Habits Archives - Neil Martin - Beats, Business and Life

Overwhelm comes from carrying the whole year at once. Marcus Aurelius’s one question, how I got unstuck on my book, and the small step that restarts momentum.

The Next Small Thing: Marcus Aurelius on How to Stop Carrying the Whole Year in Your Head

A simple question from Marcus Aurelius that shrinks a year of worry down to the thing in front of you, and the small next step that gets you moving again.

Marcus Aurelius had unwilling mornings too. Why the dull foundations build your future, and how keeping promises to yourself gets you out of bed.

Getting Up When You Don’t Want To: Marcus Aurelius on Rising to the Work

Life

Marcus Aurelius had unwilling mornings too. Why the unexciting foundations are what build your future, and how keeping small promises to yourself gets you out of bed.

James Allen said we want better circumstances but won’t improve ourselves. On habits, discipline, the delayed consequence and why nothing changes until you do.

Nothing Changes Until You Do: James Allen and the Little Things

Life

Nothing changes until you do. James Allen on improving yourself before your circumstances, the little things done over and over, and why be plus have makes behave.

Grid of rounded squares that fill up with navy row by row, ending in one gold square

Discipline First, Habit Later

Life

Small daily habits came up again and again on my 2019 summit. For most of the guests they started as discipline and slowly turned into habit.

A friend said I'd lost weight the weekend I took off from my routine. Two wins, the small nudges behind them, and simple ways to celebrate your wins.

Small Nudges, Big Wins, and How I Celebrate Them

Life

A friend told me I’d lost weight on the very weekend I took off from my new routine. Two wins from my week, the small nudges behind them, and the simple ways I mark a win.

A mobile phone lying on a gym floor, its screen showing an almost empty red battery

Energy before strategy: the missing beat in high performance

Life

Most people fix the plan. The better move is to fix the person following it, because energy beats strategy every time.

Smiling close-up selfie of Neil Martin outdoors in a white sports jacket

I forgot my headphones, so Public Enemy ran with me

Beats

My first parkrun of the year, no headphones, and a stranger’s hoodie that put the beats in my head. A short one about consistency.

Illustration of a cosy reading corner at night, with tall stacks of well read books beside an armchair and a warm reading lamp

565 books since 2016, and the one-page rule that started it

Life

I quit reading when I left school. Then I changed one tiny rule. Since 2016 I’ve worked my way through 565 books.

The cover of The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, centred in a thin gold frame on a midnight blue background under the words From my bookshelf, with the line “Change might not be fast and it isn’t always easy. But with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped.” beneath it

How The Power of Habit explains my nightly gratitude journal

Life

How every habit runs on a simple loop, why you replace bad habits instead of breaking them, and how to make a new one stick for good.

Illustration of a road bike set up on an indoor turbo trainer in a tidy garage, a towel over the handlebars, a water jug and paperback on the floor and rain falling outside

What 75 Hard taught me about deciding first

Life

Back on Power of Progress after finishing 75 Hard. Why it took me a year to start, and why I decided on the whole 75 days before day one.

Illustration of a small camera on a tripod standing alone at the top of a grassy hill at dawn, a narrow country lane winding down through green fields towards a distant cluster of trees

Why promises to yourself matter most, with Jamie Atkinson

Business

On Jamie Atkinson’s Entrepreneur Junkie Movement I’d just done 24 hours of training in two days. We got onto the promises that count, and why I go in a level.