to know why you want to change, and you need to think
about how you would like it to be.

Watch less TV, spend less time on social media

If you spend too much time on social media, chances are you have
nothing better to do. Why is that the case? Why do you spend your
time with social media rather than doing something of real value?
The same is true for TV.

The solution is not to ditch TV and social media. That would only
change the symptom of a problem looming deeper. Your life is still
not interesting enough and you have too much free time to spare. If
you do nothing proactively and simply give up TV or social media,
you will find other (unproductive) outlets that add similarly little
value.

The solution is to tackle the root cause. Why do you have enough
time to watch mindless TV shows or look at funny videos on social
media? This is the question you have to answer. Instilling Growth
Habits will make you become a producer rather than a consumer,
and the more you intentionally add and work on Growth Habits,
the easier it is to defeat Entropy.

Alcohol and Cigarettes

Alcohol and cigarettes are a different topic that I’m unable to
completely cover in this book. While I understand that many
people do have problems with drinking and smoking, both have

90 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

never been a problem for me. I have never smoked in my life and I
drink moderately. Also, I think a book is not a viable solution to
seriously tackle these issues.

You don’t have to have a negative view of the old habits you’re
trying to eliminate. Stressing about it will not help you in dealing
with them. Instead, try to think of it more like preparing yourself
for future development. Let the old habits go; you don’t need them
anymore, and now you’re just making room for new and more
beneficial habits.

Summary
• The skipping of habits is likened to a storm. The storm represents
the unforeseen challenges and adversity you will inevitably face.

• Skipping habits can help you maintain a chain. There should be

clear rules for when skipping a habit is acceptable. Specific types of
skipping methods include re-do missed days, rule skipping, Zen
mode, and a flexible approach using a combination of two or more
of the other three methods.

• Especially in the beginning of your Habit Journey, skipping can be

dangerous, as it can become a habit in itself. Minimizing skipping
at first will help ensure success in Tracking and the maintaining of
streaks.

• Because Tracking habits is such an important concept, it does not

make sense to stop Tracking once you think your habit is
“implemented.”

• Bad habits are often the cause of too much free time. Overcoming
them is best accomplished by overriding them with better habits.

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SECTION THREE—THE CROWN

The HabitSystem | 93
 Element #5: The Habit Journey

Growing, Developing, and Refining your HabitSystem

N
O SYSTEM WILL EVER be perfect. The HabitSystem is no
different. There are either systems that work or those that
don’t. What you should aim for is a system that works for
you. People may tell you what has worked for them, but ultimately,
it is up to you to find out what works for you and your specific
goals.

If you look closely at the beautiful, plush crown of a giant oak tree,
you will see many little flaws. There will be some leaves that look
diseased, other branches have been slightly broken, and the whole
structure is actually quite haphazard. But on the whole, it comes
together to create a voluminous and glorious sight to see. You will
have fits and starts and problems along your Habit Journey, but in
the end what you are creating is a work of art—your life’s work.

You alone are responsible for your success and taking care of your
HabitSystem. And you are the only person to decide how and when
to develop your system. In my experience, development of your
system will inevitably happen over time—as long as it’s working.
Once your HabitSystem is up and running, you will inevitably find
room for improvement. That is the very nature of things.

Like I’ve said many times, trying to perfect your system and your
approach from the start is a futile attempt. What is far more
important is to keep going. Your main goal when starting with a
HabitSystem is to stick to the elements of the trunk—Daily
Repetition and Tracking. These are the building blocks to ensure
future stability and growth. If you do both, you will be able to
develop your system over time—assuming your system obeys the

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rules of the roots: Action and Simplicity. These two simple concepts
are what will enable you to see success with your HabitSystem.

When you start with a HabitSystem, you will start slow. You will
begin with a very small goal: implementing just one habit. Then,
over time, more and more habits join your ongoing system. Your
beliefs and mindset will change and grow as you move along.

There is plenty of time for you to add new habits and make
refinements. But it will take time to do so. If you are too eager, you
will fail. In any martial art, sport, or musical instrument, you will
start with the basics. Only when you have mastered the basics can
you start to play with your own unique elements.

Once you have successfully implemented a few habits, you will

want to explore new disciplines and try out new approaches. You
will hone existing approaches and cease doing certain activities
that do not work. All of this is part of the Habit Journey.

Overall, there are three different aspects to the development of

your system. In the part on Growth Habits, we talked quite a bit
about them. But now, I want to take the time to expand on them.
The three aspects of developing your system are Vertical Growth,
Horizontal Growth, and Cathartic Growth.

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Figure 7: The Habit Journey and its three components of growth

Vertical Growth
Vertical Growth is the most easily understood component of the
Habit Journey. It simply refers to the progress you’ve made because
of continuous Daily Repetition. Vertical Growth is related to your
improved second language ability, your honed writing skillset, your
increased profits in business, your improved fitness, your
improved ability to read, or even your ever-growing list of journal
entries.

The 10,000-hour rule

Vertical Growth is the result of continuous learning and the

reaction of your body and mind to the process you embrace by
Daily Repetition. If you practice anything long enough, you will
eventually become a master. This notion is backed by science and
has become known as the 10,000-hour rule. If you practice

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something, be it an instrument or any other skill, for 10,000 hours,
you will be among the world’s elite.

Truth be told, 10,000 hours is an incredibly long time. It means

doing something every single day for five hours during a time span
of nearly eight years. Consequently, one is not surprised to hear
that most people who work 10,000 hours at something started out
very early. For instance, the best musicians started out as kids and
the same is true for most successful athletes.

It is easy to get demotivated by the fact that you are too old for
something. That is one way to look at it. You can, however, also take
a more positive look at mastery. The rest of your life is still ahead of
you. And even more encouraging, the HabitSystem actually
provides you with a tool to practice anything every single day. It can
help you in two ways. First, you may already have something you
are quite good at but want to do more often. Then the HabitSystem
allows you to do just that. Second, you may use the HabitSystem as
a source of inspiration to help you find something that you start to
do daily and become good at it.

The importance of long-term thinking and acting

No matter what it is, Daily Repetition and continuous Tracking will

make you become better. There is no question about that. And the
best thing is that you will be able to stick to your activity not only
for a couple of weeks, but very possibly, the rest of your life.

At this point, you may understand why I stress the importance of

long-term and sustainable change. Short fixes are meaningless in
the long run. No one cares about you going to the gym for half a
year; there will be zero results in the long run. No one gives a damn
about you deciding to meditate if you stop after a couple of
sessions. This list could go on and on. Yet, we see people fall victim
to the trap of quick fixes time and time again.

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It requires a significant change in mindset to approach things with
a long-term idea in mind. If you live the HabitSystem and
implement habits like those described here, you will see these
mindset changes happen. It will be easy to see how a sustainable
approach is the only thing that counts.

Impressive Vertical Growth is just as slow as the growth in our oak

tree. It takes decades for an oak tree to reach impressive heights.
Yet, these trees are the ones we see and admire. The tiny sapling
that has grown very quickly for a short period of time but then dies
is quickly forgotten. Quick fixes without lasting impact are
similarly lost.

Make time your ally

Growing your skills will require time, which is a quintessential part

of the equation that must be taken into account. Time is something
you simply cannot control. What you can control, however, is the
amount of time you put into your daily habits. The more you do,
the more your abilities will grow. But without consistency and
short bursts of energy—caused by our false friend motivation—you
will not be able to yield long-term results. Daily Repetition will
allow you to achieve consistency and then, something magical
happens: time will become your friend.

If you look at an oak tree with healthy roots and a trunk that
supports growth, you know that this tree will eventually become a
majestic behemoth—the king of the forest. The most important
thing this tree requires is time. Time, then, is the tree’s ally. Time is
the only part of the equation that has to change so the tree can grow
tall. Because the foundation is already there. You can do the same
with your habits, if you apply the concepts in the right way.

The thing is, you cannot force growth—at least not in the long run.
In the short run, you can achieve something with strenuous effort.

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In the long run, this is not possible. Accepting that you cannot force
growth is a calming revelation. Because if you do, you will be able to
work without mental barriers. And then, suddenly, you will see
growth materialize.

As soon as you adhere to Action and Simplicity, and as soon as you

begin to practice Daily Repetition and Tracking, your growth
becomes inevitable. It is just a matter of time.

Horizontal Growth
Horizontal Growth consists of two interconnected elements. First,
there is the increase in habits which add up over time. The second
element of Horizontal Growth is the notion of the Spillover Effect, a
phenomenon that occurs because success begets success.

New branches, new habits

Just like our oak tree grows more mature, your HabitSystem will
develop and evolve. A mature system can handle many habits, a
young system only a few. Think of a small seedling that is still weak
and fragile—one little storm and it crumbles. A mature oak tree,
however, will not be bothered by a storm and can stand tall through
the worst weather. The same is true for your HabitSystem. At first,
you are not able to have many habits. Remember that Entropy and
Resistance strike when the change is too big. When you start with
your HabitSystem, one or two habits should be the maximum.

Only as you grow and make habits become permanent are you able
to then add more habits into the mix. This is one of the
manifestations of Vertical Growth and it is easy to see the results.
Over time, you can tackle every aspect of your life knowing that it
will turn out to be a massive success.

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The Spillover Effect revisited

The second notion of Horizontal Growth is that of the Spillover

Effect. We actually encountered this “side-effect” when we talked
about the impact of Growth Habits. In fact, the Spillover Effect
should by no means be underestimated. The real power it brings
can only be felt when experienced. And to experience the Spillover
Effect, you have to have made some progress. As with all elements
of the crown, it takes time for this effect to materialize, but once it
does, the progress will start to compound. That’s why they are part
of the crown and not part of the trunk or the roots.

The Spillover Effect is linked to an increase in habits

The Spillover Effect and the increasing number of habits are deeply
interlinked. One begets the other. When one habit generates
success, you will see this new momentum transfer over to other
habits. And as you have success with your HabitSystem, you will
find ways to implement change in the form of new habits. Here you
will see that the approach used by the HabitSystem is very flexible
and can be used in many contexts. Part of the Habit Journey is
discovering all these new possibilities to leverage new ways of
growth.

For instance, I found out that I could use the HabitSystem to

improve my study habits for exams. I decided to study every single
day, even if it is just a little bit. Over time, these little pieces of
studying added up. During semester breaks, I skipped my learning
habit only to resume it again when the new semester started. With
this approach of learning every day (and keeping track of it), the
workload was divided more evenly over the course of the semester
which allowed me to do less during finals week.

Most people I know who use the HabitSystem approach are avid
learners who want to create an impact in their lives. Quite often,

100 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

they find new things they want to implement as habits that they
have never been able to do consistently. And now, when they are
able to implement these new activities, they find that this success
encourages them to try even more things. In fact, your whole
perception of learning will change as you use the HabitSystem. This
is an example of a change in your mindset caused by constant
repetition of Growth Habits. In general, your confidence will rise
and you will find your success with the HabitSystem to spillover to
other areas of your life.

Keeping balance is very important

The most important thing, though, is to keep calm and not to

overdo it. Even with the HabitSystem, it is not possible to maintain
an infinite amount of habits. Especially when you have a lot going
on in your life—be it work, family, or something else.

The HabitSystem is about balance. If a tree grows too broadly,

balance is no longer possible—the tree becomes unstable. Again, the
metaphor of the tree is applicable to our HabitSystem. Too much
Horizontal Growth will negatively impact the balance of your
system and may cause it to collapse. The lesson learned here is to
not add too many habits overall.

Throughout your Habit Journey, you will find some habits to be no

longer needed or may even become a hindrance. Or you might find
that you actually do have too many habits and you realize it’s time
to drop some. It may also happen that your habit design, be it the
desired activity or the Completion Threshold, requires a redesign.
All of these things constitute elements of the Habit Journey and we
will look at them more closely later in this section.

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Cathartic Growth
Cathartic Growth is the third type of growth in the Habit Journey.
“Catharsis” is a Greek term and Merriam Webster defines it as “a
purification or purgation that brings about spiritual renewal or
release from tension.” When I talk about Catharsis in the Habit
Journey, I liken it to the annual shedding of leaves in the fall.

Like our oak tree, your HabitSystem will require changes in design
from time to time. Look at the tree losing its leaves each fall; they
are dying, falling to the ground, and no longer necessary. Yet leaves
fall every year. There is no sadness or stress in losing things that are
no longer beneficial. Your mindset in creating new habits and
letting others go is that you are only doing what is needed to take
you on your life’s journey. The old leaves can die off and go
somewhere else to be part of something else; the new leaves are the
result of your time and consistency, and represent your intentional
way of forming beneficial habits.

The HabitSystem is all about incremental and iterative progress.

Part of this notion is that the whole system is constantly evaluated
and, if necessary, refined. This refinement is the result of Cathartic
Growth. It does not mean that you should question your approach
all the time. Rather, it is a natural process. Cathartic Growth means
that, as time progresses, you will find that some habits are no
longer necessary or that a change in habit design may be required.

Dropping ineffective habits

Imagine you decided to grow your HabitSystem horizontally,

spurred by the Spillover Effect. You added a new habit that you
thought would benefit you. But as time passes, you see it does not
suit your personality or is not what you thought it would be.

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There can be two reasons for this. First, you haven’t stuck to the
habit long enough for real change to materialize. Second, it could be
the case that the habit does not suit you or is poorly designed. It is
hard to tell which of these two reasons apply. The only person who
can answer that question is you. You have to decide whether you
want to stick to the habit, drop it, or change its design.

To help you answer this question, you may want to use the
following questions as a guidance:

• Have I done the habit long enough—more than three

months—to see possible results?
• Can I see myself doing the habit daily five years from now?
• Why is this particular habit important to me?
• Why did I add it in the first place?
• What were my intentions back then?

Answering these questions will help you in making the right

decision. Dropping an ineffective habit is not a bad thing. It is a
natural component of your Habit Journey. Keeping your system
lean and effective is crucial. Dropping a habit is just like our tree
shedding its leaves in the fall. It is part of an incremental renewal
process.

Changes in habit design

Apart from dropping a habit, you may find out that a change in
habit design may be necessary. This change may be either related to
the Completion Threshold or the activity of the habit itself. Even
though I have mentioned it a couple times, it is worth repeating:
many people set their Completion Threshold too high. And, as a
result, they are having problems with building streaks. Part of
Cathartic Growth is recognizing this mistake—and fixing it. The
other reason you may want to change your habit design is more

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related to the habit itself. Imagine your habit is designed very
specifically.

For example, you have a habit of creating drawings with black and
white pencils. But then you realize that you want to use watercolors
or maybe even oil paints for your artwork. In this situation, you can
simply define your habit a bit more broadly, thus making the other
techniques doable as well. It may also be possible that your habit
was designed to be too broad and you find out that you want to
narrow it down a bit.

Whatever the case, keep in mind that the Habit Journey is not a
predefined path but rather a very individual one, subject to
adjustments. You are the master of your own destiny, so you can
decide what you want. There is one caveat however…

A word of caution

Unfortunately, our brain is very good at finding excuses. We

covered this briefly in the part about Skipping. It is highly relevant,
too, when we talk about dropping habits or changing them. Do not
fall victim to your brain telling you to drop a habit or change it just
because you do not see significant growth yet. Most changes take
some time, so perseverance and stamina are the name of the game.
There is on oft-cited aphorism that goes, “Nothing worth having
comes easy,” and it is highly relevant here.

I strongly encourage you to not be too quick when it comes to

dropping habits or changing them too often because you do not see
the results. If you do this, you may fall victim to an event-driven
mindset and fail to see the process that drives progress. On the
other hand, it is important to keep your system effective and lean.
After all, the HabitSystem should spur, instigate, and fuel your
personal growth. Still, it’s important to be aware of possible
mistakes that can happen.

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 Summary
• There are various ways and means of growing, developing, and
refining your Habit Journey. The Habit Journey entails three
different types of growth: Vertical Growth, Horizontal Growth, and
Cathartic Growth.

• The main paradigm of habit development is Start Slow Then Grow,

which means making your system simple and easy to implement so
that growth and success are inevitable.

• Vertical Growth refers to consistent habits and improvements in

your skillset as well as your knowledge.

• Horizontal Growth refers to the Spillover Effect and the increase in

the number of habits you are able to manage.

• The Spillover Effect is comprised of the notion that success begets

success. Successful habits will lead to you being more confident and
able to handle more habits.

• Adding more habits is made possible by the Spillover Effect and the
growing maturity of your HabitSystem.

• Cathartic Growth helps you balance your system. It refers to both

the possible removal of inefficient habits and the change in habit
design. A cautious approach is advised to avoid dropping or
changing habits too early.

• Certain questions can be asked to help you determine when to ditch

a habit and which new habits to start.

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 The Habits

Real-Life Examples of Growth Habits

M
OST OF MY FRIENDS know about my “HabitSystem.” Some
like it and others don’t. When people like it, I explain it to
them—just like I did in this book. What I found was that
people are not only interested in the framework that is the
HabitSystem, but also in how I do these habits. In short, people like
to see results and hear stories.

To simply imagine the benefit of reading or drawing daily is a

rather abstract task. Of course, it’s easy to see how you’d gain
knowledge from reading every day and improve your art skills by
drawing more. What is not easy, though, is imagining exactly how
these repetitive habits really affect your life. Hearing a story or
seeing the result of another person’s progress helps you get started
because it’s easier to gain a sense of how things can work out.
Instead of merely being told that it will all work out fine and listing
the benefits for you to read, you get a glimpse into how the
HabitSystem makes people feel—be it successful, energetic, or
proud.

When I tell friends or acquaintances that I write every day, they are
often puzzled and ask what I write about. When I show them some
of my texts, they can grasp the value behind it. Hopefully, the
readers of this book will see that value, too. ☺

Similarly, if I tell friends or acquaintances that I draw every day,

they are often puzzled and ask what I draw. Then I let them see my
drawings or just show them the cheap book on how to draw that I
found on Amazon.

106 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

As I said, people want to see results and hear stories. Often, these
personal narratives can ignite the spark or provide the final puzzle
piece that helps people understand how the HabitSystem works
and what it is all about.

For this reason, I want to explain how I—or even some of my close
friends—actually do my habits. I found that this serves as
inspiration and fuel to help others get started. In the following part
of the book, I will explain more than a dozen habits in more detail. I
clustered these habits into the five spheres we learned about in the
chapter on Growth Habits, as you will see in the graphic below.

Figure 8: Overview of the Growth Habits that will be explained in detail

The HabitSystem | 107

 Personal Development

“Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better. Don’t wish for
less problems, wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less
challenge, wish for more wisdom.”
—Jim Rohn

Morning Routine

M
OST PEOPLE STRUGGLE WITH building a consistent morning
routine. However, as part of your Habit Journey, a
morning routine is very possible. The number one
reason why people fail to create a morning routine is, as always,
that they want too much too fast. They want to have the
picture-perfect morning with meditation, workouts, yoga, orange
juice, and other stereotypical elements. We do know, though, that
no matter what your current status is, such a perfect routine is too
much of a change. Our dear adversaries Entropy and Resistance will
work against you.

The best way, thus, to implement a morning routine, is to start step

by step. First, make sure you implement a habit to go to bed at a
consistent time and get up at a pre-defined time (see more on this in
the part below). Without even having a working sleeping habit,
implementing a morning routine is a bit of a stretch.

Think about the elements you want in your morning routine (take
inspiration from the other habits in this book) and then use what
the Romans called divide et impera—divide and conquer.

Start with the most important habit—getting to bed and getting up

consistently—and then work your way towards having the perfect
routine for yourself. Please note: this will not take weeks, but
months. If you try to do too many things, you will probably fail.

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You must view it like this: if implemented sustainably, a morning
routine will last you a lifetime. If you fail, however, you will have to
start again from scratch sometime in the future when you feel
“motivated.”

Completion Threshold

I completed my morning routine.

Go to Bed Early/Get up Early

You already know it, but it’s worth repeating nonetheless: enough
sleep is essential, not only for your productivity, but also for your
well-being. Everyone knows this, yet everyone seems tired most of
the time. Why is it so hard to go to bed early? The answer is actually
quite simple: because it is a habit. It is a habit not to go to bed early.

It seems like the interesting things every day happen late in the
night—the intriguing article you just stumbled upon, or a new
video by your favorite YouTuber. There are plenty of things that
keep you from going to bed early.

I struggled with this for quite some time, too. In fact, I was
notoriously bad at going to bad early. And this was a huge problem
because when I went to bed late, I either got out of bed very poorly
in the morning—when I had to—or slept in way too long when I did
not have to get up. It wasn’t that I got into bed at 2 A.M. or
anything, but even midnight or 1 A.M. is too late if I have to get up
at 6 A.M. the next day. The only way to change this is to make going
to bed early—and also waking up early—a habit. You need to
program your body so that it just wants to go to bed at a given time.

Now, how should you approach this? Again, like with all habits, we
need a clever approach. If you went to bed regularly at 2 A.M., a
change to 10 P.M. will be too big. Instead, you need to gradually

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change the time you go to bed. Also, consider the days where you
have a lot to do; a very early bed time will not be attainable and
you’d end up breaking your chain. Try to be a bit generous at
first—it will be necessary. I propose the following approach.

First, note down the time you went to bed for a week. Is there a
pattern? Or do you go to bed at very different times? What do you
do late in the evening that keeps you from going to bed? Are you
doing legitimate work or just randomly browsing the internet,
playing some stupid games, or binge watching mindless TV shows?

Second, assess when you have to wake up and what that means in
terms of what time you have to go to bed. Additionally, consider the
days where you do not have to wake up early—when do you want to
wake up on these days? Sure, sometimes it’s nice to sleep very long
into the Sunday morning, but let’s be honest: there are also many
great things that can be done on a Sunday that justify waking up
earlier.

We have to distinguish between two types of nights—weekdays

and the weekend. Weekday nights include the nights from Sunday
to Thursday and the weekend refers to Friday and Saturday night.
It is important to make this distinction. You, like many other
people, may be active on weekends—you go to clubs, the opera, a
friend’s, or something like that. And that is totally OK. It is also fine
to be just as religiously punctual on weekends, but from what I
have observed, many people want to be free to do what they want
to on their off days.

Here is what I do. I have my bedtime for the weekdays (11 P.M.),
and I can go to bed on weekends whenever I want. It doesn’t break
my chain when I go to a party and go to bed late. However, when I
have a weekend where I do not stay up late, I adhere to my weekday

110 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

bedtime. I find this is the best approach because it is flexible. You’re
free to think about a solution that fits your life.

Third, based on the observations you have made so far, think about
a time for the weekdays (Sunday to Thursday) that you want to go
to bed. Add another hour and make it a habit. Use the same
Tracking techniques as you use for all other habits to simply track
whether or not you reached your daily goal.

Why the extra safety hour, you ask? Well, like with all changes, we
have to adhere to the main maxim of the HabitSystem: Start Slow
Then Grow. There is no reason to set a goal too tightly if this means
you’re failing to implement the goal at all. It is much better to
approach the problem from a long-term perspective and apply a
system that yields sustainable results. With the safety hour, you
will be able to build up a streak. Of course, you should try to go to
bed one hour earlier, but this will not work on some days, believe
me.

Completion Threshold

I turned off the light at XX P.M. and went to bed

I woke up at a designated, early time

Success Journal
One of the best habit ideas I came across was invented by a dog
named Money. To clarify, it was a talking dog that I encountered
while reading a children’s book. I am not joking. OK, maybe I am
joking a bit, but I can tell you this: I first heard the idea of the
success journal from this storybook dog.

As a kid, I was given a very good book by my parents. It was called

Ein Hund namens Money (A Dog Named Money), written by

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bestselling personal finance and self-help author, Bodo Schäfer. In
my opinion, it is the best personal finance book for kids available on
the German market.

At the beginning of this year, I was looking through some of my old

books and stumbled across Money. I had fond memories of it and
decided to read it once again. I was not disappointed. The two
protagonists of the book are a young girl and a speaking dog. The
dog used to belong to a self-made millionaire and shares insights
with the girl about money and success. Among the financial
recommendations, the dog proposes that the girl should write
down, every day, five successful moments.

When I read that part, I thought to myself: wow, this is a great idea.
And it is so perfectly applicable as a habit.

I set up a document and decided to define my habit this way: write

down one entry about a successful moment every day. I choose just
one, instead of the proposed five entries, because I wanted to be
able to complete the habit even if I do not have much time to write.
Since then, I have never failed a single day. Most days, I write
between three and seven entries.

Here is what my success journal looks like. By entry, I do not mean a

full-fledged article or whatnot. One entry simply refers to one
sentence that could be as simple as I got out of the bed alive, or as
extravagant as Today, I met my dream girl and bought a Ferrari. I put
a suitable emoji next to each entry. In the first example, that would
be a bed, in the second example, it could be a heart and a car.
Normally, I would write two entries for the second example, as I
want to convey one success with each entry/emoji.

The success journal allows you to keep track of the big and small
victories in your life. Not only does it provide a collection of

112 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

positive diary entries for you to review anytime you wish, it also
creates an environment in which you think a lot about success. You
will start to enjoy all the small successes every single day. And you
get to revisit your victories every time you write down a new entry.

I find my success journal to be incredibly fulfilling and effective.

Jotting down one entry per day takes only a matter of seconds. And
if the day has several highlights, it takes just a couple of minutes. As
time passes, your journal gets thicker and thicker, enriched with
stories of big and small successes. And at some moments, you will
see yourself looking at old entries while smiling to yourself and
remembering the moment.

I keep my success journal on my computer because I can put emojis

next to each entry. This adds a nice touch and visual pleasantry.
Additionally, it allows you to search for certain events. I happen to
use a simple word processing tool, Apple’s Pages. Microsoft Word is
fine as well. There are also diary apps designed specifically for
keeping a diary. Use what best fits your requirements. You can also
write in a traditional, non-digital notebook.

When you’re jotting things down, you might be tempted to include

bad events as well. I would refrain from doing so. Life is simply too
short to waste precious time and energy wallowing in failure.
Instead, I write down learnings. Learnings are things that I have
learned on that day; no matter what kind of experience I had, there
is always something to learn. It could be a new exotic word in a
foreign language or the result of a failure I experienced. So, I do not
write down just the failure but rather what I learned as a result.
This way I keep the mood of the journal positive, while reflecting
my experiences.

As I developed my success journal, I started using different colors

for different entries. For instance, every entry in blue refers to a

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learning. I also add a little star to the date on very good days.
Whenever I want to I can search and easily find the highlights of
my past.

All those high points were added over time. I did not start with
colors or special emojis. I want to mention this because my system
has grown over time. It started out simple but developed slowly.
Just as I mention when discussing Start Slow Then Grow, start with a
small habit. You can add features over time, but the most important
thing is to stay consistent. Make features optional and allow
yourself to only write one entry if you are stressed or have little
time.

My sister also writes in her success journal on a daily basis. Her

approach is a bit different than mine. Instead of writing one
successful moment per day (like I do), my sister has created a couple
of categories that she uses to guide her entries. She writes one entry
each for the following categories: mental, health, and relationships.
This way, she applies a balanced approach to her life. For every
category, she writes what she has done or what she has achieved.
While this approach is not entirely different, it creates a holistic
viewpoint of your day-to-day life. First, you can create a set of
categories that fit your life. Possibilities are, amongst others, career,
family, mental health, physical health, spirituality, learnings and
many others. Then, you will be more mindful each day as you will
try to improve in these areas.

Again, I have to voice a word of warning: do not start out with too
many categories. This may lead to failure along the way and make it
difficult to sustainably implement the habit.

Completion Threshold

I wrote one entry in my success journal

114 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

Plan the Next Day
In our increasingly complex world, we are confronted with an
ever-growing number of tasks and chores that we have to keep
track of: bills, e-mails, texts, calls—you name it. It can be
overwhelming when trying to manage everything that needs to be
done. While I have to admit that I cannot offer you an easy solution
to this issue, I can give you some suggestions. One of the most
effective ways to be more organized is to plan the next day.

I have adopted this habit from my brother who has been using it for
quite some time now. What he does, basically, is this: every evening
he grabs a piece of lined paper and schedules the next day:
appointments, tasks, and things he wants to do. It’s actually really
simple and does not take a long time. Yet, as a result of this
planning, he is aware of what he’ll face on the next day. He is thus
prepared and his brain will find ways to schedule the tasks and
activities.

My system looks like this. I keep two calendars. The first is a Google
Calendar that syncs with all my digital devices; the second is a
physical calendar. I use the latter to plan my next day. All new
appointments are immediately entered into the digital calendar
and at the evening of each day, I put the appointments for the next
day into my physical calendar.

Again, you should resist the urge to come up with a perfect system
from the start. It is much better to begin with an imperfect system
that you can develop over time. Try different things and see what
works. You can always make changes and improvements. Planning
the next day can be the first action to start this process.

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Completion Threshold

I wrote down one thing I want to do tomorrow

116 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

 The Physical

“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of

physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without
seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”
—Socrates

Exercise/Lift

W
E HUMANS ARE VERY physical creatures. However, the
modern environment has tamed us—which has also
made us ill. We have to move; we have to exercise to
be happy. Our bodies are supposed to be used, to endure pain, and
to be trained. In my opinion, physical exercise is a mandatory
element of everybody’s life.

If you are not a professional athlete training on the edge, the simple
rule of the more (exercise) the better is true. This is the case for 99%
of people because, let’s face it, most people are quite lazy. This
might sound harsh, but you know it is also quite true. Sometimes,
more often than not, the truth hurts. We have to learn to accept it.

Now given that we know about the importance of physical exercise,

we should act on it. I don’t care about what type of exercise you like.
I personally enjoy weightlifting and working out at the gym, but I
understand that this is not meant for everybody. You have to do
something: run, lift, climb, dance, have sex. All these things are
actions your body is designed for. Your body will weaken if it is not
confronted with obstacles that are meant to be overcome. You
already know all of this but I am reminding you just in case you
have forgotten or have come up with another excuse.

The hard part is not knowing that you must physically move, the
hard part is doing it consistently. Going for one workout, one run, or

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a half an hour on the treadmill will yield zero impact. It will feel
good in the short run and the protein shake after your workout will
probably make you feel even better. Yet you have achieved nothing
and you should not be proud of yourself.

One training does not count; ten trainings do not count. Only when
you hit the three-digit mark can you start to consider yourself
proud. One hundred workouts can be hit in one year, given you
work out twice a week. This should be your goal.

There are two strategies to workout consistently. One is with our

good friend, Daily Repetition. The other one is a bit different. To be
honest, exercise is the only thing where I personally prefer a
non-daily approach. Consequently, I do not consider workouts to be
a daily habit. I am also not a fan of daily mini workouts like
pushups or some other bogus stuff. This is because our body
develops differently from our brain and, thus, a different approach
is necessary.

Option A: Train with compound movements (non-daily)

If you are serious about fitness, you will have to start lifting heavy
weights with compound movements. I am talking squats,
bench-presses, and deadlifts. This is where the gains are made.
Daily sit-ups will not cut it, nor will body-weight squats create an
impressive physique.

The problem with compound lifts and a solid approach like

StrongLifts or Starting Strength (ask Google for details), is that you
will have rest days. After all, muscles are built on the off-days.
Thus, when you lift weights, a daily approach is not viable.
However, we know that a non-daily approach is harder to sustain
than a daily approach. So how we do manage a habit like this that is
not daily?

118 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

I propose the following. For the first month, aim for one workout
per week. This is easy. The next month, aim for two workouts per
week. In the third month, your goal is three workouts per week.
Anything above this is not necessary for a beginner and will yield
(if at all) only minor benefits.

Completion Threshold

I went to the gym and did at least one compound exercise

Option B: Train daily however you like

If you do not like big compound movements and want to do

something else instead, I’d advise a daily approach. Do whatever
you want every day. But stick to a simple Completion Threshold.
Stephen Guise, author of Mini Habits proposed to do one push up
daily. Not 10 pushups, not five, but one.

Be aware though that working out like I described in option A will

yield far better results than bodyweight exercises like pushups or
sit-ups.

Completion Threshold

I did one pushup

The HabitSystem | 119

 The Creative

“I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I

wake up in the morning and see the light. Every day I find
something creative to do with my life.”
—Miles Davis

Write

W
ERE IT IS: MY FAVORITE habit. Writing is one of the things
that I really love doing. It allows me to express myself,
be creative, and just become one with the work that
I’m doing. This has not always been the case, however.

I always wanted to be an author but never found the time to write

consistently. That’s why I decided to start writing every single day.
And trust me, during the first few weeks, it was very hard. I did not
know what to write about and I was unable to find the right words.
But I wrote anyway. On some days, I wrote about the coke bottle on
my desk, and on other days, I wrote fictional pieces in a fantasy
setting. Most of the texts I wrote are really bad. In fact, the stuff I
write nowadays is probably not very good either. I don’t care. I love
writing every day and I cannot see myself stopping at some
foreseeable point in the future. And what is it going to look like in
ten years? Maybe then, after hours and hours of training, my
writing won’t be so bad after all.

I am still young and I will be still young in ten years. And even if
you are not young anymore, ten years is not as long as it might
seem. Try to think about your life ten years ago. Doesn’t seem so far
away, does it? Now imagine how much you could have written over
those years. Sometimes I scroll through my writing diary with its
hundreds of pages and I am simply amazed by the sheer amount of
text I have produced. I read some of the entries and sometimes I

120 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

will find tiny bits of text that I had totally forgotten about writing. I
read them and think to myself, What a bunch of bullshit, you wrote
that? Other times I think, Wow, that’s a nice piece of text.

Writing will unleash a huge creative potential inside of you. You

will see the world with different eyes, and yes, you will sharpen
your senses and your mind. This revelation will only come to you
when you experience it first-hand. You will not believe my words
but you will believe your experiences. Trust me, you will be amazed
by the rewards you reap from writing!

One thing I consider to be really important is the setup. As with all

habits, writing should be designed in an intelligent and simple way.
If it is too cumbersome to start writing, you will simply not do it. If,
for example, you write on a computer which takes a couple minutes
to boot, you will find the habit really hard. If, however, you have a
fast computer readily available, starting to write will be much
easier, even if you just type some gibberish, which still counts.

I have found a very neat way to write every day. I have one
document titled Writing Journal. It is a simple document with a nice
font. Every entry includes the following elements. First, a centered
heading consisting of the date for that day. Second, a bold heading,
the name of the text. And third, the text itself. I copy and paste this
basic template every single day and start writing right away. The
only thing I have to do is change the date. That’s it. My document
grows larger and larger. Over time, I have added sections for
months and an automatically generated table of contents. But all
those things are elements of the Habit Journey. The most important
thing is that you can write easily. Everything else is just a
refinement. As always: Start Slow Then Grow.

The HabitSystem | 121

Completion Threshold

I wrote 50 words

Draw
My newest habit is drawing. As a kid, I used to draw regularly and
my skills were decent. However, at some point, I stopped and my
abilities waned. From that point on, whenever I sat down to draw, I
thought I lacked the talent and skill to draw.

The HabitSystem changed this. After I saw how easy it was to learn
new things, I decided to make drawing a daily habit. Having no idea
of how to start, I just bought some pencils, a pencil sharpener, an
eraser, and a sketch pad. I found a cheap book for 10 € on how to
draw. Overall, I invested at most 30 € which I consider not very
much. I also found tutorials on YouTube. That’s it. I learned to draw
shapes, how to shade, and in a short period—shorter than I initially
thought possible—I drew some images I’m quite proud of. Of
course, the perspective is still off and maybe my shading lacks
consistency. But I draw every day. On some days, I only try to draw
perfect straight lines, on other days, I draw more sophisticated
images.

Drawing, just like writing, is one of the ultimate creativity tools. At

first, you have no idea what to draw. After all, you think to yourself
it will look like shit. But sooner rather than later, you will have
many ideas in your head. You look for different techniques.
Drawing—at least to me—is meditation. It calms me and I find it
quite entertaining.

As it is a very explicit skill, you can easily gauge the progress you
have made, especially in the first few weeks and months when you
will make the most progress. You will see the differences between

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months. Maybe you will even laugh at your old pictures, but six
months down the road, you will laugh at the skills you have now.

Drawing is not some sort of competition but an endless

journey—just like all other Growth Habits. There is no definite goal
in mind—the process, the activity itself is the goal. Think back to
our oak tree. The oak tree does not grow with any particular
destination in mind. It simply creates, each year adding more mass
and extending its reach.

Of course, drawing can also reap tangible benefits. If you are a

business consultant, being able to draw perfect matrices on a flip
chart will impress clients. The same is true when you draw a flow
chart with little comic-like elements. Your increased drawing
ability will make you a natural when using creative design apps for
business like Sketchnotes.

Drawing comes at little cost and can yield big benefits. In the worst
case, you draw and nobody sees your pictures. Yet, the time spent
drawing is unquestionably better than time spent watching TV. I
think we can all agree that no one gets better at watching TV by
spending more time doing it. But when drawing, you always have
the opportunity to improve and hone your artistic skills. At the
very least, you just had fun drawing the picture of a falcon. It’s up
to you.

Completion Threshold

I drew a very simple image—a cube is enough

The HabitSystem | 123

 The Mental

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to

live forever.”
— Mahatma Gandhi

Meditate

S
CIENCE HAS REPEATEDLY SHOWN the numerous benefits of
meditating regularly. In today’s ever-changing environment,
moments of calmness and mindfulness are required.
Meditation is not some new-age bullshit, but a legitimate technique
for training the mind. Meditating is also easy. Just sit still, close
your eyes, and focus on your breath. Your thoughts will wander.
Accept this and revert back to focusing on your breath.

It’s as simple as that. Over time, you can try different meditation
techniques or variations. Though some people may try to dazzle
you with their stories of earth shattering four-hour blocks of
meditation, do not be mistaken: any amount of meditation is
beneficial. Start Slow and Then Grow is a given here because you will
easily feel the positive effects of just a little bit of meditation, and
you will want to do more. Why? Because of the mental clarity that
meditation brings. It also gives your weary brain a break from the
constant barrage of stressful thoughts created by our fast-paced
lifestyle. Meditation, even just a few moments each day, can help
you feel calmer, give you a better night’s sleep, and result in better
mental capabilities.

Completion Threshold

I actively closed my eyes for ten seconds and focused on my breath

124 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

Code
Being able to code—no matter which language you use—will help
you to develop problem-solving abilities and structural thinking.
There are many relevant free resources available online that will
help you get started. For instance, you can learn with the free
courses offered by CodeAcademy, watch YouTube tutorials, or ask
coding-related questions at stackoverflow.com.

I started with an HTML and CSS course on Codeacademy.com. Right

now, I’m learning JavaScript with watchandcode.com by Gordon
Zhu. I also watch Excel VBA tutorials on YouTube.

Once again, you have to start somewhere. Make it a daily goal to

learn some new techniques and skills—or just practice. Inevitably,
you will get better. While learning something completely new may
seem intimidating at first, you now have the HabitSystem to get
you started. By tracking your slow and repetitious growth process,
you will soon see the gains you have made.

As with coding, any new skill you develop intentionally will

enhance your thinking skills. Not only that, but studying
something like coding will also increase opportunities for
continued learning.

Completion Threshold

I wrote a line of code

I watched one tutorial video

I read a thread on Stack Overflow

I opened one tutorial lesson and worked on it

The HabitSystem | 125

New Language
Growing up in Germany, it is common to learn not only German but
at least one other language. I learned English and French in high
school and a bit of Spanish at the University. I think it’s a bit
different when you grow up in a primarily English-speaking
country. After all, English is the lingua franca and spoken almost
everywhere. Yet, I know many Americans and English people who
love to learn other languages. The benefits are unquestionable.

I do not want to argue in favor of learning a new language. In the

end, it is entirely your decision. However, if you are learning a new
language right now—and one can never finish learning a
language—or you want to start, doing so by making it a habit is a
great idea.

Completion Threshold

I learned one new word in a new language

I learned 10 XP in a foreign language in Duolingo

Read
Reading is quite simply one of the best activities you can possibly
engage in. It is super easy, does not require many resources and can
be done nearly anywhere. Books are cheap and offer incredible
value. Most people know this. While some people may question the
benefits of reading, everybody would have to agree that reading
yields a non-zero change of bettering your life. In fact, it is actually
impressive how many benefits a single book can bring.

The only reason I started doing habits was because I read Mini
Habits by Stephen Guise, and The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy.
The hours I invested into reading these books have completely

126 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

changed my life. I highly appreciate the efforts of these two
phenomenal authors, and I have to admit that a lot of their work is
present in this book. Some of their core ideas serve as fundamental
pillars in the HabitSystem. Surely, someone on this planet may
have had these ideas before Mr. Guise or Mr. Hardy were even born.
Yet, the fact that they put these concepts into easily digestible
books made it possible for me to use them and develop my own
system. With this book, I intend to do the same. I want to provide
people with the possibility of benefiting from the experiences I
have had. And the great thing is that many books offer just
this—distilled experiences you can apply. Some do it rather well,
others do it poorly. But even a bad book may be able to teach you
something.

In my opinion, there is no reason not to read—be it fiction or

non-fiction. I personally prefer to read non-fiction because it
literally installs new neurons and connections in my brain. I also
believe that non-fiction provides better benefits in general,
especially when it comes to the domains of knowledge, skills, and
self-development. However, in the course of developing your
reading habit, you may want to start reading some world
literature—Ernest Hemingway, Jack London, or the occasional A
Song of Ice and Fire novel. All of this is possible.

If you are just starting to acquire a reading habit—and I assume this

is the case for many people—you will most certainly need to start
slow. Reading is a skill that improves upon practice. After half a
year in, you will see yourself careening through books. Your pace
will be faster and your understanding better. In the first year of
reading, I read 18 books (and I only started implementing a
HabitSystem-like reading habit in the second half of that year). The
second year, I managed to finish 36 books. In the long run, I am

The HabitSystem | 127

certain that I will be able to consistently read 40–50 books every
single year.

Completion Threshold

I read one page in a book

128 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

 The Entrepreneurial

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best
time is now.”
—Chinese proverb

Work on Your Business

T
HIS HABIT IS PROBABLY the broadest and most abstract habit in
the HabitSystem. The truth is, there are hundreds of
different types of businesses and also many activities
within each that you could do every day to grow your business. If
you already have a business, I suppose you will constantly put
effort into it. But by implementing a habit for your current
entrepreneurial pursuits using the HabitSystem, you may soon find
that not only are you getting more done on a regular basis, but that
you also now have an efficient way to track your time.

This book is not focused on how to start a business. There are many
people more versed, skilled, and experienced when it comes to
becoming an entrepreneur. But I can help you with getting started.
If you have some vague idea you want to monetize or some
non-profit idea you want to work on, this part of the book may be
interesting for you.

The two things we will look at are getting started and achieving
consistency.

The most important thing is getting started

No idea ever worked if it was not worked upon. This may seem
totally logical—and it is—but many people fail to recognize it. They
make the same mistake as the people who theorized a thousand

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hours and achieved nothing. Think back on our roots: Action and
Simplicity. Without Action, nothing can be built.

The business world is a world of doing. Sure, planning plays an

important role, but when you, as an individual, want to do
something, you must act—go out and take massive action. Just
having an idea doesn’t cut it. Execution is what matters.

Hence, instead of theorizing about different things all day long, get
started. The real world is the best teacher. Things may look good on
paper, but the real world gives you the best feedback you can get.

The second most important thing is to keep it up: Consistency

Once you get started, you must keep it going. Many people give up
way too early. And I’m not talking about the people who give up
when adversity emerges. I mean the people who give up even
before that. I talk about the people who work on a project for a few
days or weeks—and then stop. Their problem is a lack of
consistency. You need to make it a habit to work on your business
every single day. There is no day off. There are no weekends.

Like all other habits, the business habit is a daily one. On Sundays,
you may only do a tiny little bit. But you still grow your business.
Every day you are passive, you are wasting valuable time. Every day
without progress is a day wasted. Even if you just call one lead, or
make one tweak on your website, you still made progress.

Monetize your other Growth Habits

Chances are, you have some valuable skills that you can turn into
money. If not, the Growth Habits in the creative and mental
spheres will help you to develop skills you can use to create
amazing things.

130 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

Even if you do not come up with a business idea right away, I am
certain that your Growth Habits will also fuel your entrepreneurial
outlook. Sooner or later, there will be a point where you want to go
out and start a business. Make it a habit of working on it—grow it a
little bit every single day.

Completion Threshold

I worked on my business (even five minutes count)

The HabitSystem | 131

 Mini Projects

An Unconventional Approach to Exploring New Activities

I
F YOU ARE LIKE me, you probably have many ideas roaming
around in your mind. And if this is the case, you probably also
have some projects going on right now. Or maybe you want to
have some projects going for you.

Life is full of interesting things and it would be a pity if you did not
commit yourself to some medium-term and long-term goals.
Interestingly, it seems that the older a person gets, the more
projects they have going on; some people are into model making,
others like drawing, and others pursue other unusual projects.

Some may see these projects as peculiar or weird, but I believe that
the people who pursue them are quite enthusiastic about them. The
truth is this: no matter what project you pursue, if you like it and
it’s legal, you have my OK.

To put it bluntly, I think every person should pursue some side

projects. And if you are just starting with a side project, I think
implementing it in the way of the HabitSystem is a great idea.
Every project requires nurturing at the beginning because it will be
fragile during the early stages. Only when it becomes a full-fledged
hobby can you consider it a habit.

We often think that hobbies just come to us and that we like them
naturally. This is only true to some extent. Most of our hobbies are
formed when we are malleable children. Our parents, like it or not,
signed us up for sports teams or put us into music lessons. At the
beginning, we didn’t like it most of the time. Only when practice led

132 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

to us becoming better, did we slowly start to like what our parents
forced on us.

We do not recognize that, at a later age, we are free to start

whatever we want. It’s just a matter of choice and dedication. Most
people are so entrenched in a limiting mindset that they fail to see
all the great opportunities in front of them. When they see
somebody who has a great hobby, they think to themselves Oh my
god, I envy this person so much. He obviously has a calling and it all
comes so naturally to him. Why is he so good at X? I will never be able to
have such a great hobby. This mindset is toxic and will inevitably
lead to failure.

The underlying problem is this. Our society has made you think
that your hobbies should come to you naturally. They say it’s
destiny or a calling. I call bullshit on that. Yes, sometimes you just
happen to find something you like, and it becomes a hobby; you get
good at it and like doing it. I admit that this happens and when it
does, fine. However, why not be more assertive when choosing
what you want to be your hobby? Why not try different things
from a vast array of different domains and then decide what it is
that you want to pursue? Why not take responsibility for it?

Simply by being assertive and open, you can find a new hobby for
yourself. It actually is quite simple. I will make you an interesting
proposal. Are you ready?

First, you will create a list of up to ten things that you’ve always
wanted to try: painting, photography, calligraphy, copywriting,
hunting, climbing, playing golf, swimming, programming,
architecture, or any other activities that interest you. These are just
some suggestions. I believe it’s best to develop some personal ideas
that you came up with. Great, so you have all those things on the
list? Now, what to do about them?

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Let me introduce you to HobbyMaker 2000 XL. For the lack of a
better name, this is the name I’ll give to the concept I’m about to
explain. Let me start with a question:

If you start from scratch (or with very little knowledge and skill), how
much do you think can you learn on a new topic in 10 hours?

Think about it!

Take photography. As you live in a technology-rich world, you

probably have at least a hundred, if not a thousand, pictures. But do
you actually know anything about photography, focal length,
aperture, shutter speed, the Golden Ratio, editing pictures, framing,
or RAW vs. JPG?

Maybe some of these ring a bell, and if you are into photography,
you probably know a lot about these terms. But if you are not, how
much do you think you can you learn about them in 10 hours? How
much can you actually improve your photography skill in 10 hours
if you practice deliberately? Not just hitting the trigger, but thinking
and learning about how to frame the shoot and so on.

Ten hours is a lot of time in one block. But I’m not talking about 10
hours in one long marathon stretch. What I’m talking about here is
practicing for 20 minutes every day for 30 days.

Imagine you practice photography for 20 hours stretched over one

month. In that time, you could read a book on photography
(maximum of five hours) and learn about the history of it and all
about important people and inventors in the industry. You’d
certainly learn about the basic terms I just mentioned previously.
Then you could watch five hours of free tutorials on YouTube, and
you’d still have 10 hours to actually go out and take photos and
apply the knowledge you just gained. Trial and error and learning.
In 20 hours—over the course of just one month—you will have

134 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

learned the basic skills of photography. All it requires is a computer
and a camera. You can borrow or rent one, but if you happen to
actually want to learn photography, chances are you have already
purchased one (and have never really used it consistently or to its
full potential).

There it is. You have effectively and efficiently used 20 hours of

your time to learn something (completely) new. You are now by no
means a professional. You are not even an amateur. But with just 20
hours of practice, you are probably already better than 80% of
other people.

Here’s the thing: the human brain learns wicked fast. But because
our society has become anti-learning, we often forget about this
amazing capability. We tend to think that learning ends when we’re
out of college or high school. In fact, that is the time when learning
actually starts. Once out of college, real life begins. Now you can
choose—you have to choose—what you want to learn in your life. It
is 100% your responsibility. You can waste your time or use it
wisely. My proposal is to do the latter.

Let’s get back to our list. Armed with your list of up to 10 activities,
take some time and prioritize. Which ones do you want to start
first? Make a list of your top three. In the next step, start your new
project just like any regular Growth Habit. Think about how you
can start your highest prioritized activity. Obviously, it depends on
the activity when determining how to start. If you are in a desert
and want to start surfing, your best bet is to go to a location where
surfing is possible. And remember: do not plan too much. The gist is
to learn by doing.

Now you have to decide on how much time you want to invest. By
this I mean how much time you want to spend in your first run. I
think that 10 or 20 hours is a good idea. You can learn the basics of

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most activities in 10–20 hours. Often, after investing 20 hours you
will be able to decide whether you’re truly into that activity or not.
After 20 hours of photography, most people can decide whether it’s
something they can imagine doing more of or not.

Of course, some activities will require more time to get into them.
But here’s the deal: imagine you try three different activities. Given
you decide to invest 20 hours per activity, this will require 20
minutes of doing/learning that activity per day, and in half of a
year, you’ll have a basic understanding of three different activities.

You may now argue that half a year is a long time, but it’s actually
quite short, considering that you may find a new hobby for a
lifetime. And believe me: with three activities, you will find
something that you like. Voilá! Just like that you’ve found yourself a
new hobby.

As soon as you make the decision that you want to go further with
one of the tried activities, you can begin to pursue them more in
depth, invest more time, and learn even more. This way, you turn
20 hours of deliberate practice into an infinite project: a lifetime
hobby.

Mini projects fit the general approach of the HabitSystem perfectly

and can thus be implemented just like your regular Growth Habits.
The only difference may be that you also keep track of time and
that you may decide that the chosen activity is not the right choice.

What is this all good for? Why force yourself to try something you
may end up not liking? If you ask this question, you reveal your
limited mindset. You’re still stuck in an event-focused mindset and
results-focused thinking. The truth is that you will learn a lot in
this half year. You will sharpen your mental abilities and you will

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begin to see the world with different eyes. In fact, a lot will have
changed.

First, you have deliberately tried something new. You have taken
control of your life. Second, you have broadened your knowledge
and bettered yourself. Dozens of hours of practice—no matter the
field—will make you a more capable and smarter person. Even if
you have just learned the basic terminology of photography,
understood the rules of chess, applied the syntax of HTML, figured
out the different architectural orders, or slightly improved your
golf swing —you have improved.

This is what I call life-long learning. If all of this sounds impressive,

it’s only because the bar is set so damn low nowadays. You can
learn anything, and you should try many different things because
life is too short to end up with too many unanswered what ifs.

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 Behavioral Habits

Using the HabitSystem for Behavioral Habits

T
HE MAIN USE FOR the HabitSystem is in nurturing Growth
Habits. But using the HabitSystem for Behavioral Habits is
possible, too. However, it requires a slightly different
approach which I will explain in this chapter.

Growth Habits are centered around pre-defined activities and skills.

There is a minimum threshold—the Completion Threshold—that
must be reached to make the habit complete for that day. Keep in
mind that reaching the threshold doesn’t mean you have to stop
there. It is simply the lowest goal to reach for that habit; anything
you do above and beyond that threshold is just icing on the cake.

Say you have a habit of writing one paragraph each day. Hit your
threshold and the habit is done. Of course, most of the time, you
will surpass the threshold, but just hitting it satisfies your
requirement and is a success. Oh, there is one paragraph I have to
write today. OK, I wrote the paragraph and now I can mark the habit as
complete.

This is how Growth Habits work. But Behavioral Habits—they are

different. Contrary to Growth Habits, a Behavioral Habit is
contingent upon some trigger or specific situation. This makes it
harder to change your existing Behavioral Habit. In other words, a
Growth Habit is something we strive to implement. A Behavioral
Habit works the same way except often it corresponds to a negative
habit that must be eliminated while developing the new Behavioral
Habit. So how exactly do we shed non-productive Behavioral Habits
and replace them with better habits?

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The solution is Tracking. Treat your Behavioral Habit just like a
Growth Habit.

At the end of each day, look at whether you behaved the way you
wanted to behave. If not, you failed the habit. Try the next day. As
you do this, your brain will be more cognizant of the habit you
want to implement. Tracking simply raises the awareness for the
habit you want to implement, and when the brain is cognizant of
your intentions, it will begin to work its magic.

Let’s try to understand this with some examples. Say you want to
install the habit of taking a cold shower whenever you shower. Use
your Tracking method and at the end of each day, evaluate whether
you actually stuck to the habit you wanted to implement. After a
couple of days, when you take a shower, you will know that you
want to instill the habit of taking a cold shower.

Here is another example: Say you want to immediately jot down an

appointment when you get one, or simply track it. You may call it,
“Jotted down appointment.” On each and every evening, assess
whether you have completed the habit—or not. On days where
there are no new appointments, “skip” the habit.

At first it will be hard to remember all the possible instances. But

after some time, you will be aware of the desired behavioral change,
and as long as you track it, you will make progress.

One important thing to note is that Behavioral Habits are often

contingent on outside factors. While a Growth Habit is supposed to
be done daily, a Behavioral Habit is not necessarily a daily thing.

This has some important implications for our Habit Tracking.

Contrary to Growth Habits, generating a long, patch-free streak is
not necessarily the goal—and it will also not be possible.

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Consequently, the most important thing is honest Tracking. This
way, you can see patterns in your behavior. Remember to fairly
judge whether the day was applicable for the habit. For instance, for
the inbox zero habit—meaning the count of new mails in your
e-mail inbox at work is at zero at day’s end—skipping Saturdays
and Sundays is applicable.

Going One Step Further: Track Everything

You can also use the HabitSystem to just track things that do not
necessarily have to become a habit. You just track the occurrence of
certain events or things you want to track in a binary fashion.

For example, I’m an enthusiast of raw denim. I use my HabitSystem

to track whenever I wear my new raw denim jeans. Raw denim is
just colored with indigo—there are no applications or fades.
Wearing it for a couple of months and then washing it creates
unique fades. However, when you wash it too early, you do not get
the cool look of the fades. I simply put a “1” on each day I wore my
raw denim.

You can use the HabitSystem to track whatever you want. Be

creative and make it work for you.

Inspiration: Ideas for Behavioral Habits

Below, you’ll find some ideas for Behavioral Habits. The list is by no
means exhaustive. It rather serves as an inspiration for you to find
and implement new Behavioral Habits that suit you. It is not
necessary to do all of these and it would be impossible to
implement all of them at once. Remember: Start Slow Then Grow.
Keeping in mind that you always want the lowest possible
Threshold of Completion, begin with small changes that are doable
within your lifestyle. Once you have your first Behavioral Habit
under your belt, begin the next one. Feel free to use this list as your

140 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

guide, but take from it only what works for you and add in those
Behavioral Habits that will enhance your life.

Morning/Evening
• Make bed
• No snooze button
• Shower cold
• Floss teeth
• Brush teeth for x minutes
• Prepare clothes for next morning

Cleanliness
• Tidy room
• Tidy small appliance
• Clean sink
• Water plants

Financial
• Reasonable amount of money spent
• Track expenses
• Cook at home
• Did not eat out/Did not buy expensive flavored latté
• Brew your own coffee

Productivity
• Use To-Do app
• Use calendar
• Inbox zero
• Jot down new appointments immediately
• Use the Pomodoro technique

The HabitSystem | 141

Social
• Create contacts immediately
• Remember people’s names
• Call mom/dad/grandma/granddad
• Meet a new person
• Be punctual
• Reasonable social media use

Health
• Take supplements
• Drink more than two liters of water
• Eat enough protein
• Drink a green smoothie
• No fast food/coffee/alcohol
• Reasonable sugar
• Stretch
• Weigh and note the weight

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 Mindset Habits

How Your Growth Habits Will Affect your Mindset

M
INDSET HABITS ARE THE hardest habits to change.
Depending on your Habit Journey, you will acquire
different Mindset Habits. Most people will be more
confident and have a more positive outlook on life after traveling
on their Habit Journey, but the mileage may vary.

Consequently, it does not make a lot of sense to write about

different Mindset Habits because they are the result of our
experiences. For example, simply reading about the Stoics will not
directly turn you into a Stoic. Rather, you have to immerse yourself
in relevant experiences to really internalize what a stoic mindset is
all about.

True confidence is built in the real world—not in a book, a console

game, or on Instagram. For instance, just reading a lot will not turn
you into a successful and happy human being. You have to go out
and take massive action! Growth Habits enable you to do this
long-term, sustainably, and successfully.

One Mindset Habit, however, that almost all people develop on their
Habit Journey is what I call the generic habit learning skill. It is the
last “habit” I want to present to you in this book. I left it for the end
because it naturally enhances all aspects of your HabitSystem
progress. This skill is extremely powerful once fully internalized,
and it has the potential to be life changing.

Generic Habit Learning Skill (GHLS)

For the sake of simplicity, we’ll call the Generic Habit Learning Skill,
GHLS. Undoubtedly, it’s one of the most important skills you can

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acquire. It may not be as obvious or tangible of a skill like drawing
or coding. For this reason, I consider GHLS to be a Mindset Habit.

In essence, GHLS implies that you have the skill to make anything
you want into a habit. This, obviously, is extremely
powerful—especially in the long run. Just think about the
possibilities this suggests: everything you want to implement as a
habit is possible. The idea itself implies a very empowering
significance: Everything can be learned. Let that sink in for a
moment.

When we grow up, we go through kindergarten, grade school, high

school, and college. Inevitably, we will meet people with a better
skill set than our own. Such is the nature of our world, even if you
are Warren Buffett—Bill Gates is still the richest man in the world.

Often, we compare ourselves to people with a better skill set or

more accolades of achievement. Of course, these comparisons make
us unhappy. Many people then proclaim that other people are just
better because of sheer luck or talent. I do not want to discuss the
importance of luck (it sure as hell plays a role), or how much talent
and genetics play a role (they do impact things, of course).
However, I want to present you with an alternative idea: No matter
your talent, you can learn more than you might think.

Our brain is the most powerful tool in the world. Science has shown
time and again that even people with an average intelligence level
can succeed because of sheer determination and hard work.

Consider this: even I could develop decent drawing skills. I never

considered myself particularly talented but by making drawing a
daily habit, my skill set became better and better. The same thing
holds true for my writing and my Spanish skills. I’m far from being
the next Van Gogh or Goethe, and my Spanish isn’t proficient yet

144 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

either. However, through Daily Repetition, I was able to learn all
these skills.

Let me put it this way: habits will give you the confidence to try out
new things—things you once believed you lacked talent to even try.

The GHLS is the result of successful habit implementation. Once

you have grasped and fully internalized the concept of habits as
outlined in this book, you will acquire this skill. This will take about
a year.

A year into your Habit Journey, your mindset will be propelled and
you will naturally acquire the GHLS. Of course, over time, you will
further refine this skill. Everything is a journey and a journey never
ends, there is no destination. Consequently, you cannot master this
skill. The only thing you can do is acquire more and more habits
over time. This allows you to further tap the opportunities that life
offers.

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 How To Set Up Your HabitSystem

A Step-by-Step Guide for Real Impact

Y
OU CAN FIND A myriad of books out there about creating good
habits, and no doubt many of them have top-level content.
The HabitSystem, however, is different. It not only
provides you with valuable content, but it also shows you how to
easily put the content into practice.

Simply knowing about self-development is one tiny part of the

whole package. Action is much more important than intention.
That is why this book focuses heavily on giving you the tools to
implement the best habit concepts.

That’s what makes this book stand out among the crowd. While we
have explored some theoretical background information, the basic
premise of the HabitSystem is actually quite simple: do small things
daily, get better by compounding these actions, and, as a result, be
able to sustainably change every aspect of your life. That’s it. There
is nothing more to it.

Except the part of doing all of this consistently. That is the part
most people struggle with. Everyone knows that reading is good.
We all know that working out regularly is important. It’s common
knowledge that having a consistent sleep pattern is a healthy
practice. All of this is not some secret knowledge, but just knowing
all this will not put you in an advantageous position. What will help
you, however, is having a proven plan at your disposal—The
HabitSystem.

In the previous sections of this book, I provided you with the

information needed to help you create this plan. Now I will equip

146 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

you with a concise overview of how you can execute your
HabitSystem over the course of time. Before we get right into it, I
want to take some time to review the most important aspects.

• A HabitSystem is built slowly. You will fail if you overdo it

in the beginning. The slogan is Start Slow Then Grow. Your
life is a marathon, not a sprint. You have plenty of time to
get better. Don’t try to change too much in too little time.
Act on the most important habits first and ensure
consistency.
• The most important thing about any HabitSystem is
consistency. Nothing beats Daily Repetition. It is the
fundamental and most essential aspect of your
HabitSystem.
• Consistency is best achieved by Tracking your habits.
Tracking your habits will reinforce the behavior and make it
permanent.
• Tracking yields several benefits, including building a streak
or momentum, enabling you to see your past success,
building your self-confidence, and ensuring that you act
daily and consistently.
• Skipping habits is a difficult topic. Part of your system
includes a consistent strategy on how to handle challenging
days—that is, days of illness, travel, and unforeseen events.

We distinguish three types of habits and slightly different

approaches will be necessary for each.

• Your first habits should be Growth Habits. They yield the

fastest benefits, and they will also feed back into your brain,
thus creating the possibility to better your mindset.
• Behavioral Habits are often connected to a triggering
situation and involve adopting a new habit to counter the

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 undesired Behavioral Habit. You can use also triggers for
your Growth Habits. That is part of developing your system.
• Mindset Habits are the ultimate goal and create the longest
lasting change. Not surprisingly, they are also the hardest to
acquire. Mindset Habits result from feedback from reality
and are often the result of successful implementation of
Growth Habits.

The maturity of your HabitSystem is a function of time. Time is your

ally, not your enemy.

No matter how fast or slow a year goes by, everyone who has been
developing a HabitSystem for one year has spent over 360 days
doing so. Some people show a perfect track record—never having
missed a single day. Other people have scored in the 90% success
range which means that about 90% of the time, they were
successful, with some occasional missed days. Anything below 90%
is not a habit. If we look at one year, only having an accuracy of
90% would mean that about a whole month is missing. That is not
consistent at all. In my first year, I scored 94% on my reading habit
(I read on 343 out of 365 days). This is good, but far from a perfect
result. However, my reading habit is now streaking at nearly a year.

You will achieve consistency over time. But first, you have to start. I
want to give you the little push that makes you start—from there
on, the work must be done by you.

Like the mature oak tree, you will firmly establish your roots with
Actions and Simplicity. Your core, like the tree trunk, will
continually grow with Daily Repetition and Tracking. And the sum
of all the development you’ve created throughout your Habit
Journey will become elaborate and full, like the lavish crown of a
sturdy oak.

148 | Lukas von Hohnhorst

In case you skipped the very first sentences of this book, you should
head back and read them. It’s not very much. If you have read them
and forgotten them, also go back and reread.

I propose that your very first habit should be reading. No matter

what you do, reading one page a day is so simple and will yield so
many benefits, there is no reason not to do that. But what next?

Step 1—Think about what you want to do.

I am 100% sure that there are many things you’ve always wanted
to do but have not yet done. Some skills you have always wanted to
learn (Growth Habits), some bad habits you’ve always wanted to
get rid of, or some Behavioral Habits you have always wanted to
implement. Write all of them down! This is your long list.

I suppose there are many items on your long list. As you have
learned, you cannot implement them all at once. You have to pick
one. What is the most important thing to you out of that list? Think
about it.

This will take some time, but don’t overthink it. Remember: done is
better than perfect. Chances are, if you say there are too many
important things on the list—and assuming you are not doing them
already—they may not be that important after all.

OK. Now, select the one thing that will be your first (or second)
habit—in case you want to ditch the reading habit, which, of
course, you are free to do.

You can refer back to your long list in the future when you
implement new habits.

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Step 2—Simplify your habit.

Think about how you can reduce the one habit to a point where it’s
so small that it can be done every day. Then cut that amount in half.
If you want to learn Spanish every day for 10 minutes, go with 5
minutes. Your “normal” goal can be 10 minutes for most days (and
preferably more), but in order to create a streak and gain
consistency, your Completion Threshold should be really low.

Step 3—Decide which Tracking method to use.

If you are unsure which method to use, start with a piece of paper.
Write down your habit and the dates of the next 30 days. Keep that
paper with you or put it somewhere where you see it every single
day.

Alternatively, download one of the recommended apps or set up a

simple spreadsheet. Don’t over-engineer things. Remember the
importance of Simplicity. You have plenty of time on your journey
to beautify things in the future. Don’t let motivation fool you. What
you do today means nothing. Only sustainable consistency counts.

Step 3—Complete one month.

Complete your habit every single day. If it is designed with the

above-mentioned requirements in mind, this should be easy. You
will realize that most of the days, you did a lot more than the
minimum requirements. This is as it should be. But remember: on
some days, you will be happy to just do the minimum. These days
will come, inevitably. Such is life.

Step 4—Proceed on your journey.

As soon as you have completed one month, you can look back with
a sense of accomplishment. Now you can think about adding a
second habit to the mix. If you do not feel confident enough, stick to

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one habit for a bit longer. This is not some race where the person
with the most habits wins. This is about what works for you in your
life.

Step 5—Keep going.

After three months in, you can add a second or third habit to the
mix. By now, you should have a solid understanding of what you
are capable of. At this point, you can think about skipping methods
if you have the confidence that you will stick to the rules.

Step 6—Develop your System.

After six months into your Habit Journey, you will see the first big
changes in your mindset. Now you are free to do what you feel is
necessary. You can add new habits, change habits, or ditch them.
You can add analytical methods to your tracking, or you can modify
habits. Do what you see fit. But always remember to keep the
system flexible and simple, and stick to Daily Repetition.

Good luck!

P.S. If you ever wanted to write a book, the HabitSystem will help
you in doing so. This very book was written using the HabitSystem
approach. I just decided to work on it every day (including work
related to the homepage, etc.). And before I knew it, I was finished.
It took me less than 200 days, actually.

You can do it, too!

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