Day 268: On Taking Ownership for Your Ideas

Regardless of what we create — a toy box, a new source of electricity, a new mathematical theorem — much of what really matters to us is that it is our creation. As long as we create it, we tend to feel rather certain that it’s more useful and important than similar ideas that other people come up with.

—Dan Ariely 267

When people create something themselves — say, a birthday card for a friend — they value it more than something created by somebody else. Similarly, people take ownership of their ideas and feel they’re more valuable simply because they’re their own ideas.

You can use this phenomenon to improve your self-discipline. Instead of relying on my definition of self-discipline, come up with your own. Jot down what self-control means to you, when you feel it, how you feel it and why is it important to you. I can write all day long how important self-discipline is, but if you do it yourself and apply it to your personal situation, you’ll immediately understand it on a deeper level.

In addition to reading the tips and tricks I share in this book, come up with your own ideas. You’ll be more likely to act on your own ideas than on the ones that you learned from me or from any other person.

I usually give two or three applications for every piece of advice, but it’s rarely limited to just those two or three uses. Think about how you can adapt the lessons to your own life or even test the opposite way of doing things — there’s rarely, if ever, only one correct method. Discovering the right answer for your unique situation can deliver better results than reading even a hundred books about personal development.