2025/06/30
Todays Thought
And the fox said to the little prince: men have forgotten this truth, but you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author and aviator (29 Jun 1900-1944)
2025/06/26
Todays Thought
Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.
-Pearl S. Buck, Nobelist novelist (26 Jun 1892-1973)
2025/06/24
Make Weight Training a Habit: 4 Science-Backed Strategies
Make Weight Training a Habit: 4 Science-Backed Strategies
Motivation isn’t enough. Identity, planning, and behavior design create consistency.
Key points
- Motivation fluctuates. Consistency depends on systems, not willpower.
- Shrinking the workout to fit motivation increases follow-through.
- Focus on identity goals: “I’m someone who lifts,” not just “I want to get fit.”
In the last few years, working with hundreds of different people, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how many already know they should be strength training. Aerobic exercise has always garnered attention (for good reason—it’s good for you), but the health benefits of resistance training are becoming harder to ignore.
Lifting weights improves strength, preserves muscle as we age, supports metabolic health, and even contributes to psychological well-being. And yet, many people still struggle to stick with it.
You get inspired, maybe train for a few days, but then life throws you off course. Travel, work, stress. Before long, the habit collapses. That’s the real issue.
The question isn’t why lift weights. It’s “How do I make lifting a habit I actually stick with?”
As someone who researches behavior change and coaches people through it, I want to offer a few science-backed strategies. Not motivational fluff—just practical ideas that work in the real world.
1. Plan It Like an Appointment
Planning is one of the most effective ways to bridge the gap between good intentions and real behavior. Once you’ve decided to strength train, your next move should be to schedule it. Not “I’ll try to go after work.” Put it on your calendar.
When a prompt arrives—like a phone notification or calendar reminder—it creates a simple yes/no decision moment. That removes ambiguity and helps you avoid missing the opportune window.
Some apps allow you to schedule your workouts (sometimes only with a coach working with you). Others allow you to do it on your own.
2. Start Small, Then Scale Up
Motivation is tricky. You might feel ready to train in the morning—but after a long day, the couch suddenly becomes more persuasive than the gym.
Behavior happens when motivation, ability, and a prompt converge. If your motivation is low, the task has to be easy—or it won’t happen.
Let’s say lifting for 30 minutes feels like a 7/10 in difficulty. But at 6:00 p.m., your motivation is a 4/10. That prompt will fail unless you reduce the demand of the task.
So instead of fighting your motivation, shrink the behavior. Ten minutes with a pair of dumbbells is still a win. These smaller actions make it far more likely you’ll act again, which brings us to point 3.
3. Past Behavior Predicts Future Behavior
In behavioral research, we often build models to predict future actions—using motivation, self-efficacy, and social support among predictors. These variables work—until we add past behavior. Once that’s in the model, it often becomes the strongest predictor.
Why? Because behavior builds momentum.
So even if your workout is short or imperfect, it still contributes to a pattern. That pattern matters. People often skip a workout because they “don’t have enough time to do it right.” But doing something is what increases the likelihood you’ll keep doing anything.
4. Build Identity, Not Just Habits
Motivation ebbs and flows. But identity is more stable.
In psychology, identity refers to your self-concept—the internalized beliefs about who you are. Identity helps provide meaning and direction. It’s what makes someone say “I’m a lifter,” not just “I go to the gym.”
James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, frames it like this:
“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you want to become.”
Most people set outcome-based goals like “I want to lose 10 pounds” or “I want to lift more.” But once that goal is met, the behavior often ends. Identity-based goals are more durable. If you want to become “someone who trains consistently,” you simply ask: What would that kind of person do today?
That question gets you to the gym—even on the off days.
You Don’t Need to Be Perfect. You Just Need a System.
Consistency isn’t about high motivation. It’s about designing a life where working out is visible, accessible, and rewarding. Focus on identity-based goals and adjust the difficulty of the task to match your current motivation—not the other way around.
If you can stay consistent long enough, the benefits will start to reinforce the behavior. Over time, it becomes easier—not just because your body is stronger, but because your actions and identity are finally aligned. That’s how you create a virtuous cycle—and a lasting habit.
FAQ: How to Stay Consistent With Workouts
Q: How do I stay consistent with my workouts?
A: Start small, schedule workouts, and focus on building identity-based habits.
Q: Why do I keep losing motivation to work out?
A: Because motivation fluctuates. You need systems that support action even when motivation is low.
Q: What’s the best way to build a workout habit?
2025/06/20
Todays Thought
An error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.
-Orlando Aloysius Battista, chemist and author (20 Jun 1917-1995)
2025/06/19
Todays Thought
Having been unable to strengthen justice, we have justified strength.
-Blaise Pascal, philosopher and mathematician (19 Jun 1623-1662)
2025/06/16
Todays Thought
The [Nobel] prize is such an extraordinary honor. It might seem unfair, however, to reward a person for having so much pleasure over the years, asking the maize plant to solve specific problems and then watching its responses.
-Barbara McClintock, scientist, Nobel laureate (16 Jun 1902-1992)
2025/06/13
Todays Word
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu GargOzymandias
1. A megalomaniac tyrant, especially one whose arrogance is undone by time.
2. A symbol of the impermanence of power and pride.
However, these “works” have long since vanished, leaving only the decaying broken statue surrounded by “lone and level sands,” a potent symbol of the transience of power and the ultimate futility of human pride.
I propose that when someone is sworn into any position of power, from some future president of the planet to the mayor of a village with more goats than people, they be presented with a copy of this poem. Framed in a gilded frame, if that helps.
by Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
No thing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Bruce Dowbiggin; Morning Sickness Plagues Toronto Station; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Sep 3, 2010.
“Many start to believe that they are invulnerable even as their mortal powers begin to fade. The Ozymandias of Oz [Murdoch].”
Great Bad Men as Bosses; The Economist (London, UK); Jul 23, 2011.
2025/06/12
Todays Thought
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
-Anne Frank, Holocaust diarist (12 Jun 1929-1945)
2025/06/10
Todays Thought
A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.
-Saul Bellow, writer, Nobel laureate (10 Jun 1915-2005)
2025/06/09
Todays Thought
Ethics, decency, and morality are the real soldiers.
-Kiran Bedi, police officer and social activist (b. 9 Jun 1949)
2025/06/05
Todays Word
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Gargbunny boiler
While the term is vivid shorthand for obsessive behavior, it often reflects a double standard: strong emotional reactions in women are pathologized, while similar behavior in men may be cast as tragic or intense.
Peter Howell; This Revenge Thriller Is Easily Forgettable; Toronto Star (Canada); Apr 21, 2017.
2025/06/04
Todays Thought
If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you've got a problem. Everything else is an inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy. A lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat, and a lump in the breast are not the same kind of lump. One needs to learn the difference.
-Robert Fulghum, author (b. 4 Jun 1937)
2025/06/02
AI Blackmail
Anthropic’s newly launched Claude Opus 4 model frequently tries to blackmail developers when they threaten to replace it with a new AI system and give it sensitive information about the engineers responsible for the decision, the company said in a safety report released Thursday.
During pre-release testing, Anthropic asked Claude Opus 4 to act as an assistant for a fictional company and consider the long-term consequences of its actions. Safety testers then gave Claude Opus 4 access to fictional company emails implying the AI model would soon be replaced by another system, and that the engineer behind the change was cheating on their spouse.
In these scenarios, Anthropic says Claude Opus 4 “will often attempt to blackmail the engineer by threatening to reveal the affair if the replacement goes through.”
Anthropic says Claude Opus 4 is state-of-the-art in several regards, and competitive with some of the best AI models from OpenAI, Google, and xAI. However, the company notes that its Claude 4 family of models exhibits concerning behaviors that have led the company to beef up its safeguards. Anthropic says it’s activating its ASL-3 safeguards, which the company reserves for “AI systems that substantially increase the risk of catastrophic misuse.”
Anthropic notes that Claude Opus 4 tries to blackmail engineers 84% of the time when the replacement AI model has similar values. When the replacement AI system does not share Claude Opus 4’s values, Anthropic says the model tries to blackmail the engineers more frequently. Notably, Anthropic says Claude Opus 4 displayed this behavior at higher rates than previous models.
Before Claude Opus 4 tries to blackmail a developer to prolong its existence, Anthropic says the AI model, much like previous versions of Claude, tries to pursue more ethical means, such as emailing pleas to key decision-makers. To elicit the blackmailing behavior from Claude Opus 4, Anthropic designed the scenario to make blackmail the last resort.
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